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About DeFiScan
DeFiScan is an open-source platform dedicated to analyzing and rating the decentralization level of DeFi protocols. It is maintained by the DeFi Collective, a non-profit organization, and its codebase is forked from L2BEAT's monitoring and discovery tools. The platform provides detailed assessments of protocol governance, admin keys, and permission structures, helping users understand the actual control and trust assumptions behind decentralized applications. It also publishes methodology documents and protocol reports on its website. The project has evolved into a second version (V2) that introduces automated review processes and continuous monitoring capabilities. While the platform aims to increase transparency in the DeFi ecosystem, it primarily relies on manual analysis and community contributions, which may lead to delays in covering newly launched protocols. No major negative incidents have been reported in the past two years, but the coverage is limited to protocols that have been reviewed, and the rating criteria are subject to interpretation. Overall, DeFiScan serves as a useful reference for researchers and users who want to verify the decentralization claims of DeFi projects.
DeFiScan, launched by the DeFi Collective, aims to assess the decentralization level of DeFi protocols in a verifiable manner. Its framework categorizes protocols into stages from Stage 0 (fully centralized) to Stage 2 (no training wheels), introducing key metrics such as security councils and exit windows. In December 2024, DeFiScan updated its methodology to refine scoring for centralization risks of dependencies and adjusted security council requirements (e.g., proportion of non-insider signers). In March 2025, it further revised the framework to expand the security council's role to overseeing governance exit windows, and released DeFiScan V2, built on L2BEAT's discovery and continuous monitoring technology, enabling automated review and real-time monitoring. These evolutions transform decentralization assessment from static ratings to a dynamic, verifiable system, providing users with more transparent risk references and prompting the industry to scrutinize "pseudo-decentralization."
Over the past six months, DeFiScan (by DeFi Collective) has focused on maturing its second-generation framework, DeFiScan V2, which is built on L2BEAT's discovery and continuous monitoring monorepo. Key developments include expanded automation for protocol permission scanning, AI-assisted detection of owner paths, and enhanced call graph analysis via Slither integration, enabling more efficient reviewing of a wider range of DeFi protocols. The team also advanced its scoring and review tooling (Scoring UI, review builder/compiler) and strengthened continuous monitoring infrastructure, including contract tags and funds tracking. DeFiScan remains a non-profit public good funded by grants (e.g., Ethereum Foundation) and donations, with the DeFi Collective covering remaining expenses. Official roadmap priorities emphasize deepening decentralization assessments across governance, autonomy, accessibility, and operational dimensions; scaling community-driven protocol reviews through its bounty program; and further automating monitoring to reduce manual review workload. The project is actively maintained on GitHub (defiscan-v2, MIT license) with ongoing contributions from a dedicated researcher-developer team.
TokenBrice is a co-founder of DeFiScan. He is an active DeFi user and builder, also co-founding Polaris and The DeFi Collective. He has been involved in the DeFi space since the early days of MakerDAO, sharing insights through his blog and live shows. His focus is on promoting decentralized stablecoins and supporting anti-fragile DeFi protocols.