What Is DeFi? Inside MakerDAO, DAI, and the Future of Finance

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is transforming financial intermediation by replacing banks with smart contracts. Platforms like MakerDAO issue DAI, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, through overcollateralized crypto loans, governed by MKR token holders. This ecosystem enables lending, savings, and passive income without intermediaries, but also raises challenges for regulation, taxation, and financial stability. MakerDAO’s mechanisms—collateralized debt positions, governance votes, auctions, and external actors like oracles and keepers—keep the system running. Together with platforms like Uniswap, DeFi illustrates both the promise of financial innovation and the complexity of decentralized governance.