This course is focused on trying to justify the use case of criptocurrencies and DeFI, instead of explaining the concepts of DeFi infrastructure. Too much effort is put into convincing the student that DeFi is better than CeFi. Rougly half of the time is spent trying to justify the doubtful benefits of DeFi compared to CeFi, so the teaching pace is very slow and the DeFi concepts are barely skimmed and always mixed with biased opinions about the conveniency of DeFi against CeFi.

From the beginning I have had the impression that the professor wanted to 'sell' the idea that DeFi only has advantages, that it is the best option deal with transactions and so on, accurately forgetting or minimizing the seversl drawbacks. Many of the topics covered were not explained clearly but only slightly mentioned, moreover his pronunciation of the word 'finance' was hard to tolerate throughout the course.

Not worth it. This is an opinion piece with basic terms and NOT an academic overview of DeFi.

I appreciate the high-quality content and the instructor’s strong qualifications for the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Infrastructure course. The material is clearly well-researched and insightful. However, I found the pacing of the lectures to be quite slow—so much so that I had to increase the playback speed to 1.75x just to maintain engagement. It felt as if the delivery was more focused on style and presentation rather than efficient communication of the concepts. At times, the instructor’s tone and pacing came across as deliberately slow, almost like a performance intended to highlight his own voice, which made it difficult to stay focused. While I respect the instructor’s expertise, I believe a more natural and engaging delivery style with a more balanced pace would significantly enhance the learning experience. Thank you for your efforts in creating this course and for considering feedback from learners.

Very poor quality course. The lecturer doesnt know hsi subject and was expremely poor. Didnt expect this from a Duke prof.