Decentralised finance is a programmable financial ecosystem based on distributed ledger technologies that lets users trade, lend, and invest without relying on traditional intermediaries. This column discusses the underlying technology through the lens of a conceptual framework that describes decentralised finance as a layered stack with
(1) a settlement layer, which comprises the distributed ledger technologies;
(2) an application layer which allows for issuing and transferring cryptoassets;
(3) an interface layer which features front-end interfaces.
The authors also introduce the Atlas Project, a platform that will make data on these markets widely available.
