Crypto Narratives: The DEx

All of this said, what is the DEx narrative and why is it relevant?

This narrative is the story of private individuals sticking their fingers up at the corporate-government complex that extracts their wealth through tax and inflation. It is a flip of the bird to fractional reserve banking and the light between the cracks in the crumbling stone walls of the TradFi system. Users must take heed to the teams that they entrust their money to. They must take care and responsibility for the funds that they allocate to protocols. Crypto is still rife with scammers and dishonest practitioners. However, scams are not limited to decentralized actors. Mt. Gox, FTX, Celsius etc. are examples of CExs that have gone out of business and appropriated user funds using legal custodian agreements to underpin these decisions. In some cases, DExs offer products such as yield farming that are not available on centralized exchanges. In other cases, they offer the same products such as swapping and lending but in a peer-to-peer trustless manner.

In the coming years, the DEx will increasingly butt heads with regulators and centralized actors. The user needs to be aware of this and participate in the DeFi evolution of human finances if mankind is to reap its rewards. Banking the unbanked is a common phrase that gets thrown about in the crypto space. It is a noble aim, but if we are to achieve this at scale, then we need to both participate in and actively promote the movement. This can mean direct purchasing and staking or farming of protocol native assets. It may mean allocating funds to lending. DExs are the mechanism through which we can achieve a decentralized alternative to the centralized vision of traditional finance. Finally, following the DEx narrative in the future will allow users to grow their resources in an environment with exponential potential for value accrual. Investing in DEx protocols is one vision of a financially free future for many investors. There are other narratives of course and these will be discussed in more depth in future articles.

Disclaimer: this is NOT financial advice. I’m a cow and I like to eat cereal. Any knowledge gained from this post is merely incidental and you are responsible for your own financial decisions. Make investments wisely and make sure to do your own research.