Introduction

The DeFi space is gradually coming of age and delivering on some of the promises made at the very beginning. Today, the average user can choose from a plethora of DeFi services designed to eliminate the need for intermediaries and custodians. Aave is one such decentralized application (dapp) that has remained at the forefront of this exciting financial sector.

At the heart of this movement are decentralized applications (dapps) that continue to expand the scope of decentralized finance and enable practical use cases for mainstream users.

What is Aave?

Aave, formerly called ETHLend, was launched in 2017 on the Ethereum network as a decentralized alternative to traditional lending solutions.

According to the information on its website, Aave is a "decentralized non-custodial liquidity market protocol where users can participate as depositors or borrowers."

Why do people use Aave?

As stated earlier, Aave is more time and cost-efficient than traditional lending systems in that it offers a fully automated and intermediate-free system. Another factor attracting users is the possibility of using crypto as collateral.

The icing on the cake is that Aave is community-governed. Hence, Aave is a community-focused ecosystem where participants get to actively impact the future of the project.

What are the features of Aave?

Lending: Users get to deposit funds and make them available to borrowers in the hopes of receiving interest and generating passive income.

Borrowing: Users can deposit their collateral for a chance of taking out a loan with competitive interest rates.

Swapping: A feature that allows users to instantaneously exchange their deposited or collateralized coins for another cryptocurrency.

Flash loans: Allows users to take out uncollateralized loans.

Staking: Users can generate passive income by staking Aave tokens within the protocol's safety module.

Decentralized governance: Aave operates a decentralized system that relies on the input of the community when making governance-related decisions.

Repay with collateral: Users can repay part of their loans with deposited collateral.

Multi-asset support: Aave supports a wide array of digital assets that can be deposited or borrowed on the platform.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Established and reputable decentralized lending protocol
• Supports flash loans
• Audited for security
• Operates a decentralized governance system
• Supports a wide range of crypto assets

Cons:

• Low interest rates compared to other alternatives