When you begin your journey into crypto and specifically DeFi, you’ll come across several tools that you’ll find useful. This list is meant to help you get a jump start on what some of those helpful tools are, and how to best utilize them to your benefit. This list is in no particular order, and feel free to check back often, as we’ll be updating our list in this fast-evolving landscape of DeFi.
Let’s dive in.
What is DeFi?
A quick refresher:
Decentralized finance, also known as “DeFi,” is a financial system that is built on top of blockchain technology. This means that it is not controlled by any central authority, such as a bank or government, but rather is operated by a network of users who interact with each other directly through the use of smart contracts. DeFi allows people to access a wide range of financial services, such as lending and borrowing, trading, and payments, in a decentralized and trustless manner. This can be particularly useful for individuals and organizations who may not have access to traditional financial services, or who want to operate outside of the traditional financial system.
The Definitive DeFi Tools List
Whether you consider yourself to be a beginner or advanced user, this list can help you.
DefiLlama is the largest multi-chain TVL aggregator for DeFi. Currently, their tool tracks 157 chains and over 2,100 protocols. It’s an incredibly powerful tool, but also very intuitive to use. Consider it a one-stop shop for comprehensive data on DeFi protocols.
As you begin branching out into different DeFi protocols, it gets more and more difficult to track all of your assets. This is where DeBank comes in; DeBank is your overall DeFi portfolio tracking wallet. They support the largest number of DeFi protocols across 44 chains and the list is constantly growing. The app makes it easy to track your DeFi portfolio on the go as well. However, I will warn you that it is very addictive as I find myself checking my portfolio a little too often. DeBank is very popular among BOMB Money investors (whom I like to affectionately call BOMBers) because it allows them to track all of their assets in our ever-expanding ecosystem.
DEX Screener makes it easy to track and chart your favorite DEX in real time, and it’s great for both beginner and advanced users. Some of the key features are:
- Trends which help identify trends in the market and can be easily filtered by trend type and chain.
- New Pairs which helps you find the newest trading pairs listed across various platforms.
- Gainers & Losers which lets you view the gainers and losers of tokens across different platforms.
Also, their multi charts tool allows you to easily create a custom dashboard to compare price movements and identify patterns on the tokens you’re interested in.
WhatTheFork is the source for all fork–related news. Their website makes it very easy to aggregate and filter protocols based on useful filters such as fork type and chain. You can search Tomb forks, Titano forks, BakedBeans forks, Olympus forks, Node forks and even non-forks as well. It’s a great way to find new protocols and get a feel for what’s out there.
This one may be a no-brainer but it’s worth restating. CoinMarketCap is by far the world’s most referenced price-tracking website for crypto assets. Their mission is to empower retail users with unbiased, high-quality and accurate information so you can draw your own informed conclusions. It’s very intuitive, free to use, and helps you easily track your favorite tokens and portfolio.
They’re also beginning to implement community sites on CMC for projects to engage directly on the site. Check out the BOMB Money page and give us a like!
Block Explorers
Block Explorers allow you to access details on any blockchain transaction that are pending or confirmed. There are different block explorers that are specific to a blockchain. For example, Etherscan allows you to navigate through all the public data on the Ethereum blockchain. BscScan is specific to BNB Smart Chain, PolygonScan is specific to Polygon, SnowTrace to Avax and so on. Every block explorer allows you to view assets held on any public wallet address including transaction history and current balances.
Most common uses for block explorers are to verify smart contracts, view crypto assets held on a public wallet, and to look up single transactions among other things. BOMB Chain, of course, will also have its own block explorer, BOMBscan, to give full transparency of the chain. You can check out the testnet here: https://bombscan.com
CONCLUSION
The most important asset you have to succeed in DeFi is you. Everyone says DYOR but what does that actually mean? You don’t need to have coding or technical expertise to get a basic understanding of the economics behind a protocol. You can try to understand the basic mechanics of how things work using some of the tools mentioned above. This alone puts you miles ahead of others.
Engage with the communities of the protocols you’re interested in, and never be afraid to ask as many questions as possible. Legitimate projects always welcome questions and are happy to help just like us here at BOMB Money. Intuition is also a very powerful tool and if your gut tells you something seems off, you’re probably right. Remember to check back in the future as this is an evolving list. Stay SAFU BOMBers and BOMB on!
