The New Paradigm of DeFi Financial Tools: Evolution from Complexity to Simplicity

Recently, a startup named Glider completed a $4 million funding round, led by a well-known venture capital firm. This company aims to simplify on-chain investment processes and lower the entry barriers for participation in Decentralized Finance. This funding reflects that, with the development of new technologies such as Intent and large language models, the DeFi sector is facing opportunities for restructuring and simplification.

Glider originated from an internal startup project of a company at the end of 2023. Initially, it was an on-chain robotic tool that could combine different operational steps to simplify users' investment processes. While helping users with financial management is not a new concept, Glider attempts to reshape this field in the following ways:

1. Integrate existing Decentralized Finance tools, including leading protocols from various sectors.
2. Allow users to build and share investment strategies, supporting follow-up investments and copy trading.

However, products involving the flow of user funds are always sensitive. Most users can accept decentralization in exchange for fund security, but they can hardly accept that decentralization increases security risks. This is also one of the important reasons why on-chain products have not yet replaced centralized exchanges.

As early as 2020, there were similar projects attempting to simplify Decentralized Finance strategies, but ultimately failed to retain users. The main reason is that on-chain yield strategies are public, making it difficult for retail investors to compete with large players in terms of capital and technology, and thus hard to capture high-yield opportunities.

Currently, we are entering the era of asset management for the masses. Although the wealthy still favor traditional tools such as ETFs, on-chain ETFs are gradually rising. From APY calculation displays to continuously operating strategy markets, the demand for such products is evident. However, due to the transparency of the blockchain, it is challenging to maintain the uniqueness and efficiency of strategies over the long term.

In the future, the on-chain of income-generating assets may become an important trend. In recent years, RWA( real-world assets) are accelerating development. Whether it is complex asset types or diverse Decentralized Finance strategies, they are driving exchange users to migrate on-chain. Some innovative projects have already demonstrated the feasibility of liquidity and asset on-chain.

Overall, DeFi financial tools are transitioning from complexity to simplicity. Although the introduction of AI has brought new opportunities, it also faces challenges such as the division of responsibilities. In the future, the separation of information flow and capital flow, as well as the creation of UGC strategy communities, may be the development direction of this field. Despite the challenges that still exist, cryptocurrency, as an open innovation space, will continue to thrive.