Decentralized Finance
Decentralized finance (often stylized as DeFi) provides financial instruments and services through smart contracts on a programmable, permissionless blockchain. This approach reduces the need for intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks. DeFi platforms enable users to lend or borrow funds, speculate on asset price movements using derivatives, trade cryptocurrencies, insure against risks, and earn interest in savings-like accounts. The DeFi ecosystem is built on a layered architecture and highly composable building blocks. While some applications offer high interest rates, they carry high risks. Coding errors and hacks are a common challenge in DeFi. DeFi protocols exhibit varying degrees of decentralization, with truly decentralized protocols potentially acting as neutral infrastructure, while false decentralization leaves protocols open to manipulation and fraud or to being regulated as financial intermediaries. History Decentralized exchanges (abbreviated DEXs ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Financial Instrument
Financial instruments are monetary contracts between parties. They can be created, traded, modified and settled. They can be cash (currency), evidence of an ownership, interest in an entity or a contractual right to receive or deliver in the form of currency (forex); debt ( bonds, loans); equity ( shares); or derivatives ( options, futures, forwards). International Accounting Standards IAS 32 and 39 define a financial instrument as "any contract that gives rise to a financial asset of one entity and a financial liability or equity instrument of another entity". Financial instruments may be categorized by " asset class" depending on whether they are foreign exchange-based (reflecting foreign exchange instruments and transactions), equity-based (reflecting ownership of the issuing entity) or debt-based (reflecting a loan the investor has made to the issuing entity). If the instrument is debt it can be further categorized into short-term (less than one year) or long-term. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ethereum
Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (abbreviation: ETH) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capitalization. It is open-source software. Ethereum was conceived in 2013 by programmer Vitalik Buterin. Other founders include Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Joseph Lubin. In 2014, development work began and was crowdfunded, and the network went live on 30 July 2015. Ethereum allows anyone to deploy decentralized applications onto it, with which users can interact. Decentralized finance (DeFi) applications provide financial instruments that do not directly rely on financial intermediaries like brokerages, exchanges, or banks. This facilitates borrowing against cryptocurrency holdings or lending them out for interest. Ethereum also allows users to create and exchange non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which are tokens that can be tied to un ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Big Tech
Big Tech, also referred to as the Tech Giants or Tech Titans, is a collective term for the largest and most influential technology companies in the world. The label draws a parallel to similar classifications in other industries, such as "Big Oil" or "Big Tobacco". In the United States, it commonly denotes the five dominant firms—Alphabet Inc., Alphabet, Amazon (company), Amazon, Apple Inc., Apple, Meta Platforms, Meta, and Microsoft—often called the "Big Five". An expanded grouping, sometimes termed the "Magnificent Seven", includes Nvidia and Tesla, Inc., Tesla. The concept of Big Tech can also extend to the major Chinese technology firms—Baidu, Alibaba Group, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi—collectively referred to as BATX. History In the late 20th century, IBM, Apple, Inc., Apple and Microsoft dominated the IT industry. After the dot-com bubble wiped out most of the Nasdaq Composite stock market index, surviving tech startup company, startups expanded their market shar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Michael Novogratz
Michael Edward Novogratz (born November 26, 1964) is an American investor, formerly of the investment firm Fortress Investment Group. He is currently CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners which focuses on investments in cryptocurrency. Early life Raised in Alexandria, Virginia, Novogratz is the third of seven children of Army Black Knights football, West Point football lineman and 1958 Knute Rockne Award (best lineman) winner Bob Novogratz, Robert, Sr. He attended Fort Hunt High School. Novogratz was state of Virginia high school wrestling runner-up before serving as Princeton University, Princeton Wrestling captain (sports), captain. Novogratz was first team All-Ivy League in both 1986 () and 1987 (). He qualified for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) wrestling championships in both 1986 and 1987 (both at ). Novogratz earned his Bachelor of Arts, A.B. in economics at Princeton. At the 1987 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, 1987 NCAA wrestling championships, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Andreessen Horowitz
AH Capital Management, LLC (commonly known as Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z) is an American privately held venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The company is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. As of May 2024, Andreessen Horowitz ranks first on the list of venture capital firms by assets under management, with $42 billion. Andreessen Horowitz invests in both early-stage Startup company, startups and established Growth stock, growth companies. Its investments span the healthcare, consumer, cryptocurrency, gaming, fintech, education, and enterprise IT (including cloud computing, security, and software as a service) industries. Founding and partnering Between 2006 and 2010, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz actively invested in Technology company, technology companies. Both separately and together, they invested $4 million in 45 startups, including Twitter, Inc., Twitter. During this time, the two became known as "super angel" investors. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Venture Capital
Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number of employees, annual revenue, scale of operations, etc. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for Equity (finance), equity, or an ownership stake. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing start-ups in the hopes that some of the companies they support will become successful. Because Startup company, startups face high uncertainty, VC investments have high rates of failure. Start-ups are usually based on an innovation, innovative technology or business model and often come from high technology industries such as information technology (IT) or biotechnology. Pre-seed and seed money, seed rounds are the initial stages of funding for a startup company, typically occurring earl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg Radio, '' Bloomberg Businessweek'', '' Bloomberg Markets'', Bloomberg.com, and Bloomberg's mobile platforms. Since 2015, John Micklethwait has been editor-in-chief. History Bloomberg News was founded by Michael Bloomberg and Matthew Winkler in 1990 to deliver financial news reporting to Bloomberg Terminal subscribers. The agency was established in 1990 with a team of six people. Winkler was first editor-in-chief. In 2010, Bloomberg News included more than 2,300 editors and reporters in 72 countries and 146 news bureaus worldwide. Beginnings (1990–1995) Bloomberg Business News was created to expand the services offered through the terminals. According to Matthew Winkler, then a writer for ''The Wall Street Jo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington metropolitan area and has a national audience. As of 2023, the ''Post'' had 130,000 print subscribers and 2.5 million digital subscribers, both of which were the List of newspapers in the United States, third-largest among U.S. newspapers after ''The New York Times'' and ''The Wall Street Journal''. The ''Post'' was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. In 1933, financier Eugene Meyer (financier), Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy and revived its health and reputation; this work was continued by his successors Katharine Graham, Katharine and Phil Graham, Meyer's daughter and son-in-law, respectively, who bought out several rival publications. The ''Post ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yield (finance)
In finance, the yield on a security is a measure of the ex-ante return to a holder of the security. It is one component of return on an investment, the other component being the change in the market price of the security. It is a measure applied to fixed income securities, common stocks, preferred stocks, convertible stocks and bonds, annuities and real estate investments. There are various types of yield, and the method of calculation depends on the particular type of yield and the type of security. Fixed income securities The coupon rate (or nominal rate) on a fixed income security is the interest that the issuer agrees to pay to the security holder each year, expressed as a percentage of the security's principal amount (par value). The current yield is the ratio of the annual interest (coupon) payment and the bond's market price. The yield to maturity is an estimate of the total rate of return anticipated to be earned by an investor who buys a bond at a given market p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cryptocurrency Exchange
A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may accept credit card payments, wire transfers or other forms of payment in exchange for digital currencies or cryptocurrencies. A cryptocurrency exchange can be a market maker that typically takes the bid–ask spreads as a transaction commission for its service or, as a matching platform, simply charges fees. Some brokerages which also focus on other assets such as stocks, let users purchase but not withdraw cryptocurrencies to cryptocurrency wallets while dedicated cryptocurrency exchanges do allow cryptocurrency withdrawals. Operation A cryptocurrency exchange can typically send cryptocurrency to a user's personal cryptocurrency wallet. Some can convert digital currency balances into anonymous prepaid cards which can be used to withdraw ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership records are stored in a digital ledger or blockchain, which is a computerized database that uses a consensus mechanism to secure transaction records, control the creation of additional coins, and verify the transfer of coin ownership. The two most common consensus mechanisms are proof of work and proof of stake. Despite the name, which has come to describe many of the fungible blockchain tokens that have been created, cryptocurrencies are not considered to be currencies in the traditional sense, and varying legal treatments have been applied to them in various jurisdictions, including classification as commodities, securities, and currencies. Cryptocurrencies are generally viewed as a distinct asset class in practice. The first cryptocu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Decentralization
Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those related to planning and decision-making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group and given to smaller factions within it. Concepts of decentralization have been applied to group dynamics and management science in private businesses and organizations, political science, law and public administration, technology, economics and money. History The word "''centralisation''" came into use in France in 1794 as the post-French Revolution, Revolution French Directory leadership created a new government structure. The word "''décentralisation''" came into usage in the 1820s. "Centralization" entered written English in the first third of the 1800s; mentions of decentralization also first appear during those years. In the mid-1800s Alexis de Tocqueville, Tocqueville would write that the French Revolution began with "a push towards ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |