DeFi’s quest to reimagine finance must come from a community-based

On Nov 13, 2021

Crypto has seen a rise in novel uses of liquidity mining and rewards through protocols like , Aave and Compound. More recently, a new crop of DeFi 2.0 protocols such as OlympusDAO, Alchemix and Abracadabra are exploring new ways of operating without giving up token rewards.

For all the innovations happening with decentralized systems in crypto, they are still failing to open new pathways for economic prosperity for the most marginalized. In its current form, DeFi remains open only to people who already have access to the financial system and live in countries with strong financial markets. This is evident by the fact that the growth of DeFi has been particularly driven by crypto degens.

Nikhil Raghuveera is a partner in strategy and innovation at the Celo Foundation where he focuses on DeFi for real-world use cases and financial inclusion. He is also a Nonresident Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech and GeoEconomics Centers. His research at the Atlantic Council is on decentralized technology and the intersection of technology, social inequality and systems of oppression. Nikhil has previously worked in management consulting, nonprofit management and economic consulting.