Financial services built on blockchain smart contracts that operate without traditional intermediaries (banks, brokers). DeFi includes lending, borrowing, trading, insurance, and derivatives. Key properties: permissionless (anyone can participate), composable (protocols can be combined), transparent (open-source, auditable). Solana DeFi TVL has exceeded $5B, led by Jupiter, Raydium, Marinade, and Kamino.
Start with the shortest useful explanation before going deeper.
Financial services built on blockchain smart contracts that operate without traditional intermediaries (banks, brokers). DeFi includes lending, borrowing, trading, insurance, and derivatives. Key properties: permissionless (anyone can participate), composable (protocols can be combined), transparent (open-source, auditable). Solana DeFi TVL has exceeded $5B, led by Jupiter, Raydium, Marinade, and Kamino.
Use the quick analogy first so the term is easier to reason about when you meet it in code, docs, or prompts.
Think of it as a building block that connects one definition to the larger Solana system around it.
Place the term inside its Solana layer so the definition is easier to reason about.
Wallets, signing flows, dApps, and key management concepts.
Turn the term from vocabulary into something operational for product and engineering work.
This term unlocks adjacent concepts quickly, so it works best when you treat it as a junction instead of an isolated definition.
Use this compact block when you want to give an agent or assistant grounded context without dumping the entire page.
DeFi (Decentralized Finance) (defi-general) Category: Web3 Definition: Financial services built on blockchain smart contracts that operate without traditional intermediaries (banks, brokers). DeFi includes lending, borrowing, trading, insurance, and derivatives. Key properties: permissionless (anyone can participate), composable (protocols can be combined), transparent (open-source, auditable). Solana DeFi TVL has exceeded $5B, led by Jupiter, Raydium, Marinade, and Kamino. Aliases: DeFi Related: AMM (Automated Market Maker), Lending Protocol, DEX (Decentralized Exchange)
Use glossary context, relationships, mental models, and builder paths to get structured answers instead of generic chat output.
Optional: paste Anchor, Solana, or Rust code so the Copilot can map primitives back to glossary terms.
The Copilot will answer using the current term, related concepts, mental models, and the surrounding glossary graph.
These branches show which concepts this term touches directly and what sits one layer beyond them.
A protocol that enables token swaps using algorithmic pricing against pooled liquidity instead of matching individual buyers and sellers. AMMs use mathematical formulas (typically constant product x*y=k) to determine prices based on the ratio of tokens in a liquidity pool. On Solana, major AMMs include Raydium, Orca, and Meteora.
A DeFi protocol that enables users to deposit tokens to earn yield and borrow tokens against collateral. Key Solana lending protocols include Solend, MarginFi, Kamino, and Save (formerly Solend v2). Lending rates float based on utilization (borrowed/deposited). Deposits receive interest-bearing receipt tokens representing their share.
A protocol for trading tokens directly on-chain without a centralized intermediary. Solana DEXs use either AMM pools (Raydium, Orca, Meteora) or on-chain order books (Phoenix, OpenBook). DEXs are composable—aggregators like Jupiter route through multiple DEXs for optimal pricing.
These are the next concepts worth opening if you want this term to make more sense inside a real Solana workflow.
These entries are easy to mix up when you are reading quickly, prompting an LLM, or onboarding into a new layer of Solana.
A set of smart contracts deployed on-chain that together provide a specific decentralized financial service such as lending, trading, or liquid staking. Each DeFi protocol defines its own rules for deposits, withdrawals, fees, and governance through immutable or upgradeable program logic. Examples on Solana include Marinade (liquid staking), Raydium (AMM), Drift (perpetuals), and Kamino (automated vaults). Users interact with protocols by sending transactions to their program addresses.
An application with its backend logic running on a blockchain as smart contracts rather than centralized servers. dApps typically have a traditional web frontend that interacts with on-chain programs via RPC. Users authenticate with wallets instead of username/password. Examples: Uniswap (Ethereum DEX), Jupiter (Solana DEX), Magic Eden (NFT marketplace).
A W3C standard for self-sovereign digital identifiers created, owned, and controlled by the individual rather than a centralized authority. DIDs use public-key cryptography for verification without traditional identity providers. In blockchain contexts, DIDs map to on-chain addresses and enable verifiable authentication across protocols.
Glossary entries become useful when they are connected. These links are the shortest path to adjacent ideas.
A protocol that enables token swaps using algorithmic pricing against pooled liquidity instead of matching individual buyers and sellers. AMMs use mathematical formulas (typically constant product x*y=k) to determine prices based on the ratio of tokens in a liquidity pool. On Solana, major AMMs include Raydium, Orca, and Meteora.
A DeFi protocol that enables users to deposit tokens to earn yield and borrow tokens against collateral. Key Solana lending protocols include Solend, MarginFi, Kamino, and Save (formerly Solend v2). Lending rates float based on utilization (borrowed/deposited). Deposits receive interest-bearing receipt tokens representing their share.
A protocol for trading tokens directly on-chain without a centralized intermediary. Solana DEXs use either AMM pools (Raydium, Orca, Meteora) or on-chain order books (Phoenix, OpenBook). DEXs are composable—aggregators like Jupiter route through multiple DEXs for optimal pricing.
These entries live beside the current term and help the page feel like part of a larger knowledge graph instead of a dead end.
The vision of a decentralized internet built on blockchain technology, where users own their data, identity, and digital assets. Web1 was read-only (static pages), Web2 is read-write (platforms like social media), Web3 is read-write-own (permissionless, user-sovereign). Web3 applications use wallets instead of logins and smart contracts instead of centralized servers.
An application with its backend logic running on a blockchain as smart contracts rather than centralized servers. dApps typically have a traditional web frontend that interacts with on-chain programs via RPC. Users authenticate with wallets instead of username/password. Examples: Uniswap (Ethereum DEX), Jupiter (Solana DEX), Magic Eden (NFT marketplace).
Software or hardware that manages cryptographic keys and enables users to sign transactions, view balances, and interact with dApps. Hot wallets (Phantom, Solflare, Backpack) are internet-connected for convenience. Cold wallets (Ledger, Trezor) store keys offline for security. Wallets don't actually 'hold' tokens—they hold the private keys that control on-chain accounts.
A 12 or 24-word human-readable backup of a wallet's master private key, generated using BIP-39 standard. The seed phrase can deterministically regenerate all derived keypairs (BIP-44 derivation paths). Losing the seed phrase means permanently losing access to all associated accounts. Never share, photograph, or store seed phrases digitally in plain text.