The crypto ecosystem is the financial infrastructure behind digital assets. It connects blockchains, wallets, exchanges, stablecoins, smart contracts, and service providers into one system for moving and programming value online. 

Decentralised finance (DeFi) is a system of financial services that runs on public blockchains instead of through banks and regulated intermediaries.

This article walks through what on-chain and off-chain transactions are, how they work, where each one is the right fit, and what businesses should think about before picking a side.

Stablecoin smart contracts let a business send a dollar-equivalent payment that settles in minutes, splits across recipients on its own, or releases only when delivery is confirmed.