Attack vectors that don't require a bug. This lesson sits inside Module I — The risk catalogue — of DeFi Risk, the course that anchors the Decentralized Finance program. It is not a survey; it is the specific, working understanding of "Economic risk" that the rest of the course assumes you carry forward.
- 01Define Economic risk in the precise sense used across DeFi Risk.
- 02Recognize when Economic risk is the correct lens for the situation in front of you, and when it is not.
- 03Apply Economic risk to a concrete case drawn from The risk catalogue, and defend the result in plain language.
- 04Connect Economic risk to the adjacent lessons in this module without collapsing the distinctions between them.
The idea, stated plainly
Attack vectors that don't require a bug. That single sentence is the whole lesson in compressed form. The rest of the reading unfolds it — what it means when the terms are taken seriously, where it comes from, and what work it does inside DeFi Risk. Read the sentence, then read it again after the sections below; it should carry more weight the second time.
Why it belongs in The risk catalogue
Module I exists because every category. "Economic risk" is one of the pillars of that module: without it, the later lessons either become memorization or lose their bite. Notice which earlier lessons this one leans on, and which later lessons will lean on it — the shape of the module is easier to see once you place this piece.
How the School of Blockchain faculty use it
In practice, working school of blockchain professionals reach for this idea before they reach for a formula or a tool. It is a way of framing the problem so that the right question comes first. The mark of understanding is not that you can recite Economic risk; it is that you catch yourself using it, unprompted, when the situation calls for it.
Common misreadings
The most frequent error is to treat Economic risk as a slogan and skip the mechanics. The second most frequent is the opposite — treating the mechanics as the point, when the mechanics are only there to make the idea usable. Both errors collapse the same distinction, and both are correctable by returning to the one-line summary and asking what it actually claims.
- Economic risk is a working tool, not a slogan.
- Its meaning is set by the module it lives in: The risk catalogue.
- Understanding is demonstrated by unprompted use in the correct situation.
- The adjacent lessons in this module are its natural context; read them together.
- 407 — DeFi Risk, Module I: The risk catalogue — The parent module for this lesson. Re-read the module blurb after finishing the lesson.
- The Anabasis Academy — School of Blockchain, Decentralized Finance — The wider program this lesson serves; the Certificate in DeFi (Practitioner tier). credential ultimately certifies mastery of ideas like this one.