The idea of decentralized finance may be good and very promising, but the prevailing question until today is that which particular decentralized platform in the whole wide defi space is truly decentralized? It is easy to claim decentralization, but upon investigated very closely, will there be any single defi project that is really decentralized?
The idea of decentralization is that there won't be any single point of failure. Looking closely at defi projects, could we give at least a single defi project that doesn't have a single point of failure?
I have a similar criticism and have created threads about them a few times. What I can tell you is it is arguable for both sides between if someone replies yes and no. Where would you argue for if you think there is a single point of failure?
In any case, this thread is not about that argument. It is an argument about
Defi as infrastructure for digital goods, fungible or nonfungible.This might be a
antagonistic opinion, however, I reckon the NFT market might become more popular than the fungible cryptocoin market. The cultural value of NFTs appear to be very underestimated by much of the users in the cryptospace.
Also, to the skeptics of Defi as an infrastructure for digital goods. 2 years ago I might agree, however, similar to bitcoin's skeptics, the skeptics of Defi who say it will die in a few years will also be proven wrong.
No, there is actually no point arguing whether defi is truly decentralized or not. You cannot give a yes or no answer to that. Defi is generic. It is the overarching idea. To be able to answer with a yes or a no, it is necessary to name specific defi projects and closely scrutinize their protocols.
For example you can take into investigation such defi platforms as Aave, PancakeSwap, etc and make a decision whether they are really decentralized. So far, defi platforms like the Poly Network, Compound Finance, and very recently, the Ronin Network have proven that there is indeed less decentralization in defi than claimed.
Defi itself is not the infrastructure. Again, you need to go down to a particular defi project to find a specific defi infrastructure. It is where you will conclude whether there is indeed decentralization or not.
As to NFT, it is more overestimated than underestimated. And its current popular use is not really interesting, although there must be a lot of significant real-life use cases that could make use of the NFT technology.
Defi will not die in a few years, perhaps not even in decades. Defi is an idea after all. But the question is, will there still be a defi project today that will remain to be standing strong 10 years from now?