It would rather be good to implement DeepOnion in couple of shops, restuarant etc like what one of the moderator (can not remember the name) is doing. If DeepOnion can be founded in couple of shops, that be good for creating some organic volume and will get some promotion too.
That would be of course great if DeepOnion gets implemented (and really used) as a payment option in shops, restaurants and other services, e-shops, etc, but this has been discussed for years and no significant progress achieved. And why would anyone even implement DeepOnion in the current situation when nobody is using it?
Regarding DeFi, it is still quite new and it might become much bigger. I don't expect that already big DeFi projects from top 100 on CMC would be much interested. But I think that DeepOnion should approach some newly created and/or smaller DeFi projects. As many of these projects will start to grow with current DeFi hype, DeepOnion could grow with them.
First step would be to ask Defi platform's people to tell what's the step to add ONION in their Defi platforms. As we know there are many Defi platforms now.
Yes, that's one thing, collateral. And I saw some DeFi projects focused on privacy of their users so DeepOnion could co-operate. Moreover, there could be finally some usecase for DeepVault, it is a decentralized notary service so it could be integrated into some DeFi project. These projects will offer more and more decentralized services, not only lending and exchanges, but also e.g. insurance so they might be interested in notary services as something additional as their competition advantage.
But currently there might be a technical problem, because DeFi projects usually work with ERC-20 tokens. I believe it will change in the future, but it might take some time. However, it might be possible to create ERC-20 compatible wrapped ONION as there is already e.g. wrapped BTC.
So the Team should definitely explore this area more as it might be a great opportunity. Of course, it can turn out that there are no significant benefits, but it is worth trying.