In the previous article, we touched on the basics of decentralized finance (DeFi) and the different ways one can participate in this ecosystem. We advise the readers to read it before going further to have a better grasp of DeFi in general. With the DeFi ecosystem growing rapidly, new products and services are emerging that solve different problems. The best way to start learning DeFi is by getting your hands dirty. In this article, we are going to take a look at some of the widely used DeFi products and how once can utilize them effectively.
Browsers act as the gateway to the internet. Almost every person in the world uses an internet browser to access websites. While Google Chrome and Apple’s Safari remain widely used, Brave browser has gained popularity in recent years among the web3 community for its unique business model. Brave has its own reward system through which users can view ads and earn Basic Attention Token (BAT), a native token of Brave browser. The earned BAT rewards can be withdrawn to one of the supported exchanges by Brave and can be traded for fiat currency. Recently, Brave integrated the Solana (SOL) blockchain to its browser that will help in the adoption of web3 and DeFi.
Metamask is a popular crypto wallet used to interact with the Ethereum Blockchain. Used by 21 million people worldwide on a monthly basis, Metamask has grown by 38x since 2020 and is available for free as a smartphone app or web browser extension. There are three major use cases that the crypto wallet offers. Metamask can be used to buy and transfer Ethereum based tokens, lend assets on a DeFi protocol or mint (create) a non fungible token. One of the main reasons for its popularity is its interoperability with all the decentralized apps (Dapps) built on the Ethereum blockchain. Dapps are used to interact with smart contracts deployed on a blockchain. MetaMask allows users to connect to more than 3,700 different decentralized applications and web3 services.
Opensea, created in 2018, was the first decentralized non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. NFTs are unique, digital collectibles such as in-game assets, avatars, trading cards and art. In August 2021 alone, OpenSea recorded sales of over $3.5 billion in NFT trading volume. Besides digital art, there are collectibles, game items, domain names, even digital representations of physical assets. OpenSea is like eBay for NFTs with millions of assets organized into hundreds of categories. Crypto wallets like Metamask can be used to connect to Opensea.
Cryptocurrency addresses are a long string of numbers or letters which is easier for computers but cumbersome for humans. Ethereum Naming Service (ENS) was launched specifically to address this problem. ENS is a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain. The purpose of ENS is to translate human readable names into computer identifiers and vice versa. An ENS name can be created by interacting with the Dapp using a crypto wallet like Metamask. Once created, an ENS name is owned by an Ethereum account holder. Just like how DNS is used for naming websites on the internet, ENS is a complimentary offering in the crypto world.
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Disclaimer: This article was authored by Giottus Cryptocurrency Exchange as a part of a paid partnership with The News Minute. Crypto-asset or cryptocurrency investments are subject to market risks such as volatility and have no guaranteed returns. Please do your own research before investing and seek independent legal/financial advice if you are unsure about the investments.