A decentralized finance protocol is a financial application that does not rely on or require its users to trust a central intermediary. This is often achieved by building the protocol using immutable smart contracts that run on a distributed network. In YieldBlox's case, it operates using smart contracts built with the Stellar Turrets smart contract engine. There is no central organization that controls YieldBlox and no organization YieldBlox relies on to continue operating. This means that YieldBlox is non-custodial, trust-minimized, and censorship-resistant.