DeFi has a language pet peeve. Aave's general council has instructed not to use the word "platform"

"It's not what you say, it's how you say it" is the idea that your level of assurance can make an impact than your actual words. Although that might be the case in some circumstances, it isn't the case when discussing ideas related to decentralized finance, or "DeFi."

The terminology we employ for DeFi must convey the key distinctions between the DeFi system and the traditional financial system. This is especially important right now as legislators throughout the world concentrate on DeFi or decentralized finance, a relatively new phenomenon, to comprehend and control it. DeFi's language pet peeve is for real. When it comes to words demonstrating how DeFi is not TradFi, it's "not how you say it, it's what you say," writes Aave's general counsel, Rebecca Rettig. The Aave Companies, a collection of software development firms that provide blockchain-based applications for Web3, are led by Rebecca Rettig.

The DeFi companies also refer to their goods as "platforms." In DeFi, the word "platform" has no practical significance. It is a "protocol" if you're referring to an operating DeFi system, which is a collection of smart contracts outlining pre-written rules for financial transactions.

There aren't any situations in which you should describe yourself as "working for a protocol"; you can't be employed by an independent piece of software. You are mucking up the decentralization aspect if you mix up where and for whom you work. In other words, if you claim to work for a protocol that is now managed by a DAO but works for a lab, you are confusing what the protocol's DevCo [development firm] does for the protocol or, in the case of decentralization, what it does not do.

We are capable of using language more effectively, and this young, thriving technology deserves it. If "DeFi" does not fill your heart with joy, hope, and inspiration, as Erik Voorhees put it, you are missing something.