A new report on the state of Ethereum by ConsenSys Codefi shows that a lot of activity in DeFi is led by so-called "super users". Platforms like Compound and Uniswap put decentralized finance (or DeFi) use cases at the center of the crypto landscape in 2020.
A new report from Codefi, a subsidiary of the software development company Ethereum ConsenSys, sheds light on how many unique users are leveraging these and other DeFi services.
Few new users in the DeFi
Although the value stuck in DeFi applications has nearly tripled since April of this year, the report says, most of the DeFi activity does not come from new users. One of the central questions in the report is whether "DeFi users [are] actually leveraging the interoperability of Ethereum-based DeFi protocols."
In an attempt to answer this question, the report analyzes the 79.648 addresses that interacted with a DeFi smart contract in the second quarter of 2020 (Ethereum exceeded 100 million unique addresses in June 2020 and active use of addresses increased by 118% since the beginning of the year).
According to the report, of all users who deposited around $ 1,2 billion in ETH tokens and Ethereum-based tokens - here the quotation in real time - in DeFi applications, only 1.884 of these sent 100 transactions or more during the quarter.
By further measuring user activity, the report states that most DeFi users remain loyal to a particular platform and rarely use other DeFi apps (these are users who have transacted at least once but no more than 99 times in the during the second quarter of 2020).
Compared to average users, "superusers" had a higher percentage of users who had interacted with at least two or three different DeFi protocols than users who had not.
Uniswap has most of this percentage on its side with 1.625 super users active on the platform during the quarter. Kyber Network finished second with 916 super users, followed by Compound's 367.
To expand not to grow in a bubble
The report does not indicate the size of the account balances for these groups of users analyzed. In the conclusions, however, he says that Compound's explosive rise has done little to attract new users who aren't already using DeFi applications.
In contrast, much of the intensified activity comes from users who were already in the ecosystem. The solution therefore, suggest the authors of the report, is to focus on design, user experience and training, to avoid that DeFi runs the risk of growing in a bubble, rather than expanding further.
“The data suggest, however, that the frenzy has remained within the walls of the existing community. The likely conclusion is that many DeFi innovations run the "risk" of increasing adoption only within the community of experienced DeFi users, "said the authors of the Codefi report. Of course, this assumes that the ultimate goal is actually to "increase the size of the DeFi community," concluded the report.
