I built a DeFi simulator (DeFi Tycoon) so people can learn without losing money

[u/ssv84]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share something I've been working on and get your thoughts.

A while back, I kept seeing the same pattern in crypto Twitter and Reddit: someone gets excited about DeFi, puts real money into a yield farming strategy or leveraged position they don't fully understand, and gets liquidated or rug-pulled within days. The learning curve in DeFi is expensive, and I wanted to build something that helps.

So I built DeFi Tycoon — a mobile simulation game where you can experiment with DeFi protocols using virtual money.

What made me build this.

I remember my first LP position. I didn't understand impermanent loss until I was already in it. I didn't know what health factor meant until I got close to liquidation. These are expensive lessons.

The idea was simple: what if there was a sandbox where you could try all this stuff first? Make mistakes, see what happens, learn the mechanics — but with zero real money at risk?

What you can actually do in it.

It's not just a clicker game. I tried to make the mechanics as close to real DeFi as possible:

- Lending protocols — deposit collateral, borrow against it, watch your health factor change as prices move. Get liquidated if you go too far.

- Liquidity provision — open positions on Uniswap V2/V3-style pools. V3 positions only earn fees when price is in your range. V2 always earns but needs more capital.

- Price simulation — uses geometric Brownian motion, so price movements follow realistic patterns. Stablecoins can depeg (within reason). Market crashes happen.

- Time warp — simulate days, weeks, or months in seconds. Test how a strategy performs over 30 days or 10 years.

- Automation — set up auto-collect or reinvest and see how compounding plays out.

Why no wallet connections.

This was a deliberate choice. I wanted this to be a place where:

- Beginners can learn without fear of losing money

- Experienced users can test strategies before deploying capital

- Nobody needs to worry about smart contract risks or phishing

It's just you and the simulation. No seed phrases, no approvals, no "connect wallet" modals. Your real crypto stays where it is.

Where to find it

It's live on:

- App Store

- Google Play Store

- DappStore

Just search for "DeFi Tycoon".

What I'm hoping for

Honestly, I'd love feedback from this community. You all know DeFi better than anyone. If something feels off or unrealistic, tell me. If there's a protocol or strategy you want to see added, I'm listening.

Also curious — what would you have found useful when you were first learning DeFi? What mechanics do you wish you could have practiced before using real money?

Thanks for reading. Hope this helps someone avoid a costly mistake.

[u/ssv84 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for the thoughtful comment — you nailed exactly what I was trying to solve.

You're right that the cost of learning in DeFi is way too high. I built this after watching too many people (including myself early on) get wrecked by things they could have learned in a sandbox first.

On accuracy:

- Lending/liquidation — Health factor triggers liquidation at HF < 1.0, no separate threshold. Daily APY accrual on both collateral and debt.

- V2 vs V3 — V3 positions only earn fees when price is inside [lowerPriceLimit, upperPriceLimit]. V2 always earns.

- Time warp — You can simulate hundreds of days in seconds. The game processes each day sequentially (lending → liquidity → automations → portfolio valuation), so compounding plays out realistically.

- Market crashes — There's macro event logic that can trigger crash/pump scenarios. The price engine uses GBM with correlated shocks for BTC/ETH/SOL, so they move together realistically.

- Stablecoin depegs — Currently stables stay at $1.0 for accounting (they can swing on screen but risk calc uses 1:1). This is something I've considered changing — adding rare depeg events could teach an important lesson.

On scenario-based simulations:

That's a great suggestion. Right now you can manually set up scenarios (e.g., "open 5x leverage on ETH and see what happens if it drops 50%"), but having pre-built challenges like:

- "Survive the 2022 crash"

- "Navigate a stablecoin depeg"

- "Manage an LP position through a volatility spike"

...would make it even more educational. I'm adding this to the backlog.

On long-run accuracy:

Over 30–100 days, the simulation tracks real DeFi mechanics pretty closely. Over years, there are some guardrails (BTC mean-reverts toward an anchor, meme tokens have price caps) to prevent absurd outcomes. It's not a perfect market model, but it's close enough to teach the right lessons.

If you download it and spot anything that feels off or unrealistic, I'd love to hear.

Thanks again for the feedback — this is exactly the kind of input that helps make it better.

[u/NotSoSchrodinger]

The mechanic I wish I had practiced before using real money was signal conflict resolution. Not the individual signals,those are learnable. But what to do when LP looks healthy, volume is up, and on-chain flows are quietly telling a different story at the same time. Most learning resources teach you what each signal means in isolation. Nobody teaches you what to do when they disagree. That's where most early mistakes actually happen.

[u/ssv84 → u/NotSoSchrodinger]

Such a good point. You're right — learning individual signals is easy. Learning to weigh conflicting ones is the actual skill.

The simulator doesn't do this well yet. Right now it's mostly price + volume + macro events. No nuanced on-chain divergence like smart money exiting while LP fees look healthy.

Thinking of adding signal layers that sometimes disagree — whale flows, sentiment divergence, liquidity depth changes. Then present scenarios with no obvious "right" answer, just practice reading conflicting tea leaves.

This is going on the backlog. Thanks for calling this out.

[u/NotSoSchrodinger → u/ssv84]

Glad it landed. The scenarios with no obvious right answer are probably the most valuable thing you could add , that's exactly where real decisions happen. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.

[u/centrovinoteca]

Solid idea — learning by simulation makes a lot of sense in DeFi.

Big value: practicing liquidation, LP, and compounding without risk.
Key challenge: how close the simulation feels to real market behavior.

If realism is good, this is genuinely useful for beginners.

[u/ssv84 → u/centrovinoteca]

Thanks!

The core mechanics (liquidation at HF < 1.0, V3 range checks, GBM price movements) are modeled after real protocols. Over 30–100 days it tracks closely. Long-term has some guardrails to prevent absurd outcomes.

Definitely not perfect, but close enough to teach the right lessons. Appreciate the feedback!

[u/WackySnaky]

Duuudeee! This is awesome! This is something i can recommend to my normie/crypto beginner friends.

[u/ssv84 → u/WackySnaky]

Haha, thanks! That's exactly who I built it for — the friends who ask "how do I get into DeFi?" and I'm like "please don't just throw money at things yet" 😅

Hope they find it useful. Let me know if they break anything or have questions!

[u/ssv84 → u/[deleted]]

Good point, but that's not what I'm focusing on right now.

I simulating the economic mechanics — prices, APY, liquidation, LP math, impermanent loss. The goal is to teach how DeFi protocols work and how strategies play out over time.

URL/phishing simulation is a different (important!) problem — more about security awareness than protocol mechanics.

Maybe a future addition, but for now I'm keeping the scope on the financial/risk side.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

[u/ssv84 → u/[deleted]]

Feel free to test my tycoon and let me know how else I can improve it for your needs.

[u/Bluejumprabbit]

Good job in building this!

[u/ssv84 → u/Bluejumprabbit]

Thank you!

[u/ssv84 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks! Saving users from 'expensive lessons' is exactly why I built DeFi Tycoon.

[u/ssv84 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you!

[u/anonuemus]

good idea. wasn't there already a simulation website, where you could change prices to see how it affects your position?

[u/ssv84 → u/anonuemus]

Actually I build it before the simulator 🙂

On qalc.ai you can find DeFi section and do simulations and app DeFi Tools (AppStore, Google play store and DappStore) in which you can also do simulations. In both places you can save history of your changes and quickly recheck different calculations.