1. The Birth of ETHLend (2017)Aave’s journey began as ETHLend in 2017, a decentralized platform focused on providing peer-to-peer lending using Ethereum-based tokens. The project was created by Stani Kulechov, a visionary entrepreneur in the DeFi space, who sought to make lending more accessible and transparent by eliminating the need for intermediaries, such as banks or financial institutions. ETHLend allowed users to borrow and lend Ethereum-based assets by using collateralized loans, meani...