DeFi vs TradFi

Traditional finance and decentralized finance both move money, extend credit, and help users coordinate risk, but they do so through very different operating models.

TradFi depends on institutions, business hours, and permissioned account systems. DeFi leans on wallets, smart contracts, and public settlement.

That does not make DeFi automatically better. A reversible bank transfer and a self-custodied wallet solve different problems and carry different risks.

The useful takeaway is that DeFi unbundles services that were previously packaged inside institutions, which creates speed and composability but also removes many familiar guardrails.