Basically, there are two types of cryptocurrency platforms. There are centralized platforms, which are owned by shareholders (founders, employees, venture capitalists, etc.) and managed by managers. Managers set policies and try to attract deposits (cash and cryptocurrency) from customers, and then make decisions on how to invest those deposits. If the investments make money, clients receive an agreed return and the platform (and its equity investors) keep the remaining profits. If the platform becomes popular, successful and widely used, and if its investments perform well, its shareholders get richer. That’s about the number of traditional financial firms working too.

Then there is decentralized platforms. These are somehow owned by their users (customers, depositors, borrowers, etc.), although this usually means that users get a cryptocurrency token with certain economic and governance rights rather than a share of capital. . There may be managers, but the holders of the governance tokens can replace them or modify the policies of the platform. There is a Discord channel. If the platform invests customers’ money, the customers, as governance token holders, can vote on what to invest in, and the profits (or losses) of the investment go directly to the customers. If the platform becomes popular, successful and widely used, and its investments perform well, then its users – at least early adopters, those with lots of tokens – get richer. This form of organization is, to say the least, a somewhat new phenomenon, a true innovation of crypto.