Name: Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Infrastructure
Brand: Duke University
Availability: OnlineOnly
Rating: 4.8 (354 reviews)

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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Infrastructure by Duke University

4.8

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1,555 ratings

About the Course

Decentralized Finance: The Future of Finance is a set of four courses taught by Campbell R. Harvey (Professor of Finance at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research) that focus on decentralized finance (DeFi). In this first course, we begin by exploring the origins of DeFi and take a broad historical view from the earliest barter economies, such as the first peer-to-peer exchanges of bartering, to present day. The course also looks at historical examples of money having value even though it is not officially backed. We then focus on the key infrastructure components: blockchain, cryptocurrency, smart contracts, oracles, stablecoins and decentralized applications (or dApps). This includes discussion of the mechanics of the Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains including cryptographic hashing. Next, we focus on the specific problems that DeFi is designed to solve: inefficiency (costly, slow, and insecure today), limited access (1.7 billion are unbanked), opacity (we need to trust regulators to monitor banks and the regulators have mixed records), centralized control (financial system is oligopolistic imposing higher fees than we would have in a competitive market) and lack of interoperability (it is difficult to move funds from one financial institution to another today). The course closes by exploring many of the myths about the crypto space....

Top reviews

Dec 14, 2021

The course largely follows the instructor's book albeit with an easier to follow introduction. As such, this first course is an overview and it gets us ready for the information to follow.

May 29, 2022

I personally would prefer a little bit more challenging tests and more of practical work.However, I really enjoyed the course and are planning to continue.

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Aug 18, 2025

I appreciate the high-quality content and the instructor’s strong qualifications for the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Infrastructure course. The material is clearly well-researched and insightful. However, I found the pacing of the lectures to be quite slow—so much so that I had to increase the playback speed to 1.75x just to maintain engagement. It felt as if the delivery was more focused on style and presentation rather than efficient communication of the concepts. At times, the instructor’s tone and pacing came across as deliberately slow, almost like a performance intended to highlight his own voice, which made it difficult to stay focused. While I respect the instructor’s expertise, I believe a more natural and engaging delivery style with a more balanced pace would significantly enhance the learning experience. Thank you for your efforts in creating this course and for considering feedback from learners.