Course

How DeFi Works

Learn how DeFi really moves value - so you don’t confuse smooth interfaces with safe systems.

8lessons
80minutes
8quizzes to pass
200XP
 

What you get out of it.

Most people use DeFi through interfaces - pools, swaps, dashboards - without ever seeing the system underneath. When things work, that’s fine. When they don’t, it’s confusing. And confusion is where most bad decisions start.

This course shows you what DeFi actually is, beneath the apps and features. Not as hype, not as “the future of finance,” but as a coordination system: who participates, how value moves, and why incentives exist in the first place.

You’ll learn how automated markets replace counterparties, how different roles interact, where power actually lives, and how risk appears - not as an event, but as a structural property of the system.

Skip this course, and DeFi stays a collection of tools. Take it, and DeFi becomes a system you can reason about.

What You’ll Learn (to see the system clearly):

What DeFi is - and what it isn’t - beyond interfaces and slogans The roles inside DeFi and how they interact How automated markets work without buyers and sellers matching directly The difference between protocols and platforms - and why it matters How value flows through the system, and where risk quietly accumulates ‍ What you gain isn’t confidence - it’s orientation. You stop guessing how things fit together.

How it runs
  • One lesson at a time. Each one is short, and each one ends in a quiz you have to pass before the next unlocks.
  • Read or listen. Every lesson has an audio version, so it works while your eyes are elsewhere.
  • Your place is kept. Sign in and the course remembers the lesson you stopped on, on any device.

8 lessons, in order.

They run in order, and each one opens when the quiz before it is passed. A dot marks a lesson that ends in a quiz.

How DeFi Works (Without the Buzzwords)

01 What Happens When You Use DeFi 7min
02 What DeFi Is - No Buzzwords 6min
03 4 Ways to Make or Lose Money in DeFi 10min
04 How DeFi Swaps Actually Work 8min
05 Who Controls DeFi Protocols 7min
06 Where DeFi Money Comes From 10min
07 Hidden Risks in DeFi 9min
08 Easy-to-Use DeFi Isn't Always Safe 10min

Signed in, the ones you have finished are ticked and the next one is the one that opens. Signed out, the course starts at the first lesson.

Part of a learning path

Mechanics of DeFi and Passive Yield

This is course 1 of 4 on that route. Finish all 4 and the path pays 450 $KODEX.

See the path