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Abstract The article is a short introduction to what is decentralized finance (DeFi). The core idea of its developers is building a new financial system on blockchains without banks or middlemen, using open networks, smart contracts, and digital assets. DeFi is built on blockchains like Ethereum that record transactions, smart contracts that enforce rules automatically, and assets such as BTC, ETH, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets like treasury bills or property. Because these parts are composable, protocols can connect like building blocks to form new systems. In practice, people use DeFi in many ways: trading on decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap, borrowing and lending through Aave, providing liquidity to earn fees, or trading derivatives on Hyperliquid. Unique features like flash loans allow instant borrowing and repayment in one transaction, while automated vaults make complex strategies easier to access. These examples show that DeFi is not just replicating traditional finance but creating new opportunities through transparency, automation, and open participation. At the same time, the article opens the floor to remaining open questions in regulation, governance, and the integration of onchain activity with real-world data, issues that will shape how institutions and policymakers engage with these systems. For lawyers and other interested parties, it presents DeFi as a promising experiment in designing financial infrastructure that could be more inclusive, flexible, and resilient than traditional models.