You might have read the bold statement, "the future of finance will be decentralised". The path of innovation that will take us there is Decentralised Finance, commonly referred to as DeFi.

To quantify the impact of DeFi, and understand the value it provides, there is a need to simply and efficiently analyse the industry. This quest led to the metric that defined the crypto wave of 2020/2021; that metric is ‘TVL’ - total value locked. TVL represents the total capital assets secured by smart contracts of a particular protocol, built on the Ethereum blockchain. The motivations for people to commit their digital assets to a DeFi protocol are the trust minimised environment and competitive returns.

Any analysis and discussion of TVL should involve a familiarisation with DeFi Pulse, a beating heart of the ecosystem and quickly establishing itself as the authority on TVL. Tracer has been decentralised since inception, so it is fitting that it should find a partner in the media space that also holds this tenet to be so foundational.

DeFi Pulse ranks DeFi protocols according to the TVL in the smart contracts of popular DeFi applications and protocols. Beyond rankings of DeFi protocols, DeFi Pulse curates resources to help drive education on key topics within the DeFi space. These topics include stablecoins, lending protocols, the best yielding opportunities for liquidity providers and interviews with the people behind the protocols, to ensure the community are informed on the opportunities and challenges which lay ahead.

DeFi Pulse gives the DeFi community the opportunity to transparently see the operations, capital flows and depth of the financial institutions of today. DeFi Pulse don't report it quarterly. DeFi Pulse report it every hour. A refreshing shift.

On 20 April 2021, Tracer DAO received a Proposal to engage DeFi Pulse as a Service Provider. On 5 May 2021, the Proposal successfully passed a vote by Tracer DAO Governors, to make the partnership official.

The partnership between Tracer DAO and DeFi Pulse enables Tracer to grow alongside DeFi pulse in the coming years, as the industry seeps into the mainstream. DeFi Pulse has an impressive track record of gaining attention and traction for other protocols in the space. DeFi Pulse Drops for Rari Capital and mStable helped boost TVL during launch, increased trading volume on FutureSwap in the Early Alpha, drove initiating trades on MCDEX, and helped Akropolis’s yield-farming aggregator tool - Delphi and Balancer boost TVL.

In its partnership with Tracer DAO, DeFi Pulse has committed to delivering the following, at a minimum:

• Communication of important updates and support on Twitter, to DeFi Pulse's >100k followers;
• Hosting, publishing and moderating five AMAs (Ask Me Anything) to cover important new features and milestones of Tracer;
• Promotional display advertising on DeFi Pulse website, that will continue to drive traffic to Tracer;
• DeFi Pulse blog posts each month, for 12-months, to continue education for the community;
• Newsletter sponsorships each month, for 12-months, to reach qualified people interested in DeFi; and
• A featured "DeFi Pulse Drop", which as referenced in examples with Rari Capital and mStable, has the potential to activate the DeFi community and drive early engagement and commitments in a protocol.

Tracer DAO is excited to work with DeFi Pulse in its mission to grow the financial literacy of people globally and provide world class financial infrastructure. You can follow DeFi Pulse on Twitter or visit their site.