Decentralized Finance: Using Visualization to Demonstrate Core Concepts and Research Applications

Investments in decentralized finance (DeFi) have grown dramatically in recent years. For this thesis we conducted research in DeFi and developed a software application to gather yield farm performance metrics for certain liquidity pools from an automated market making protocol. These metrics were gathered daily through specific yield farms whose smart contracts are deployed on the Solana blockchain. The goal of the data collection from these smart contracts was to visualize the relationship of the various metrics through a developed web application in order to provide guidance to investors considering participating in the digital economy. By identifying real world trends and relationships between performance metrics, investors can make more informed and faster deductions about historical performance. Yield farm metric visualization is not yet readily available in software protocols or tools and represents a novel method to assist education in the DeFi space. A user study was also conducted with participants from a variety of professional backgrounds and experiences with DeFi. Subsequent analyses were done on participant opinion and sentiment to determine an increase or decrease in conceptual understanding of DeFi. As a key result of this research development and assessment work, favorable market conditions for participation in this form of finance were identified.

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's Degree

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Black, Zachary

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dascalu, Sergiu

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Chen, Li-Ting
• Badsha, Shahriar

• Decentralized Finance
• Performance Metrics
• Software Application
• Visualization
• Yield Farm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11714/8210

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarwolf.unr.edu:11714/8210