Nearly all significant real-world use cases of cryptocurrency are DeFi use cases.
Ethereum (ETH) is arguably the real star of the blockchain world, and even as Bitcoin (BTC) continues its extended bull run, ETH has also continued to prosper.
According to a July Consensys report, there are now 161 million unique Ethereum addresses, a 10% increase from the end of Q1 2021, and the Total Value Locked (TVL) of ETH’s proof-of-stake ecosystem reached $146 billion in August.
The crypto world owes a debt of thanks to ETH for bringing us smart contract functionality, which made Decentralized Finance (DeFi) use cases possible.
Of course, Bitcoin is cryptocurrency’s most famous coin, but it is by design a simple, decentralized digital currency.
As with any currency, its primary use cases are as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value. The leading cryptocurrency focuses on a simple role and does it reliably, with greater transparency, privacy, and security and with fewer intermediaries, but Ethereum’s smart contracts take possible use cases of blockchain technology to the next level.