Glossary
Compound
One of DeFi's original lending protocols — pioneered algorithmic interest rates, cTokens as interest-bearing receipts, and the COMP-distribution liquidity-mining era.
Compound launched on Ethereum mainnet in 2018, defining many of the patterns later imitated across DeFi: a single pool per asset, algorithmically set borrow/supply rates based on utilization, cTokens as interest-bearing receipts for deposits.
Compound's June 2020 distribution of COMP tokens to users of the protocol kicked off DeFi Summer and the liquidity-mining template that became industry standard. Compound III ("Comet") restructured into single-borrowable-asset markets, taking a different path than Aave's multi-collateral pools.