To borrow from Winston Churchill, writing a book about decentralized finance can be akin to describing a puzzle wrapped up in mystery and an enigma. First, one must summarize the origins of modern decentralized finance, then the mechanics of the blockchain technology that provides the sector’s backbone, and only then do you arrive at DeFi’s infrastructure. This information should also be contained in 191 pages. It’s not for the weak of heart.

Thank goodness, however, that the authors DeFi and Future of Finance — Duke University finance professor Campbell Harvey, Dragonfly Capital general partner Ashwin Ramachandran, and Fei Labs founder Joey Santoro — were up to the task. After recapitulating the “five flaws of traditional finance” — inefficiency, limited access, opacity, centralized control and lack of interoperability — they go on to explain how DeFi improves upon the status quo.