Just take Uniswap for example. Now imagine that every asset on the planet could be represented by a fungible or non-fungible token. You can put a Uniswap plugin into any browser and you now have a universal way to swap between any assets you want, 24/7. You could buy real estate, bonds, gold, stocks, currencies, all from your browser.
Now obviously this is not quite a a reality today. Most things exchanged on Uniswap are crypto tokens, but there are a lot of synthetic assets today, like mTSLA (which is a synthetic share of TSLA) and many more. So now I can hold stocks in my Metamask account today. Sure, it's only price exposure, it's not like TSLA has dividends anyway.
And then there's the oracle problem when it comes to real world assets, but this is solvable with existing legal systems, and soon, crypto legal systems like OpenLaw.
So yeah, Uniswap is my go to example of the power of DeFi.
> You could buy real estate, bonds, gold, stocks, currencies, all from your browser.
I'm not sure what world you live in where the biggest problem with buying a six-figure investment instruments is that _I can't do it from my browser_.
There's about a thousand things more important in my mind when it comes to investing. For a day trader this might be a problem. For decades-long instruments it isn't.
All the things you mention have issues that go beyond a browser. You could log on to a real estate page and buy a house and that's technically possible, and digital token doesn't do a damn to improve the experience.
I am a thousand times more likely to run into legal permits issues, KYC and anti-money laundering forms, getting stuck reading contractual obligations that certain assets require, etc.
That's easy for you to say, but there's plenty of people on this planet that don't have access to any financial markets. Now with a smartphone, browser and internet connection, they can buy exposure to US equities without a brokerage from any country.
But it's so much more than that. Have a little imagination. Digital assets could very well be the dominant forms of assets in the future, so easy access to markets to trade these is important.
You just disagree that this has importance, but the market says otherwise, since people are very interested in using Uniswap, and volume will only grow from here. It's undeniable that this is a usecase, and I remember only a couple of years ago that HN would say that Ethereum is completely useless, and yet here we are.
> Now with a smartphone, browser and internet connection, they can buy exposure to US equities without a brokerage from any country.
1. While this is technically become realer and realer every day, it's becoming less and less logistically due to regulation.
2. Eventually people will realize that the frictionless experience of crypto is also its greatest security risk[0]. Why do you think the Winklevoss twins store their wallet backup codes in...you guessed it...BANKS! ha.[1]
The Winklevosses came up with an elaborate system to store and secure their own private keys. They cut up printouts of their private keys into pieces and then distributed them in envelopes to safe deposit boxes around the country, so if one envelope were stolen the thief would not have the entire key.
Now obviously this is not quite a a reality today. Most things exchanged on Uniswap are crypto tokens, but there are a lot of synthetic assets today, like mTSLA (which is a synthetic share of TSLA) and many more. So now I can hold stocks in my Metamask account today. Sure, it's only price exposure, it's not like TSLA has dividends anyway.
And then there's the oracle problem when it comes to real world assets, but this is solvable with existing legal systems, and soon, crypto legal systems like OpenLaw.
So yeah, Uniswap is my go to example of the power of DeFi.