DreamAnalysis | Understanding Liquidity Pools in DeFi EP02
2024-09-21

✨ Welcome to the second DeFi educational content! 

 🔄 Active vs Passive Income Recap 
In the previous session, we discussed the concept of active and passive income. To briefly explain, active income refers to the income one must work for every day, while passive income does not require daily effort, and one can still earn money over weeks or even months without doing anything special. If you want to read more about this concept in detail, you can check out the first part of DeFi education in this channel.

 📅 Introduction to Liquidity Pools 
Today, I want to dive into the concept of liquidity pools for tokens and how these tokens generate income. First, I’ll explain what a liquidity pool is and how it has evolved from the past to the present.

 ✅ From Barter to Currency 
In ancient times, before the invention of money, people bartered goods with each other. For example, they would exchange wheat for meat. But there were days when no one had meat available, and those who needed it couldn't find what they were looking for. After the creation of governments, with rationing and the supply of necessary goods, this problem was somewhat solved, as any time a commodity became scarce in the city, it was quickly brought to the market so people could obtain it.

 🏛 The Role of Banks and Exchanges 
With the establishment of banks and exchanges, people shifted from bartering goods to exchanging currencies, but the issue of availability still exists. Sometimes, banks or exchanges don’t have the currency a person is looking for. For instance, someone who wants to exchange their dollars for euros can likely do so in most exchanges because euros and dollars have high liquidity. However, finding an exchange that will give Turkish Lira in return for dollars may be harder because Lira doesn’t have high liquidity in most countries, and the bulk of its liquidity is in Turkey.

 💵 Liquidity in the Crypto Space 
In the crypto space, there are also many liquidity pools. For example, Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange because 1) it has a large user base, and 2) it has large liquidity pools. This means that the market depth on this exchange is high, allowing users to buy and sell their coins and tokens without causing price fluctuations.

 📊Trading without Price Slippage 
For instance, if someone wants to sell $1,000 of Bitcoin at a price of $60,000, and someone else wants to buy the same amount at the same price, the transaction can happen without moving the price, and the exchange earns a fee from both parties.

 🕯 Price Fluctuations with Lower Liquidity 
In another scenario, someone wants to buy $1,000 at $60,000, but the second person is only willing to sell $900 at that price. In this case, the price moves upward, and now the buyer purchases $900 at $60,000 and the remaining $100 at $60,001. If another seller offers $100 at this price, the transaction happens, and the price moves slightly higher. So now we understand how price changes and how exchanges earn fees.

 🌱 DeFi’s Liquidity Pools and Token Swaps 
This also exists in DeFi. For example, when you exchange Ethereum for Bitcoin through the Uniswap platform, you are essentially trading, and Uniswap needs to have Bitcoin in its reserve to give you in exchange for your Ethereum, just like Binance does. But there is a significant difference between Binance and Uniswap.

🟢 As mentioned earlier, Binance creates liquidity pools, and therefore it charges fees for your trades. However, on Uniswap, users themselves can create liquidity pools and earn transaction fees.

🔔 For example, a user can deposit their Bitcoin and Ethereum into this platform and earn fees from the trades of other users. So if someone wants to exchange Ethereum for Bitcoin, they can give their Ethereum to the user who created the liquidity, and the liquidity provider will give them Bitcoin and earn the transaction fee. All these processes are automated, which is why the user who provides liquidity earns passive income.

🤝 I’ll stop here so that the explanations don’t get too lengthy, and in the next part, I’ll explain more about liquidity pools.

 ❌Disclaimer 
The information provided in this lesson is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Liquidity pools and DeFi investments involve significant risks, including potential loss of capital. Please conduct thorough research and consult with a financial advisor before participating in any DeFi platforms. The channel and its creators are not responsible for any financial losses incurred.