I think the many decentralized exchanges and services built on top of cryptocurrencies is exactly that. It’s programmable, more interoperable, and more secure (that you won’t be able to see unless you work for a financial institution that uses a cryptocurrency).

Sure, DeFi would be really cool if I wanted to borrow crypto, or lend crypto, or trade crypto options, or take a mortgage out on a bitcoin or whatever. But for people who need to deal with a real world asset, it has very little to offer. It still cannot (and again, correct me if I'm wrong) implement a simple option to buy stock at a certain price, and is not really any closer than it was the day ETH was crowd-funded.

So, for those of us on the outside, DeFi just looks like a bunch of crypto enthusiasts finding exotic new ways to gamble with each other. It's neat and all, but I don't see how it ever really affects the rest of us.

What you’re citing about DeFi is the least interest part of DeFi imo. The most interesting parts are decentralized exchanges, bridges, and cryptocurrencies that bridge other cryptocurrencies (axelar, thorchain, incognito, zklabs, etc.)

The whole point is that you now have interoperability between many projects and their tokens, data, stablecoins, etc.

> interoperability between many projects and their tokens, data, stablecoins, etc

that's pretty much what I meant by

> crypto enthusiasts finding exotic new ways to gamble with each other

Interoprability between cryptos is all DeFi can do. What's the other use case? If I said, "I was going to do X, but thanks to the power of DeFi it makes sense to pay the fees and absorb the volatility risk to do it on a blockchain", what's X?

I’m not sure I get your point. It’s like you’re talking about this new exotic crypto thing when all crypto is is a new way of transfering value. If you see the different crypto projects as different currencies then you realize that this is really simply about transfers between currencies that don’t have to go through dozens of middle men. You might live in a bubble but remittances is a huge thing in the world you live in.

It seems like we're saying the same thing. I complained that all defi can do is trade cryptocurrencies, and you said ah, but it can also trade cryptocurrencies.

I don't know what kind of remittances you think I'm in a bubble for being unaware of. The best way to explain would be to actually answer my question: what's the non-crypto use case that can be solved better with defi than without it?