s try to use Uniswap. Go to the Uniswap website first. You’ll have to connect your Metamask wallet. After that, you can choose the tokens that you want to trade. If you decide to swap some tokens, you’ll have to approve 2 transactions. The first one to approve spending of particular tokens. And the second one to approve the actual swap.
Lending and borrowing is one of the most important element of any financial system. DeFi lending allows users to become lenders or borrowers in a completely decentralized and permissionless way while maintaining full custody over their coins.
Skills: Let’s go to the Compound website and make ourselves familiar with the user interface. We have “Supply Markets” on the left side – these are tokens that you can lend out and “Borrow Markets” on the right side – these are tokens that you can borrow. If you decide to lend out your tokens you have to approve them as collateral first. If you decide to borrow other tokens the interface will guide to find a safe amount that can be borrowed based on your supplied collateral.
Great! This is all the knowledge and all the skills required on DeFi Novice level.
Time to advance to the next level.
At this level, you feel comfortable with all the concepts included at the DeFi Novice level and you’re ready to take a deeper dive into the future of finance.
We already learnt a little bit about Uniswap at the previous level. Now, it’s time to better understand how Uniswap works under the hood.
Skills: Time to learn how you can add liquidity to a Uniswap liquidity pool. If you decide to do it make sure you go through the next step that describes what impermanent loss is. Without this knowledge, you may end up exposing yourself to impermanent loss without even knowing it.
Go to the Pool section on the Uniswap website. Click on “Add liquidity”. You’ll have to choose 2 tokens that you want to provide. Approve both of them. And finally, approve the transaction that adds liquidity. You have to have a correct ratio of tokens in the first place – 50/50.
Impermanent loss is one of the most important concepts to understand before deciding to provide liquidity in a liquidity pool.
Skills: To understand impermanent loss better you can go through the example from our video and try to get to the same amount of ETH and DAI by using formulas from this article by Pintail.
Yield Farming is one of the most discussed topics when it comes to DeFi. Learn more about this topic to understand where the high returns are coming from.
Skills: Check out some of the yield farming opportunities available. You can find them, for example, on Coingecko’s website. Be careful with less popular yield farming opportunities. The chances of losing money are high. Try to stick to the main projects such as Uniswap or Compound if you’re just starting.
If you have decided to make some money on lending your coins in DeFi, you can quickly realise that rates keep changing all the time. If you want to make your life easier and switch between different lending protocols automatically, you can check out Yearn Finance.
Skills: Provide liquidity in stable coins to the Curve’s Y Pool. The Curve protocol partnered with Yearn Finance and made it possible to supply liquidity in stable coins to the Y Pool. On top of getting a return on your yTokens such as yDAI, you’ll also get trading fees for providing liquidity for swapping between yTokens. Caution: providing liquidity to the Y Pool is usually quite costly – transaction-wise. Try doing it when the Ethereum network congestion is low.
You are already familiar with the Yearn Protocol and yield farming. Time to combine these two together. Yearn Vaults offer an easy way to participate in yield farming without spending too much on gas fees.
Skills: Check out Yearn Vaults here. If you decide to put your money into a Vault, make sure you’re ok with the risk involved (smart contract risk, strategy risk etc.).
Amazing! Liquidity pools, AMMs, yield farming – this level was quite a challenge, right? Some of the concepts included at this level can be quite hard and it’s always worth going through them a few times before advancing to the next level.
Concepts included in DeFi Novice and DeFi Apprentice seem to be easy for you. Time to bring your skills to the next level.
Flash loans are worth understanding even if you’re not planning on using them. This is because flash loans are notorious for being used in DeFi hacks with the bZx attack being one of the most famous ones.
Skills: Check out our flash loan tutorials. If you are a developer, check out our coding tutorial. If you don’t want to code, check out our Furucombo tutorial.
Vampire Attack presents an interesting way of trying to steal users of another DeFi protocol. It’s an advanced topic that is worth understanding.
Skills: Check out the original SushiSwap here. Try to answer the following question: how can a protocol protect itself from a vampire attack?
Time for something completely new. Learn more about Ampleforth, elastic money supply and rebases. Ampleforth’s model was also widely used in multiple other DeFi projects, so it’s worth to understand it.
Skills: Check out Ampleforth’s dashboard to see rebases and price targets in action.
Another advanced topic. Learn more about how Non-fungible Tokens can be used in DeFi.
Skills: Check out some of the popular NFT marketplaces such as Rarible or OpenSea.
Learn how DeFi can scale up using Layer 2 scaling solutions.
Skills: Try using a decentralized exchange on Layer 2 such as Honeyswap on xDai.
Awesome! If you managed to complete all the levels – congrats! You are now a DeFi Master. There is not a lot of time to celebrate though. Decentralized finance moves fast and there are always new things to learn.
To stay up to date and learn even more about decentralized finance, make sure you subscribe to Finematics on Youtube and follow us on Twitter.Melissa has a B.A. in Music Education and a minor in Theatre Performance from Seton Hill University. She also has a Masters in Inclusion Education from SHU. She has been teaching Music for Penn Hills School District for 13 years. Melissa has choreographed for several school districts and is currently the choreographer for Leechburg Area School District. She also teaches dance at Kelsey’s Dance and Fitness in Plum. Melissa has performed for several theaters and companies including Split Stage Productions, Theatre Factory, Apple Hill Playhouse, and New Kensington Civic Theatre. She is so excited to be a part of Kids Week and work with the youngsters in the acting workshops!
Mary Furlo has a background in Elementary/Early Childhood Education (Penn State University) and Business (Seton Hill University).. Mary owned and operated Wisdom and Wonders, Inc. Child Care and Yoga Studio from 2004 to 2007, where she had the pleasure of bringing yoga into the lives of children and adults. She received her 200 hour Yoga Teacher’s Training in 2008 at Wisdom and Wellness and became an E-RYT in 2013, RCYT in 2014 and YACEP in 2017. After years of working at various schools and Universities, and currently a Career Advisor she is happy to have returned to her true passion of teaching yoga to children and adults. Mary co-founded Satya Yoga, LLC. in Greensburg, PA, and she is dedicated to sharing yoga with people of all ages throughout the community. 
Michelle Keenan, E-RYT 200, RPYT, and YACEP, is the owner and co-founder of Satya Yoga, LLC. in Greensburg. She began practicing yoga in 2000, which encouraged her to adopt a more simple, holistic lifestyle. Her teaching career began in 2005 at the first yoga studio in Greensburg, Wisdom and Wonders, Inc. Inspired by accessibility and inclusiveness, Michelle's classes are open to everyone who wants to reconnect with their own peaceful nature and authentically connect with others in a playful, nurturing, and safe environment. Michelle is dedicated to the creation of community. In 2018 she was awarded the YWCA Women’s Health and Fitness Award. She volunteers regularly for a local organic farm, Stage Right Professional Theatre Company, and has hosted donation-based yoga classes where 100% of the proceeds go to local organizations that are dedicated to service. Michelle believes that our time on the mat allows us to observe how we react to life when we're off the mat. It's very important to remember that practicing yoga is not about achieving perfect alignment, or about how one looks. It's about showing up and being present...on the mat, as well as in life.
Madelynne Caralli is currently a dance instructor and performer for the Stage Right School for the Performing Arts and Professional Theatre Company in Greensburg. She also volunteers as a social media coordinator for The Lamp Theatre. Madelynne performs locally for several additional production companies including Lovely Day Events, Latshaw Productions, RWS Entertainment Group, and The Lamp Theatre Players. She has experience working as an intern and assistant choreographer for an Arts in Education program and Hempfield Area High School. Madelynne has also worked as a Dance Photo Shoot Specialist for Reflections Photography.