Excellent course! Highly recommended. I took this course as part of the four course specialization. Professor Harvey does an excellent job explaining many nuances to DeFi.

He uses a combination of powerpoint, visuals, analogies and case studies to make the content understandable. The professor teaches with clarity, and passion yet treats the subject fairly offering alternative points of view about the opportunities and risks of DeFi as compared to the current financial system.

I have been introduced to the cryptocurrency and DeFi space a little over 6 months ago. Since that time, I have "fallen down the rabbit hole" so to speak and cannot learn enough about it. These courses provide a strong foundation to explore further for personal investing, and or a career in the space.

Unlike the other courses I took on Coursera related to blockchain and cryptocurriencies (which were also pretty good), these courses felt much more up to date than the others. Being up to date in this space is essential because one year is like 10 years of another field in terms of innovation and how fast the landscape changes.

Specific to this course, it was really helpful to understand a broad overview of the opportunities and risks involved in the DeFi space both as an individual and as a society. I really appreciated the passionate call the action at the end of the course. Though I am watching the course through a screen it felt very authentic and inspiring. I am sure many people will be positively impacted as a result of this course being made available online.

Wow! This entire learning experience, as Professor Harvey describes it, provides an excellent foundation for knowing what the main elements of the DeFi space currently are as of 2021 when the courses were produced. He is engaging to listen to and is deeply versed in the subject matter. I gained the confidence to at least begin to know the right questions when evaluating a DeFi project and to better assess the quality of additional online resources for continued learning. Previously I've been down too many random rabbit holes ultimately ferreting out useless info. This course provides accurate, reliable information and provides a framework for where to start in the DeFi world, rather than running helter-skelter here and yonder trying to figure out how to get a handle on what the heck is going on here. I'm grateful to have a better plan on how to approach my crypto investing even though the course is truly NOT a course about investing. But it is, among other things, a course about learning the primary mechanics of how DeFi currently works in a few of the major protocols. Before these four courses, I didn't even understand basic stuff like how liquidity works in Uniswap for example. And, who knew—as I was oohing and aahing to myself going through these courses about how cool it all was—many DeFi projects have been around beginning about seven years ago and growing and morphing by leaps and bounds in that time. I thought they were much more recent and only a couple of them. I also learned many things about traditional centralized finance because I looked up everything he mentioned I didn't yet know how it worked, like yield curves, derivatives, and futures contracts. (Finance is obviously not my background.) For me, making sure I understood traditional finance concepts made a big difference in understanding decentralized finance as presented here. Blockchain and cryptography concepts were well presented. Professor Harvey discusses them with ease, clarity, and fluency. Even though I have an IT background, it wouldn't matter if I didn't due to his charming and clear instruction. Thank you, Professor Harvey!!

The centuries old banks and regulators are testimony to the fact that the advent of DeFi will be slow. I do hope that changes happen in our lifetimes, as they are essential to end bloated and cartelised net interest margins, oligarchic dispensations and injustices which such systems encourage. Even if DeFi acts as a catalyst of change for these legacy systems , its work would have been half accomplished. But DeFi itself would have to overcome its own deficiencies such as energy guzzling systems, the tortoise paced transactions etc. to even think of making a dent. We look forward to a democratic, financial system with no NPAs, no runs on commercial banks and no interference from politicians and regulators plus enhanced, transpaernt investment opportunities for everyone.

I think this is the first course I have ever taken where every single lesson was incredibly useful. I never felt like I wasted my time/ could have gotten the information from slides and instead truly felt the conceptual understanding build like legos throughout the course. I spent months before trying to piece this information from random resources and articles but this provided a true base/ conceptual understanding. I can't recommend it enough!

An incredibly interesting specialisation that is given passionately by Duke university’s professor Cam Harvey in a clear, well explained, easy to understand format that is clear an balanced on Pro’s and Con’s with the associated benefits and risks. A wonderful initial insight into the potentially game changing world of Decentralised Finance.

Many thanks to Cam for putting this together and sharing via the coursear network.

The most life changing course I have ever taken! I could have skipped college and just paid for these lessons. I would be 100k richer! Explained with clarity by Dr. Harvey, I can see how DeFi will represent a whole host of opportunities for a more egalitarian financial sector and I will be a part of it thanks to this course.

This specialization gives you everything you need and want for entering the magnificent world of DeFi. It is astounding and a pleasure to watch the professor deliver crisp and clear explanation of advanced cryptographic and algorithmic knowledge with ease. Can't wait to take any other courses presented by the professor.

This was a really great way to learn about DeFi. Wish there was maybe a few more hands on exercises, and the one that they had in the course for the ropstein test network didnt work for me. I still got the gist. The course was very informative.

Knowing all the risks and opportunities in the crypto space, we should be critical thinkers when we invest in tokens and NFT's. Nowadays scammers are everywhere and enhancing their plans to wreak havoc in the world of cryptocurrencies.

Fantastic course. Professor Cam Harvey DeFi series on Coursera is essential learning for anyone wishing to know more about DeFi. Great range of topics and very useful examples. Best learning I have seen in this space.

Cam is fantastic communicator, he is a master of explaining conceptual elements, but he has a breadth of technical and financial acumen that means he will go deeper into topics and apply them to the real world.

E​xcellent overview of the opportunities and risks of DeFi as of the end of 2021. Look forward to helping define the future of DeFi based on the understanding gained from these courses.

Amazing course specialization! Take all four of these courses. Up to date as of early 2022, unlike the Consesnys course I took prior to this one.

Got basis and keen information about the various opportunities and risk in the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) space.

Great course! Very well structured and Cam makes it easy to understand.

Excelente formación, agradecida con la oportunidad.

Honest in detailing out the risks of DeFi

Excellent introduction to the DeFi Space!

Simply excellent. Thank you very much!!

​Controled risk is first in investments

We need more .

Excellent

There is a lot of great information in this set of courses. It is a really good intro to DeFi. It is not, however, a terribly balanced view of DeFi vs CeFi despite the instructors attempts to do so. For example, the assurance that DeFi front-running is OK because the information is public completely misses the point. Front running is forbidden by the SEC because of the harm it does to clients, not just because it is inside information. https://www.sec.gov/rules/other/f4-433/mccann1.htm There are many examples of this throughout all 4 courses but the front-running point is made time and again. Conclusion - this is a good set of courses to learn the basics about DeFi but beware that it is a wholeheartedly pro-DeFi slant.

Thank you Mr.Harvey!