Dogecoin, the joke currency that minted millionaires overnight. CryptoKitties, the digital trading cards of cartoon cats that have sold for over one hundred thousand dollars. A Pringles “flavor” that only exists as a non-fungible token, and sells for, well, a lot more than chips you can actually eat. On the face of it, these blockchain-based projects can sound absurd — baffling to the general public and mocking to the financial establishment. They’re spoofs and pranks that sometimes make money. But if you can look past the inside jokes, jargon, and goofy names, you’ll see that there’s serious work happening in crypto. A community of developers and investors is building a solid, sustainable infrastructure that will undergird an entirely new kind of economy: a decentralized economy. Part of the decentralized economy is building an open, decentralized financial system (DeFi).