DeFi, or Decentralized Finance, is an open sourcing of finance. If Finance is Windows - centralized, corporate, and opaque, DeFi is Linux - open, transparent, and community built.

After working with DeFi on Ethereum for a while I've realized its primary killer feature, and reason it will out-innovate traditional finance, is very similar to Linux's: Permissionless Composability.

Having one neutral platform, controlled by no one, with standardized API's and immutable open programs anyone can permissionlessly build on - is amazing.

It is exceptionally hard to enter the financial markets of the world - you need millions of dollars and a large team to deal with regulatory and integration hurdles. This is why innovation is so low in the industry. Banks still run on mainframes and have barely changed in decades. Software is eating the world, but it has yet to eat finance, this is quickly changing.

DeFi has only been around 3 years, and in this short amount of time it has replicated much of what exists in finance. The biggest difference is: This new financial system is global, and open to all.

If you have an idea for an amazing new product which integrates with existing financial products, you don't need anyone's permission to build it, you can make it happen.

DeFi has this base layer (Ethereum) which is secure and owned by no one. If you deploy some code, it is basically guaranteed to execute and exist on-chain for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years.

So if you build on top of any smart contracts out there, they can't disappear, shut down, or ban you from using them. This is a massive upgrade from the current status quo, where either thousands of man hours are spent maintaining legacy systems, or they get shut down leaving all customers stranded.

If we want to build a secure, long-term, open financial system for the world, my money is on DeFi to be this system. Because it can deliver on the ideals of finance far better than anything else out there.