Boxmining

Category: Yield Farming

Yield Farming is a popular method for cryptocurrency owners to potentially gain passive income. This craze started in Summer 2020 and involves taking advantage of various incentives rewards for locking-up (aka staking) different cryptocurrencies.

  • YFII Yield Farming – the controversial $YFI fork

    YFII Yield Farming – the controversial $YFI fork

    YFII (now formally known as DFI.Money) is a fork of the yEarn project (YFI) which offers a different token distribution model where token emissions are halved every week (YIP-8). This economic design encourages active participation in the mining of $YFII whilst allowing late-comers to still earn rewards. YFII functions as a governance token for the community – as tokens are required to vote on new decisions and implementations. As of this article, over $150 Million USD has been locked under the YFII pool 1– signifying the development of a strong community.

    YFII is designed to have 3 different pools with each distributing 10,000 tokens on the first week of release (July 27th), with the amount halving every subsequent week.

    The developers originally intended to implement this change via a governance vote “YIP8” – however, this was not passed by the community. This has led the creation of the YFII fork which directly implements a weekly halving model for YIP emissions. This has led to growing support for the project, especially in the Chinese community. $YFII shares a 98% code similarity to YFI, with the key difference being the “halvening” added clause – for more information check this comparison.

    YFII governance interface is also a fork of Ygov.finance

    YFII Launch controversies

    The launch of YFII was controversial and initially met with scam accusations – as the western community feared YFII was an exit scam. This was mostly due to the presence of potential back-doors such a “minter” and “governance” addresses that could create any number of new tokens (infinite token risk). These issues were later resolved by the burning of the “governance address” and clarification of the “minter” addresses.

    Metamask Phishing Detection Warning

    Is it Safe to Yield Farm YFII

    YFII is offering very high returns on investment, with pool 2 offering more than 2000% as of this article. The important question now is if it is safe to yield farm YFII. Metamask has issued Phishing warnings for the YFII site, likely a result of initial ‘report’ submissions warnings against the project.

    The key point of contention was the presence of an ‘owner key’ which could have been used to create an infinite supply of YFII. This issue has been corrected by the community after the owner key was burned – meaning that no new tokens can be created without the community agreeing to it via governance votes. There have also been a few alarms raised by the Balancer project, where the YFII-DAI pool was deleted temporarily.

    The Chinese Wechat community has been fast to call out against un-founded pre-justices against the project. Many have called Balancer centralized and potentially untrustworthy after these accusations/frontend censorship.

    https://twitter.com/FinanceYfii/status/1288405347976192000?s=20

    There is definitely a lot of risks using YFII – as with all decentralized finance projects and smart contracts.

    Two Pools

    Currently there are two pools to farm $YFI token – each has a distribution of 10,000 per week – decreasing by half every week (see chart below).

    To find out more about the estimated Annual Percentage Yield (APY) generated by YFII farming, check out the farming tool by Weeb https://yieldfarming.info/yfii/ycrv/

    How do you yield farm YFII

    *NOTE: Yield farming is extremely dangerous and can include risks such as infinite mint / smart contract vulnerabilities / token price volatility. This activity is not SAFE and should be viewed as EXTREMELY experimental. You have been warned*

    There are three different methods to mine YFII – all of them give different yields of YFII and have different associated risks. It’s not necessary to learn all of the methods – rather it’s important to understand they have different risk profiles.

    1. POOL 1: This uses the yCurve tokens generated on https://www.curve.fi/iearn.
      1. Log onto https://www.curve.fi/iearn
      2. On the Deposit page, deposit either USDT, USDC, TUSD or DAI
      3. This will generate yCurve tokens
      4. Stake yCurve Tokens on https://yfii.finance/#/ in the “yearn” pool
      5. RISKS: Y Curve Pool uses stable coins and automatically invests them into different protocols. This is considered high risk as any vulnerabilities in any of the protocols can lead to theft of funds.
    2. Pool 2: This uses Balancer’s 98% DAI: 2% YFFI liquidity pool
      1. Stake either YFII or DAI in the Balancer Liquidity Pool https://pools.balancer.exchange/#/pool/0x16cAC1403377978644e78769Daa49d8f6B6CF565
      2. This will generate BPT tokens
      3. Stake BPT tokens on https://yfii.finance/#/ in “Balancer (YFII-DAI)” Pool
      4. RISKS: Funds will be used to automate market making – meaning if the is a sudden large sell of YFII, then DAI tokens will be used to buy the YFII. This means price drops/volatility of YFII is a can lead to a reduction of pooled assets.
    3. Pool 3: Staking YFII in the “governance” Pool

    After successful staking, you should be able to see “rewards available” increase over time with more YFFI tokens. Tokens can be claimed at any time using “claim rewards”. On top of this, staking staked tokens can also be unstaked at any time with no lockup.

    YFII Governance

    During the bootstrap phase of YFII, the developers have chosen to use a multi-signature governance model where power is shared between 11 signatories. For a resolution to be passed and enforced, 7 out of the 11 signatories need to approve the action using a gnosis-vault. This is a temporary measure that improves the speed of contract deployment whilst power is transitioned to the YFII governance DAO (YFII voters get to vote on what to implement). More information can be found about the 11 signers & twitter verification here: https://keys.yfii.finance.

    YFII distribution

    YFII distribution chart

    YFII Wechat Group (Chinese)

    YFII community has a large Wechat group. To find the group, search myGrassU and type 3 to receive an invite into the group. In an open letter from the YFII community, the creator of YFI was officially acknowledged with a badass photo.

    YFII lists on Binance

    Binance listed DFI.Money (YFII) on 1st September 2020 with the following trading pairs: YFII/BNB, YFII/BTC, YFII/BUSD and YFII/USDT. No listing fees were paid by YFII for this listing- clearly Binance listed YFII in response to the overwhelming popularity with DeFi farmers and enthusiasts. Popularity and community is a huge factor taken into Binance when deciding what to list, as revealed by Co-Founder and CEO Chengpeng Zhao (CZ) during our interview.

    YFII’s listing on Binance gave them a huge boost, pretty much doubling the token’s value to over USD$8,000 in just one day.

    FAQ

    Is YFII Safe?

    YFII has similar contracts to Synthetix and YFI – so it’s not a total scam. However, it has yet to be proven if YFII is safe due to potential mart contract vulnerabilities. YFII has not yet been audited

    How do I add to the Balancer Pool 2

    Unfortunate Balancer has removed the add liquidity feature on the Pool (due to fears of potential infinite minting risk). To add to Pool 2 you need to use the balancer fork provided by YFII

    Where do I find the latest stats on YFII farming

    You can use an unofficial too provided by WeeMcGee – https://yieldfarming.info/yfii/ycrv/

    Decentralised Finance (DeFi) series: tutorials, guides and more

    With content for both beginners and more advanced users, check out our YouTube DeFi series containing tutorials on the ESSENTIAL TOOLS you need for trading in the DeFi space e.g. MetaMask and Uniswap. As well as a deep dive into popular DeFi topics such as decentralized exchanges, borrowing-lending platforms and NFT marketplaces

    The DeFi series on this website also covers topics not explored on YouTube. For an introduction on what is DeFi, check out Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Overview: A guide to the HOTTEST trend in cryptocurrency

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

    More videos and articles are coming soon as part of our DeFi series, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube channel so you can be notified as soon as they come out!

    Resources:

    1. INFO : https://medium.com/@WhiteNoise1984/yfii-innovative-decentralized-defi-mining-pool-d745c032dfc0
    2. POOL : https://pools.balancer.exchange/#/pool/0x16cAC1403377978644e78769Daa49d8f6B6CF565
    3. FORK : https://bal.yfii.finance/#/pool/0x16cAC1403377978644e78769Daa49d8f6B6CF565 (Unofficial fork of Balancer pool. Use at your own risk.)
    4. STAKE : https://yfii.finance/
      CONTRACT : 0xAFfcD3D45cEF58B1DfA773463824c6F6bB0Dc13a
    5. how to see rewards btw https://yieldfarming.info/yfii/yfii_dai/

    YFII Announcement: https://medium.com/@WhiteNoise1984/yfii-innovative-decentralized-defi-mining-pool-d745c032dfc0
    YFII Token Address: 0xa1d0E215a23d7030842FC67cE582a6aFa3CCaB83

    Unofficial Yield Farming Info:

    Pool1: https://yieldfarming.info/yfii/ycrv/
    Pool2: https://yieldfarming.info/yfii/yfii_dai/

    Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. (Acetaminophen) As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

  • YFFI Yield Farming – did we finally find the best $YFI fork?

    YFFI Yield Farming – did we finally find the best $YFI fork?

    YFFI is a YEarn inspired governance token that is rewarded to cryptocurrency yield farmers (also known as liquidity miners). Due to the rising popularity of yield farming and the $YFI token, projects have taken the opportunity to create alternatives that can appeal to different communities. YFFI is one of such forks and it labels itself as “You Finally Found It – the Freshest Crops in Town”. This variant includes code similar to YFII, which halves new token distribution every week.

    YFFI claims that the ability to create new tokens has been destroyed by setting the “reward” address to 0000000. We haven’t fully looked at the code and there could be additional undiscovered vulnerabilities.

    Low Supply Warning

    The reason why YFI coins are highly volatile is due to the extremely slow initial supplies of the coins. As there is no pre-mine, team tokens and minting, the initially supply will only be from yield farmers. This means that in the first few days, supply will be extremely low, but increasing dramatically at 100% per day. This leads to wild swings in price and high volatility.

    How do you yield farm YFFI

    *NOTE: Yield farming is extremely dangerous and can include risks such as infinite mint / smart contract vulnerabilities / token price volatility. This activity is not SAFE and should be viewed as EXTREMELY experimental. You have been warned*

    YFFI can be mine using two major methods, each with different risks and steps:

    1. POOL 1: This uses the yCurve tokens generated on https://www.curve.fi/iearn.
      1. Log onto https://www.curve.fi/iearn
      2. On the Deposit page, deposit either USDT, USDC, TUSD or DAI
      3. This will generate yCurve tokens
      4. Stake yCurve Tokens on https://www.yffi.finance/ in the “yearn” pool
      5. RISKS: Y Curve Pool uses stable coins and automatically invests them into different protocols. This is considered high risk as any vulnerabilities in any of the protocols can lead to theft of funds.
    2. Pool 2: This uses Balancer’s 98% DAI: 2% YFFI liquidity pool
      1. Stake either YFFI or DAI in the Balancer Liquidity Pool https://pools.balancer.exchange/#/pool/0xFe793bC3D1Ef8d38934896980254e81d0c5F6239
      2. This will generate BPT tokens
      3. Stake BPT tokens on https://www.yffi.finance/ in “Balancer (YFFI-DAI)” Pool

    After successful staking, you should be able to see “rewards available” increase over time with more YFFI tokens. Tokens can be claimed at any time using “claim rewards”. On top of this, staking staked tokens can also be unstaked at any time with no lockup

    Premine accusations & resolution

    Premine accusations – YFFI was accused of having early pre-mine due to the early stages where the pools only had 7 different participants with 10yCRV each. This means that early rewards were split between very few people, allowing them to accrue higher rewards. To address these issues, the admins have decided to burn 175 YFI that was mined during the early stages.

    Decentralised Finance (DeFi) series: tutorials, guides and more

    With content for both beginners and more advanced users, check out our YouTube DeFi series containing tutorials on the ESSENTIAL TOOLS you need for trading in the DeFi space e.g. MetaMask and Uniswap. As well as a deep dive into popular DeFi topics such as decentralized exchanges, borrowing-lending platforms and NFT marketplaces

    The DeFi series on this website also covers topics not explored on YouTube. For an introduction on what is DeFi, check out Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Overview: A guide to the HOTTEST trend in cryptocurrency

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

    More videos and articles are coming soon as part of our DeFi series, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube channel so you can be notified as soon as they come out!

    Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

  • YF Link ($YFL): Combining the best of Chainlink ($LINK) and Yearn Finance ($YFI)?

    YF Link ($YFL): Combining the best of Chainlink ($LINK) and Yearn Finance ($YFI)?

    YF Link ($YFL) combines Chainlink’s $LINK token with Yearn Finance $YFI’s yield farming/liquidity mining mechanics. The premise of this project was so it would be adapted it for use by Chainlink enthusiasts, known as “Link Marines”. Considering the LINK token itself has done quite well in 2020 so far with prices going from $2 to $15, both Link Marines and other cryptocurrency enthusiasts, of course, are interested in what YF Link is and what it had to offer. So in this article, we will take a look at the background of YF Link, the functions of, and how to get their native $YFL token.

    Background and History of YF Link

    YF Link was forked from Yearn.Finance’s ($YFI) Yearn contract by switching it to accept LINK instead of yCRV tokens. It is a community-based project started by Chainlink enthusiasts, specfically, by a “Bobby Shaftoe” and 4 other anonymous developers who announced the existence of the project and its details in a Medium post “The Idea of YFLINK is Born” on 7th August 2020. Since LINK tokens were required to be locked up to generate yield, it is thought that the launch of YF Link had a positive influence on LINK prices as the demand for these tokens increased. Indeed in the few days following the Medium post, prices for $LINK almost doubled.

    YF Link in a nutshell (Image credit: YFLINK)

    Precursor – Yearn.Finance ($YFI)

    The precursor to YF Link, Yearn Finance (YFI), was launched by Andre Cronje on 17 July 2020 as an experiment in yield farming and liquidity mining. It works by allowing the users to provide funds to a smart contract, which are then automatically distributed between dYdX, Aave, and Compound lending protocols, optimized for maximum yield.

    In return, the users earn yield profits and acquire YFI tokens. The YFI token is used for governance. The total YFI tokens in existence are 30,000.

    Learn more about Andre Cronje’s insights on the DeFi space in his interview with FTX exchange.

    How does YF Link work?

    YF Link’s YFL token provides liquidity to LINK pools on multiple Decentralised Finance (DeFi) protocols such as Aave, Balancer, and Curve Finance. Users provide funds by depositing them into these protocols, which then generate yield profits for the depositors. These users i.e. liquidity providers also receive YFL tokens as a reward, in turn, these YFL tokens can be traded on exchanges such as Uniswap.

    The amount of rewards depends on the amount of liquidity provided and the duration which they are staked. And although users funds are locked in, they can be withdrawn at any time.

    Alternatively, some people simply speculate on YFL tokens and trade them on exchanges.

    The Concepts

    The two underlying concepts used in YF Link are yield farming and liquidity mining. They both work together in synergy to incentivize users to provide liquidity. As we will see later, these 2 concepts come together to enable farmers to earn rewards and potentially gain from these activities.

    Yield Farming

    Yield farming is a method of using otherwise idle assets for beneficial purposes. It involves taking assets from users, lending them to different protocols, in exchange for gaining more assets than initially provided.

    Liquidity Mining

    Liquidity mining is a variation of yield farming, which allows liquidity providers to gain another governance asset, alongside their usual yield rewards.

    The YFL Token

    The $YFL token is the native token for YF Link with a maximum supply of 75,000 tokens. It must be noted that even creators of YF Link have said that the token should be valued at ZERO.

    The YFL token is supposed to be used for governance purposes, i.e. it lets holders submit proposals to vote and make decisions. For example, one of the first governance proposals is to have a LINK meme competition.

    At the outset, a total of 6 pools were emitting YFL tokens, with various parameters. The emission of tokens will last around 15 weeks with most of the emissions occurring in the first 4 weeks. After the YF Link contracts were deployed, the creators burned the contract keys so that no one can change this emission schedule.

    YF Link Pools: What’s the difference?

    As mentioned in the above section, when the YF Link contracts were first deployed, a total of 6 pools would emit YFL tokens. Note that as at 22 August 2020, pools 0, 1 and 2 have exhausted their YFL rewards, this means you cannot mint any new YFL tokens by staking in these pools.

    Pool 0 also called the Genesis pool (15,000 YFL tokens available)— users provide LINK and YFL is returned. This pool has exhausted its YFL rewards.

    Pool 1 LINK Balancer pool (15,000 YFL tokens available)— users provide LINK and YFL is sent to a Balancer pool. Users get BPT tokens and provide them to the YF Link pool. YFL and BAL are then returned. This pool has exhausted its YFL rewards.

    Pool 2 yCRV Balancer pool (15,000 YFL tokens available)— uses yCRV. Returns include YFL, BAL, interest from Curve Protocol, and CRV tokens. This pool has exhausted its YFL rewards.

    Pool 3 LINK Aave pool (15,000 YFL tokens available)— users provide LINK and deposit it to Aave.com to get aLINK tokens. Then you get those aLINK tokens and deposit it in an aLINK Balancer pool with YFL. From this, users will get BPT tokens which they can stake in the YFL pool. In the end, users can earn YFL, BAL and AAVE interest.

    Pool 4 Governance staking pool (20,000 YFL tokens available) — This pool will go live at 26 Aug 2020 at 1400 (UTC). Users have to stake YFL, in order to be able to vote in the Governance contract for the duration of the vote. Users are rewarded with more YFL tokens.

    Pool 5 Unintended pool (5,000 YFL tokens available)— the team deployed this pool accidentally. The creators will mine from this pool to fulfill their early mining program obligations and potentially other purposes which are to be announced.

    Conclusion

    YF Link is an interesting variant of Yearn.Finance. It is likely to enhance the utility and the liquidity of the LINK tokens as well. Some analysts are even terming it the “missing link” between the two most widely used DeFi protocols – Chainlink and Yearn.Finance.

    Since its deployment, the project has functioned normally without any bugs or exploits. It has amassed an impressive Total Value Locked (TVL) in a short period of time. It may even become the go-to protocol for people looking to stake LINK tokens for rewards in the future.

    Decentralised Finance (DeFi) series: tutorials, guides and more

    With content for both beginners and more advanced users, check out our YouTube DeFi series containing tutorials on the ESSENTIAL TOOLS you need for trading in the DeFi space e.g. MetaMask and Uniswap. As well as a deep dive into popular DeFi topics such as decentralized exchanges, borrowing-lending platforms and NFT marketplaces

    The DeFi series on this website also covers topics not explored on YouTube. For an introduction on what is DeFi, check out Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Overview: A guide to the HOTTEST trend in cryptocurrency

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

    More videos and articles are coming soon as part of our DeFi series, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube channel so you can be notified as soon as they come out!

    Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

  • YFV Finance Yield Farming

    YFV Finance Yield Farming

    YFV (YFValue) is a YEarn inspired governance token that is rewarded to cryptocurrency yield farmers (also known as liquidity miners). YFV functions as a DeFi Yield aggregator – they will release a “Vault” like product which will deploy different strategies to farm DeFi yields. $YFV in the governance coin on the platform which will be used to vote on Decentralized Autonomous Organisation (DAO) decisions. YFV sets itself apart by also minting two elastic supply coins, $vUSD, and $vETH – coins that will rebase to target the price of USD and Ethereum respectively. These tokens will function similar to “Ampleforth” in terms of rebasing functionality. The team behind the project has chosen to remain anonymous.

    The official website for YFV is https://yfv.finance.

    Summary

    • YFValue functions as a DeFi Yield aggregator, releasing a “vault”-like product which will deploy different strategies to farm DeFi yields.
    • There are 2 types of pools for $YFV farming: Seed Pool v2 and Balancer Pool.
    • Farming $YFV also generates $vUSD, and $vETH – these rebase to target the prices of USD and Ethereum respectively.
    • $YFV acts as a governance token for voting on decisions relating to the project. Some people also trade the token on exchanges.

    How do you farm $YFV

    Yield farmers can farm $YFV in two types of pools:

    Option 1: Seed Pool v2. This your classic yield farming pool – tokens are staked into the pool and $YFV will be distributed over time. There is no risk of impermanent loss

    1. Log onto https://yfv.finance/
    2. Connect your wallet
    3. On the “Seed Pool v2” page, deposit either USDT, USDC, TUSD or DAI (i.e. stablecoins)
    4. Click the Stake token button.

    Option 2: Balancer Pools. This is the higher risk pool, where funds are added to a Balancer liquidity pool. This means the funds will be actively used in automated market making and possibly risk impermanent loss. On YFV there is a total of 8 Balancer Pools. For the purposes of this tutorial, let’s look at the example of using the WETH Balancer Pool of WETH:YFV.

    1. Wrap Ethereum into $WETH using the ETH->WETH tool on the sidebar https://pools.balancer.exchange/#/pool/0x10DD17eCfc86101Eab956E0A443cab3e9C62d9b4
    2. Stake WETH & YFV in the Balancer Liquidity Pool https://pools.balancer.exchange/#/pool/0x10DD17eCfc86101Eab956E0A443cab3e9C62d9b4
    3. This will generate BPT tokens
    4. Stake BPT tokens on https://yfv.finance/stake in “Balancer (YFV-WETH)” Pool

    How to claim your YFV

    On the main page, you will easily be able to see how much you have staked into each pool, how much YFV is claimable and the ROI in USD.

    YFV pools
    YFV pools
    • To claim your rewards, click into the pool. There you will see several important items of information:
    • Next Epoch: When your next rewards will be paid out.
    • Your Estimated 24h Reward: Estimated earnings of YFV in 24 hours.
    • Rewards available: How many YFV tokens are available for collection.
    Staking pool (Image credit: Denome)

    You can claim your YFV rewards by simply clicking “Claim Rewards”. However, this requires gas fees so you need to consider the gas fees paid to stake your tokens in the first place etc and decide if it is actually worthwhile to collect your rewards.

    How are people profiting off YFV? What do I do with the YFV tokens?

    So what is the purpose of farming all these YFV tokens? YFV is the governance token of YF Value protocol. This means holders of the YFV token can use it to determinate and update the functionality of YFV protocol and change or update the rate of distribution of YFV tokens. Those that stake in YFV pools has the right to vote on-chain for the distribution rate. At the end of each week, the total votes will be automatically counted and the distribution rate of YFV will be automatically changed.

    On the other hand, you can also trade your tokens for ETH or USDT on exchanges such as Uniswap, Balancer, Hotbit, BKEX and Bilaxy. The below chart shows the value of YFV/USD.

    What is vUSD and vETH?

    As you can see in the above section “How to claim your YFV”, in addition to YFV tokens, staking YFV also gives you vUSD and vETH tokens. A total of 1,000,000 vUSD and 1,000 vETH will be distributed to all the yield farming pools according to their percentages. According to YFV, once all the pools have been exhausted of YFV, vUSD and vETH will use an oracle price feed to match the prices of USD and ETH. Similar to Ampleforth (AMPL), there will also be a rebase of vUSD and vETH every 24 hours.

    YFV Farming risks

    The biggest risk of YFV farming comes from potential vulnerabilities in the staking contract. on 30th August 2020 YFV announced that the audit of YFV Protocol had been successfully completed by The Arcadia Group. According to YFV, the audit identified a small number of low severity issues relating to code quality and health. No high or critical severity issues were found. The letter from Arcadia and a summary of the audit report can be found here.

    There is also the question of the limited supply of YFV tokens. There is only ever going to be 21,000,000 YFV tokens so some of the (perceived) value of the token is because of its limited supply. But what happens when every YFV token has been mined or distributed? This is unknown and it is worth noting that YFV is currently backed by any other asset.

    Minting Risks

    One of the biggest concerns about YFV was the presence of minter keys – which could potentially mint an infinite number of $YFV tokens. Developers have stated that all minter keys are burned, and pools which could mint new tokens have also had minting features removed.

    YFV had previously also confirmed and addressed community members’ concerns that there was a minting key oversight and exploit related to vUSD and vETH which would allow funds to be locked. What YFV did to remedy this was that they kept the minting keys until they were able to recover the funds that some users may have lost by farming in Pool 0. After that, the team transferred the governance keys of vETH and vUSD from YFV protocol to several members of the community to hold in safe custody. The community members selected were: Reuben Yap (COO of Zcoin), DeFi Dude, Matthew Neimerg (CEO of Cardinal Cryptography), TQT, Ian Ocasio and myself.

    More Information

    YFV Github
    YFV Medium and news
    YFV Telegram
    YFV Discord

    Decentralised Finance (DeFi) series: tutorials, guides and more

    With content for both beginners and more advanced users, check out our YouTube DeFi series containing tutorials on the ESSENTIAL TOOLS you need for trading in the DeFi space e.g. MetaMask and Uniswap. As well as a deep dive into popular DeFi topics such as decentralized exchanges, borrowing-lending platforms and NFT marketplaces

    The DeFi series on this website also covers topics not explored on YouTube. For an introduction on what is DeFi, check out Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Overview: A guide to the HOTTEST trend in cryptocurrency

    Tutorials and guides for the ESSENTIAL DEFI TOOLS:

    More videos and articles are coming soon as part of our DeFi series, so be sure to SUBSCRIBE to our Youtube channel so you can be notified as soon as they come out!

    Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

  • Stone DeFi ($STN): DeFi with rock solid yields?

    Stone DeFi ($STN): DeFi with rock solid yields?

    StoneDefi ($STN) considers itself the only yield management protocol which is focused on creating “Rock Solid Yield” for users of the decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

    Background

    StoneDefi was founded in September 2020 by Alex Lam. Previously, Lam had worked with government-affiliated Institutions before taking up a keen interest in cryptocurrency. He has so far become actively involved in the crypto world, building platforms to support investment pools, notably RockX.

    Rockx provides some degree of support to StoneDeFi thanks to Lam’s influence. However, StoneDefi is currently run by a team of about 7 people scattered across South-east Asia.

    In the later months of 2020, StoneDefi’s project caught the attention of Singapore-based Venture Capital, Signum Capital. The project then received early-stage funding from the VC of undisclosed value. Signum Capital exclusively deals with blockchain startups and innovations.

    Together with his team of finance and cryptocurrency experts, Lam guides StoneDefi as the project leads to becoming the only rock-solid yield management protocol for crypto assets.

    What is StoneDefi?

    StoneDefi, commonly referred to as Stone, is a yield management protocol that functions to ensure maximum returns for liquidity providers. It also secures capitals in asset pools and yield farms to safeguard investor’s interests in the DeFi sector.

    StoneDeFi was designed to create a “rock-solid” yield for DeFi investors. Stone differs from other yield aggregator platforms in the priority it gives to the credibility of investments. The protocol focuses on the viability and integrity of all digital assets over just the potential yield. 

    After all, the name “stone” comes from the idea of a rock-solid yield aggregator. 

    Most yield aggregators are notorious for their risky strategies endangering investor funds in high-risk pools. StoneDeFi’s developers see a far bigger future for DeFi and understand the role of investors in it. Therefore, their enduring emphasis on “rock-solid” yield to transform funding in the DeFi space from just speculations and get-rich-quick schemes into a credible institution.

    They are able to achieve this by carrying out thorough assessments of the sustainability and integrity of different investment pools. The protocol also carries out regular audits of active pools and yield farms to keep up with changes and safeguard investor funds. 

    By hedging single assets through indexes, the protocol is able to venture into more volatile pools while mitigating investors’ risk. Consequently, investors can enjoy a reliable and consistent passive income from liquidity pools through Stone’s protocol.

    Earn yield on Stone DeFi
    How to earn yield on Stone DeFi (Image credit: Stone DeFi)

    Liquid Staked Assets

    To ensure stable and maximum yield to users, StoneDefi has explored a number of alternative farming strategies. One of Stone’s more progressive strategies is staking in liquid assets. 

    Stone, in collaboration with platforms that generate staking derivatives (notably StaFi), has developed a way to use LP funds to create a flexible redemption for rigid PoS stakes. Stakers can redeem locked tokens for rTokens which can be subsequently traded on platforms like Uniswap while still accruing yield on their locked stakes.

    For the liquidity of staked assets to be viable, there must be a system by which the credibility of user funds is ascertained. Stone’s extensive assessment protocol plays a vital role in this phase. This flexibility would see tokens in sufficient circulation without inflation while accelerating its price discovery on DEX. 

    Users can also use staked tokens for other purposes, especially trading where they have access to their profits without the restrictions of the unbounding that can sometimes take up to 28 days.

    STN Token and The Stone DAO

    Just like other yield aggregators, StoneDefi has its own native token which is tied to most activities carried out on its platform. The Stone token or “STN” has a variety of functions that ensure smooth participation and exchange on StoneDefi. 

    STN’s most important function is to ensure effective protocol governance through its Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). Individuals who stake STN tokens are granted voting rights and the ability to propose adjustments in the way the protocol is run.

    This DAO approach seeks to ensure open and transparent governance of investor funds to counteract closed and centralized regulation, which is a common problem for yield aggregators.

    Stone’s token is also used to reward participation in investment pools. When Liquidity providers participate in different recommended pools, they are given different quantities of STN as acknowledgement and reward.

    However, not all pools attract the same number of STN tokens. Token rewards are distributed to encourage participation in less populated pools. This system of incentivizing smaller pools would ensure portfolio rebalancing. 

    Distribution of STN

    STN is also used for paying transfer fees in cross-chain executions, as well as standing as the security deposit in liquid staked assets. To prevent the devaluation of STN, a system where some percentage of STN tokens in the market are bought back to be burned is put in place. A percentage of the Stone platform’s fee income is used to fund the purchase of the STN tokens to be burnt.

    Conclusion

    While several yield management platforms have been successful in generating a consistent return for investors, one thing that they often get wrong is risking their user’s funds at the expense of high yields. This is symbolic of short-term thinking that could have dire consequences on the DeFi sector and possibly the entire crypto industry if asset pools are not given adequate risk assessments. 

    But with an innovative approach to yield management, StoneDefi is able to ensure maximum yield for users without having to risk user fund without cause. Their open and transparent method of governance through a DAO is also promising, giving investors the authority to contribute to the administration of their funds. 

    Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. (https://www.stocktargetadvisor.com/) Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

  • PancakeSwap ($CAKE) guide and tutorial

    PancakeSwap ($CAKE) guide and tutorial

    PancakeSwap is one of the most popular yield farming projects on Binance Smart Chain. However, beyond the usual yield farming method, PancakeSwap offers multiple products which users can maximize in order to leverage their holdings. This makes PancakeSwap is a strong competitor against similar projects in the space such as Uniswap.

    Check out or video on PancakeSwap yield farming strategies and particularly how to avoid impermanent loss!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCqAa6a5EQ8
    PancakeSwap yield farming strategies

    What is PancakeSwap?

    PancakeSwap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) platform that facilitates the trading of BEP-20 tokens. It implements an automated market maker (AMM) model to provide liquidity on peer-to-peer trades within the protocol.

    Through this model, PancakeSwap matches buy and sell orders from different platform users directly in a liquidity pool. The supply of tokens in this pool is provided by user deposits in a process called “staking.”

    When they stake tokens, PancakeSwap rewards them in return with a proportional amount of their share in the platform’s trading fees as well as liquidity provider (LP) tokens. The LP token that stakers will receive as an incentive will be the same asset that they supplied to the liquidity pool.

    But basically, it works closely similar to how Uniswap and SushiSwap works. Even its user interface looks almost the same. The difference lies in the yield strategy that anyone can take advantage of in the platform. When users stake, they also earn CAKE tokens.

    There are multiple liquidity pools where users can stake. Here are some examples for them:

    • CAKE-BNB
    • BUSD-BNB
    • BETH-ETH
    • USDT-BUSD
    • USDC-BUSD
    • DAI-BUSD
    • LINK-BUSD
    • TWT-BNB

    CAKE token: What is it?

    PancakeSwap token ($CAKE) is the platform’s native token. Users are rewarded with CAKE tokens for staking their funds on the platform. They can then stake their CAKE tokens to earn other types of tokens on special staking pools. The CAKE token is mainly for participating in community governance where users can vote on decisions relating to the direction or running of PancakeSwap.

    PancakeSwap Guide: How do you start using PancakeSwap and earn CAKE tokens?

    PancakeSwap is easy to use. First, you will have to visit their website at https://pancakeswap.finance/ and link your wallet there. You have the option to connect it to your MetaMask, Binance Chain Wallet, WalletConnect, and Trust Wallet, among others.

    As mentioned, it also supports MetaMask even if that wallet is Ethereum-based. This is because the platform is built on top of the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), which supports interoperability between Ethereum-based wallets.

    On the platform, there are options to either swap your tokens or supply liquidity in the ‘pools’ section. There is also an option to start ‘farming’ if you look through other sections.

    You can farm CAKE tokens on the platform. But before you can start doing so, you first have to supply liquidity to PancakeSwap’s pool in order to earn rewards in CAKE tokens. You can stake them back to the platform and get more in return. And again, users can also farm other tokens by participating in other liquidity pools.

    Syrup Pools

    Project owners can launch their tokens with the help of the Syrup pools. Here, they can commit a portion of their own tokens and distribute them to CAKE holders. There will be two categories for projects supported by the Syrup pool: Core and Community.

    Core projects are those that have been vetted by the team behind PancakeSwap. Community projects are those that CAKE holders voted in governance decisions. Despite this, anyone can distribute their tokens to CAKE holders through the Syrup pool. However, only the projects that get the vote of the community gets to be listed on the interface of the platform.

    PancakeSwap syrup pool
    PancakeSwap syrup pool (Image credit: PancakeSwap)

    Transaction Fees

    DEXs that follow the AMM model also charge trading fees. Users that participate in liquidity pools receive their LP token rewards on top of the accumulated trading fees on the platform.

    PancakeSwap charges 0.2% trading fees for users. In these fees, 0.17% is redistributed to liquidity providers with the other 0.03% allocated for burning by the PancakeSwap Treasury.

    Since the platform is decentralized, this distribution schedule can be revised by the stakers as necessary.

    CAKE Lottery

    There is also an option for users to join the CAKE lottery. It will have an interval of 6 hours per lottery session and you can get one lottery ticket for 10 CAKEs. This ticket will generate a random four-digit combination of numbers between 1 to 14.

    A winner’s take-away can go as high as 50% of the entire lottery pool if their ticket numbers match all four winning numbers on the lottery. There are also rewards too even if at least two of your numbers match the same position as the ones on the winning ticket.

    Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on PancakeSwap

    PancakeSwap also offers an option to participate in the exchange of collectibles on the platform. There is a section for non-fungible tokens (NFT) (called “Pancake Collectibles) represented by cute figures that users can trade for CAKE. You can choose to keep these NFTs if you own a few and trade them at a sooner date.

    Pancake Collectibles
    Pancake Collectibles (Image Credit: PancakeSwap)

    Initial Farm Offerings (IFOs)

    PancakeSwap introduced Initial Farm Offerings (IFO) on the platform to help out newly-launched tokens in opening opportunities for yield farming. To do this, users can commit their LP tokens to available pools. Here, those who will launch their tokens to the IFO will first be asked about the specifics of their project like their token’s current development stage, use case, distribution schedule, smart contract audits, expected valuation, and the purpose for the fundraising.

    Is PancakeSwap safe?

    PancakeSwap is audited by CertiK, one of the most reputable smart-contract auditors in this space. However, there is always risks involved in using these platforms such as bugs, which could result in loss of funds.

    Conclusion

    There are many yield farming projects in the space today and it can be difficult to assess where to focus on. And in selecting a platform to use, it is important to look beyond their promised APY. On multiple fronts, PancakeSwap seems to be a strong competitor to some of the biggest yield farming protocols in the space today.

    Since the platform is built on top of the Binance Smart Chain, it has an edge because this means that their blockchain network is faster than others in the space as it features around 3-5 second block times with their Proof-of-Stake model. Above that, there are other profit-generating opportunities with PancakeSwap. Beyond yield farming, users have the opportunity to participate in lotteries, collect NFTs, and launch fundraising rounds through IFOs. These are features that many other popular yield farming projects do not offer yet.

    Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

  • BakerySwap($BAKE): guide and tutorial

    BakerySwap($BAKE): guide and tutorial

    BakerySwap ($BAKE) operates on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and combines the 3 hottest trends in the cryptocurrency and blockchain space- yield farming, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and initial DEX offerings (IDOs).

    One of the benefits of BSC is that the Ethereum blockchain has been plagued lately by exorbitantly high fees and delayed transaction processing times. This has resulted in retail or average users getting priced out and unable to participate in decentralised finance (DeFi) or NFT activities. For some investors, it’s simply too much to pay $15-30 per transfer and $50-100 per Uniswap asset conversion.

    Therefore, BSC has risen up to the occasion to alleviate some of these problems by cloning and porting Ethereum’s most used DApps over to its blockchain. Thereby offering an attractive alternative with its low fees and near-instant transaction processing time.

    Background

    Binance Smart Chain (BSC), the blockchain Bakerswap runs on, is a project from Binance – the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world by traffic volume and traded amount. It is an Ethereum fork with a Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA) consensus mechanism and the ability to integrate with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). There are 21 validators staking large amounts of BNB, who process activity.

    The identity of these validators isn’t known but is largely believed to be Binance permissioned actors. These validators need permission from the Binance network to run the validator node. Furthermore, the BNB token holdings are greatly controlled by the Binance team or founders. It’s a permissioned network.

    But, it does have its benefits. It ensures high throughput transaction processing and low fees for the users. It’s an experience for the users, who otherwise won’t be able to experience DeFi and NFTs. Binance further returns some part of the transaction fees to the developers to give them the incentive to develop on the BSC network.

    BakerySwap

    BakerySwap is a Uniswap clone that allows for orderbook-less automated market maker (AMM) services and NFT trading. It runs exclusively on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). It’s marketed by Binance as having “cheaper fees and faster confirmation time than Ethereum”. Also included are the functionalities for staking with users providing liquidity and earning new tokens, combination NFTs and pets feature.

    In the place of orderbooks, liquidity pools are used to conduct swaps. In a similar manner to Uniswap, the participants receive Liquidity Pool (LP) tokens and can redeem them for assets supplied and fees earned when liquidating them. That’s according to their share in the pool gathered from the assets. Recently, an Initial DEX Offering (IDO) has also been introduced which allows projects to raise capital.

    BakerySwap Fees

    BakerySwap has a 0.30% fee for every activity on the platform, 0.25% goes to the liquidity providers and the remaining 0.05% will be used to buyback BAKE from the market and distributed to BAKE holders.

    How To Access BakerySwap Through MetaMask

    It’s pretty simple to access BakerySwap through Web3 wallets like MetaMask. Simple click the MetaMask button and open the dialog box and it will show Ethereum mainnet by default.

    Connecting to BakerySwap
    Connecting to BakerySwap

    Then, enter the following information in a case-sensitive manner.

    Network name: Binance Smart Chain

    Added RPC URL: https://bsc-dataseed1.binance.org/

    ChainID: 56

    Symbol: BNB

    Block Explorer URL: https://bscscan.com/

    Click Save and then switch to Binance Smart Chain. Now you can access BakerySwap. To transact on the BSC network, you need to have Binance Coin (BNB) on your wallet, so buy and withdraw them to your MetaMask as BEP20 standard tokens.

    BakeryToken ($BAKE)

    The native token of Bakeryswap is called BakeryToken or BAKE, which is earned by providing liquidity to asset pairs and staking liquidity pool tokens or by staking BAKE itself. Since this is a food-themed clone, it’s possible to deposit the liquidity pool tokens into different pools of Doughnut, Waffle, Rolls, Croissant, Latte, etc. with different ROIs.

    There was no pre-mine and/or presale of BAKE tokens. The tokens reserved for the team are only 1% because of their belief in a fair distribution model. Its distribution is skewed in favor of people staking tokens and the total supply is 731,745,000 BAKE. The tokens will be gradually released with the community’s consultation and advice.

    NFTs

    On the Binance Smart Chain, BakerySwap is the first AMM plus NFT project. The native BAKE token can be used to create a “food meal” – a fancy term for a NFT, which can be used to farm BAKE again.

    Every food meal has a different staking multiplier and earns proportional rewards. Plus, it can be traded for other NFTs and burned to yield BAKE.

    The platform also has an NFT Supermarket which allows artists to turn their artworks into NFTs through the minting process and to sell them. Users can buy artwork at the Supermarket using BAKE tokens.

    BakerySwap NFT Supermarket
    BakerySwap NFT Supermarket (Image credit: BakerySwap)

    Future Plans

    Despite having an interesting overlap of two emerging fields in blockchain tech, the innovation doesn’t seem to slow down at BakerySwap. As such, the team has announced that they would introduce the stake to farm NFT functions like MEME. A novel bidding and auctions system would also be developed.

    In DeFi and NFTs, gamification is key to engage users and keep them involved. BakerySwap will create raffles and rewards for completing BAKE tasks. AMM/NFT data analytics and token price charts are also under development. At some point in the future, margin trading and derivatives would also be deployed on BSC.

    BakerySwap Ethereum 2.0

    Like any emerging unconventional DeFi protocol, BakerySwap has had its fair share with procuring and managing liquidity for the yet-to-be-launched Ethereum 2.0. It has been reported to be working to integrate Ankr staking services aETH – a synthetic asset representing deposited Ether tokens, which will be used to create new farming pools.

    BakerySwap has also launched its own Eth2 BETH token, in partnership with Binance.

    Conclusion

    BakerySwap marks the introduction of an interesting experiment and an attempt to include users, which have been left out because of the high fees on the Ethereum network. At a fraction of cost and rapid transaction processing, retail users can try out the asset swap and NFT minting functions without clearing out their wallets for fees.

    The project takes Uniswap one step further, adding elements of NFT and gamification. Plus the tokenomics ensure value accrual and incentives for users to continue holding the token. The trajectory of BakerySwap doesn’t appear to be descending and notable features are waiting to be implemented in the coming days.

    Disclaimer: Cryptocurrency trading involves significant risks and may result in the loss of your capital. You should carefully consider whether trading cryptocurrencies is right for you in light of your financial condition and ability to bear financial risks. Cryptocurrency prices are highly volatile and can fluctuate widely in a short period of time. As such, trading cryptocurrencies may not be suitable for everyone. Additionally, storing cryptocurrencies on a centralized exchange carries inherent risks, including the potential for loss due to hacking, exchange collapse, or other security breaches. We strongly advise that you seek independent professional advice before engaging in any cryptocurrency trading activities and carefully consider the security measures in place when choosing or storing your cryptocurrencies on a cryptocurrency exchange.

  • Only1 ($LIKE): Solana’s NFT-Powered Social Platform

    Only1 ($LIKE): Solana’s NFT-Powered Social Platform

    Only1 ($LIKE) is the first NFT-powered social platform built on the Solana blockchain. Mixing social media, a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, a scalable blockchain, and the native token — $LIKE, Only1 offers fans a unique way of connecting with the creators they love. By using the Only1 platform, fans will have the ability to invest, access, and earn from the limited edition contents created by the world’s largest influencers/celebrities, all powered by NFTs.

    The ultimate goal of Only1 of revamping and innovating social media could have far reaching effects. At a time when major platforms like Facebook have rebranded with an aim at crypto, the power of content creators and users is ever more apparent. Where creators choose to upload content and where users flock to consume plays a major role.

    Issues with Traditional Social Media

    • Unfair Creator Economy

    On centralized social platforms, advertisers pay the platform for user’s attention. On decentralized social platforms, platforms pay users for their attention. Creator economy is the incentivisation structure for user-generated content. Content creators on Youtube are under constant pressure of censorship and demonetisation, while creators on platforms like Instagram and TikTok often have to rely on third parties (affiliate links, merchandise sale, paid shoutouts etc) to generate income. For a lot of the creators, social media is their full time job and their reward should be determined by their content and engagement with their fans.

    • Data Exploitation

    Traditional social media platforms provide end users with free services in exchange for their personal data. As the saying goes, “If you are not paying for the product, you are the product”. According to Clario, major social media apps collect up to 79.5% of personal data from users, including but not limited to name, addresses down to hobbies and interests. Let’s take the example of Facebook (recently renamed as Meta). Facebook with over 2.89 billion monthly active users is the most popular social media worldwide. With an audience base this big, there is no surprise that 98% of Facebook’s revenue is generated through advertising. Since these platforms own and store data in one single place, they can effectively manage and monetize through selling user data to third parties for marketing purposes. End users have no control over who Facebook sells their data to and how these purchasers use their data.

    • Algorithms & Authoritarian Control

    Discovery algorithms are built with parameters to prioritize commercialisation of the corporation and sometimes to serve some political agendas. For example, certain cartoons are banned in some countries for political reasons. China because they resemble a political figure. Also why show you a picture of your friend’s new Samoyed if they can show you a picture of an attractive person that will eventually convert you to buy the advertised into that fitness program advertisement? It is difficult to balance freedom of expression and safety of the community, it is for sure too big a power and responsibility for one corporation. The future of social platforms are looking at becoming decentralized and is community-governed.

    Key Components of a Decentralized Social Platform

    • Fair Creator Economy

    A decentralized finance (DeFi) or SocialFi structure that pays content creators for being active on social media and providing value to the audience, instead of ad companies that pay the platform.

    • Social DAO Governance

    A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that regulates community guidelines and platform development balancing safety of the community on the platform, and freedom of expression. Users curate and execute community guidelines and development. Not one single entity can deem specific content inappropriate, and actions are carried out if consensus is reached between the network.

    • Ads & Discovery

    Optimized for users instead of platform, without leaking user data to third parties.

    What is an NFT-Powered Social Platform?

    Instead of solely focusing on NFTs, social NFT platforms allow influencers to create content, share it with their audience, and get rewarded based on engagement. Users can create NFTs and allow their fans to engage, access, and earn through collecting these NFTs. Only1 provides a decentralized NFT-powered social platform for creators and fans to interact.

    What is NFT staking?

    Blockchains depend heavily on their global network of transaction validators who authenticate transactions before the data gets added to a block on a blockchain. These validators (or miners) are decided based on the amount of cryptocurrency they pledge towards the operation of the blockchain network. In return, miners earn rewards in the form of the native cryptocurrency for devoting resources. This model of pledging crypto assets is called the ‘Proof-of-Stake’ model, and the process is called ‘staking’.

    Similarly, you can pledge NFTs to support a project while you earn passive income in terms of rewards or fees for dedicating the asset to a blockchain. Currently, most of the NFT staking opportunities are in play-to-earn (P2E) gaming platforms such as Decentraland, Sandbox, Axie Infinity, among others. All you need to stake is a cryptocurrency wallet with NFTs.

    Over 50 percent of the NFT market is attributable to in-game NFTs, which players can buy using cryptocurrencies. Axie Infinity, for example, has garnered a sales volume of over $2 billion since its launch in 2018.

    However, it is important to note that all NFTs cannot be staked. So you need to check the details before buying the NFT.

    Features: What Makes Only1 Special?

    The Only1 marketplace will consist of several different features that sets it apart from other NFT marketplaces. Some of these features include:

    Creator Genesis NFT

    Genesis NFT Minting

    • A genesis NFT is minted once a creator passes KYC
    • Creators will then be able to mint their own Content NFTs for their fans and receive $LIKE, or native token, as a reward for engagement

    Fans Bid with $LIKE

    • Fans can utilize $LIKE, or native platform token, to bid for a Star NFTs on the Only1 Marketplace

    Genesis NFT Perks

    • Fans will have the ability to stake $LIKE on their favorite influencers profile
    • The Genesis NFT Owner as well as the creator will both earn a split of the staking rewards

    Content NFT Farming

    Creator Post Content

    • Creators have the ability to post exclusive content in form of an NFT
    • Fans bid on Only1 marketplace for NFT using the $LIKE Token
    • When an NFT is purchased a portion of the $LIKE tokens are burned

    Community Unlock

    • Other fans unlock content with $LIKE, receive lottery tickets (weekly lucky draw)

    Creator and Community Earns

    • Tx split between NFT owner and creator

    Why Solana?

    Only1 is built on the Solana blockchain for multiple reasons, including:

    • Solana has a flexible virtual machine which allows programs (known as smart contracts elsewhere) to be written in native languages such as Rust, C, and C++.
    • Solana’s infrastructure provides blazing fast speeds and no memory pool – providing the basis for global adoption of blockchain and/or distributed ledger technologies.
    • A transaction on-chain costs only a fraction of a cent (average of $0.00025 per transaction).

    Solana truly achieves the three desirable qualities of any blockchain: scalability, security, and decentralization. With Solana, users on an NFT-powered social platform such as Only1, can enjoy all the benefits of Web3 at the speed of Web2.

    $LIKE Token Economy

    $LIKE is the native token of Only1 that powers the creator economy within the network. Some of the initial utility for the token include:

    • Bidding – Fans bid for NFTs on Only1 with $LIKE
    • Staking & Governance – Fans stake their $LIKE to earn more over time
    • Reward Pool – $LIKE rewarded to stars as new NFT is minted & resold
    • Donating – Fans can tip $LIKE to their favorite creators

    Conclusion

    Since the invention of the World Wide Web (WWW) by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, the world has been revolutionized by this technology combining computers, data networks and hypertext.

    The first iteration of the WWW evolution — Web 1.0 is a “read-only” web that enables users to search and consume information. The second iteration, although deemed as a “passing fad” by many, has flourished and brought the adoption of the internet to a whole new level. Web 2.0 as a “read-write” web, has extended its functionality to highlight user-generated content, usability and interoperability for end users.

    As time goes by, many people have grown tired of the data exploitation that major corporations have taken advantage of and wanted to regain control over their data and content. This is where Web3 comes in; the Semantic “read-write-own” Web that revolves around decentralization and token-based economics. Rather than compromising personal data in exchange for free services, users can become participants and shareholders by earning on the blockchain network, which in return allows you to impact decision-making over a network.

    Only1 fully embraces this revolution by proportionally rewarding creators and fans for simply using the platform. The goal is to support and foster the creator economy, not profit off of it. By combining social media, NFTs, DeFi and the native token $LIKE, Only1 offers a Web 3.0 solution to creator economy and fan engagement.

    Follow their media channels for more info:

    Website — https://only1.io/

    Twitter — https://twitter.com/only1nft

    Telegram — https://t.me/only1nft

    Medium — https://only1nft.medium.com/

    Sources:

    https://only1.io/pitch-deck.pdf

    https://only1.gitbook.io/only1/

    https://only1nft.medium.com/welcome-to-only1-the-first-social-nft-platform-built-on-solana-a073827e942a

    https://www.cnbctv18.com/cryptocurrency/explained-how-to-earn-passive-income-via-nft-staking-11960392.htm

    https://morioh.com/p/27ea8c22ad0d

    https://only1nft.medium.com/barriers-for-web-3-0-social-for-the-mainstream-market-fbc12c1cddf3

  • DinoSwap ($DINO) Guide: What is it?

    DinoSwap ($DINO) Guide: What is it?

    What is DinoSwap?

    DinoSwap ($DINO) is a decentralized exchange (DEX) Polygon network-based cross-chain protocol that rivals the likes of PancakeSwap and other automated market makers. Launched on 17 July 2021, the DEX allows users to use the DINO token to earn various tokens of projects operating on top of Polygon. 

    Some of the top investors of DinoSwap include DeFinance, Hashed, Spartan Group, DFG, and co-founder of Polygon Sandeep Nailwal. 

    DinoSwap’s goal is to allow users from any blockchains to benefit from increased liquidity by tapping into tethered liquidity from multiple other blockchains, thereby becoming a centralised hub for cross-chain liquidity. This can be done by building liquidity for layer one blockchains, AMMs (Automated Market Makers), and partnering projects.

    The first blockchain that DinoSwap has started with is Polygon due to its high liquid environment and extremely low transaction cost. By leveraging the strength of Polygon, DinoSwap is then able to help crypto projects boost their token liquidity. 

    How does DinoSwap work?

    DinoSwap $DINO

    Currently, DinoSwap offers three products:

    DinoSwap Exchange

    The main focus of DinoSwap, it is a DEX that does not have its own Automated Market Maker (AMM) and instead interfaces directly with third-party liquidity pools of the top DEXs on Polygon. On DinoSwap, users can exchange ERC20 tokens, and one of the features that make DinoSwap unique is that it does not charge any additional fees on exchanges. 

    Yield Farming (aka DinoSwap Fossil Farms)

    Following the dinosaur theme, DinoSwap’s Fossil Farms are where users can earn DINO by staking their LP tokens from SushiSwap, QuickSwap and Dfyn.

    Staking

    Jurassic Pools

    This is a non-burn pool where users can stake their DINO and earn more tokens from partnering projects. In addition, users can still withdraw or deposit DINO without any additional fees, time-locks, or burns. (www.stellardental.my)

    Extinction Pools

    Extinction Pools are burn pools where deposited DINO is burned when all rewards are distributed. Users can stake their DINO tokens in order to earn more tokens from other partners over a period of time.These allow projects to issue tokens to a global community of Degen Dinos which increases wallet holder count, boosts awareness of the project, and bootstraps initial market liquidity. Participating projects are announced through the official DinoSwap social media platforms and receive cross promotional benefits, and these projects will also populate on the default list of DinoSwap tokens without having to search for the contract address. 

    Tar Pits

    Users can stake DINO in the Tar Pit to earn more DINO tokens. Entering these pools requires an adjustable time lock on staked DINO, but longer lock-ups mean increased rewards.

    DINO token utility

    DINO token is the native token of DinoSwap in ERC – 20 standard and is used to get other tokens from projects partnering with DinoSwap. DINO token has no hard cap but has a burning mechanism to deter inflation and ensure the healthy development of the ecosystem. 

    The DINO token at this time has two different uses: DINO is currently used to farm yDINO, a governance token which will be part of a complete ecosystem, by staking DINO and BNB on Tenet. DINO provides passive income to its users and holders through the 1% redistribution applied from every transaction Note: It will be used in the near future as the central currency used in this ecosystem currently in development, where artists and collectors can buy and sell digital art goods using DINO Token.

    DINO Token Distribution

    65 million DINO tokens were distributed at launch as follows:

    • 65% – Farming Rewards (Fair launch).
    • 5.6% – Treasury.
    • 14.4% – Team (vested over 12 months, linearly, on a per-block basis).
    • 15% – Investors and Advisors (vested over 12 months, linearly, on a per-block basis)

    After the first 65 million DINO have hatched, new tokens will be created on-demand. For every 10 DINO created, one extra DINO will be allotted to the DinoSwap Treasury to support further protocol growth initiatives.

    Trading on DinoSwap

    Trading on DinoSwap is simple:

    1.  Navigate to the DinoSwap exchange here
    Dinoswap exchange
    Dinoswap exchange
    1. Unlock your Polygon Wallet, click connect, and choose the wallet provider of your choice
    Dinoswap Polygon wallet
    Dinoswap Polygon wallet
    1. Select the tokens you wish to swap and enter the amount (make sure you have MATIC in your wallet to push the transaction through) .
    Dinoswap and MATIC
    Dinoswap and MATIC
    1.  Check the details, and click “Swap”.
    Dinoswap finalize
    Dinoswap finalize
    1. Check the details again and click “Confirm Swap”.
    Dinoswap confirmation page
    Dinoswap confirmation page
    1. Confirm the transaction in your wallet.
    2. The swap is complete and you can click view on maticvigil to see your transaction details

    Yield Farming on DinoSwap

    This function allows users to stake DINO in order to earn even more rewards after a period of time. There are two parts to this process:

    Providing Liquidity

    Every Fossil Farm needs a specific LP Token that can be acquired by providing liquidity for the appropriate pair. The following steps will prepare you to start excavating in your favorite Fossil Farm.

    1. Go to the Fossil Farms page.
    Dinoswap Fossil Farms
    Dinoswap Fossil Farms
    1. Click on your favorite Fossil Farm.
    2. Click on the “Get LP” link on the left side.
    Dinoswap Get LP
    Dinoswap Get LP
    1. Follow the instructions to get LP tokens on either SushiSwap, Quickswap or Dfyn.

    Entering a Fossil Farm

    Now that you have your LP Tokens ready, it is time to put them at work and start excavating.

    1. Go back to the Fossil Farms page.
    2. Unlock your Wallet via the “Unlock Wallet” button or the “Connect” button (top right).
    Fossil Farm Unlock Wallet
    Fossil Farm Unlock Wallet
    1. Make sure your wallet is on the “Matic Mainnet” network.
    2.  Click on the Fossil Farm you want to excavate.
    3.  Click the “Enable” button.
    Fossil Farm MATIC Mainnet
    Fossil Farm MATIC Mainnet
    1.  Your wallet will ask you to confirm the transaction.
    Fossil Farm confirm transaction
    Fossil Farm confirm transaction
    1.  Click the “Stake LP” button.
    2.  Enter your desired amount of LP Tokens and click the “Confirm” button.
    3.  DONE! You are now farming DINO.

    Adding or removing LP Tokens

    At any time, you can decide to leave the Fossil Farm or add more LP Tokens to it.

    1. Return to the Fossil Farms page.
    2. Click the “Staked only” toggle to see the pairs you have LP Tokens in.
    3. Choose a Fossil Farm you have LP Token in and click on it.
    4. Click on the “+” or the “-“ button to add or remove LP Tokens.
    5. Enter the amount you would like to add or remove.
    6. Verify your information and click the “Confirm” button.
    7. After a short wait you should see your new balance in the details section of the LP Token pair. If you have unstaked your LP Tokens, any unclaimed rewards will automatically have been collected.

    Conclusion

    DinoSwap ran a highly successful fundraising campaign before its launch and is even backed by the co-founder of Polygon himself, indicating a large amount of confidence in the project. The DEX has also successfully completed three Certik smart contract audits and has received a “low risk” rating from the Rug Doctor. DinoSwap is already the 7th most popular dApp on Polygon in less than 2 weeks from its official launch.

    With DinoSwap’s mission of increased liquidity for cryptocurrency exchange, this DEX is one to keep an eye on and has huge potential to change the crypto exchange game.

  • Formation Fi: Forget Yield Chasing, Welcome Smart Farming

    Formation Fi: Forget Yield Chasing, Welcome Smart Farming

    Formation Fi is a startup aiming to revolutionize portfolio management in the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) by introducing risk parity smart farming.

    DeFi’s current obsession with speculative yield chasing often leaves out the regard for risk. With risk parity inspired smart yield farming 2.0, users get to tailor their level of exposure while receiving guidance from the protocol, which is engineered to reduce risks posed by both bull and bear cycles.

    Formation Fi’s risk parity protocol is guided by the principles of the risk parity movement adopted by top hedge funds on Wall Street, opening up a playing field that was once walled off to all but the richest few.

    What is Risk Parity?

    Risk parity is an investment strategy that aims to spread risk exposure equally across every type of portfolio asset.

    The performance of an investment portfolio is largely dictated by the risk it carries. The riskier its assets are, the higher the portfolio’s upside potential. For example, compare a 100% savings account portfolio with a 100% stocks portfolio; the former has low risk and low returns, while the latter has high risk and a greater chance of large returns. Interestingly, similar to the varying risk levels in investment portfolios, bitcoin casinos instant withdrawal services offer a dynamic environment for users seeking quick access to their winnings, enhancing the overall gambling experience. “Traditional” portfolios increase risk by concentrating money in riskier assets, while risk parity portfolios have fixed asset allocations in order to equalize risk contributions. To increase risk, a risk parity portfolio uses leverage.

    The fundamental theory behind risk parity strategies is that assets in a portfolio should be balanced by risk, not by dollars. In other words, instead of allocating more money to riskier assets to achieve a performance target, risk parity balances assets by risk contribution and then uses leverage to achieve the performance target.

    Risk Parity Smart Yield Farming: How Does It Work?

    Formation Fi’s risk parity protocol is the first chain-agnostic, algorithmic, defi yield-management platform driven by the risk parity portfolio management strategy.

    That means it’s automatic, transparent, can be tailored to everyone’s risk appetite and bag size, and won’t be tied to a single clogged chain.

    It’s the latest and the most sophisticated attempt to create a DeFi risk-parity robo-advisor to algorithmically calibrate asset allocations across core asset classes such as stablecoins, alphas, and betas based on volatility and environmental changes. All under a single unified interface that finally connects all the different DeFi tools in a clear and simple way.

    This simplicity is key.

    Chasing different yield farming strategies, different chains, and constantly changing technical layers is painful. DeFi should be as simple as a single click to make money. And it can be.

    You select your acceptable level of risk with a minimum amount of commitment determined by the algorithm in the top reserve currencies such as BTC, ETH, USDT, or BNB. The protocol will then automatically configure and recommend a chain-agnostic portfolio of yield farming strategies, tailored specifically to you and engineered to offset risks posed by both bull and bear cycles.

    The protocol also uses a small amount of leverage to boost yield while maintaining the optimal level of diversification.

    The protocol will then mint you an index token that tracks the underlying cross-chain DeFi assets and yield farming strategies. That’s all there is to it. No need to track and manage a million different assets. No need to go bankrupt from gas fees. Just let the index token do its work and track your yields in the dashboard.

    Formation Fi will save you valuable time, headaches, and most importantly, money.

    Best of all, the Formation Fi token is itself a potentially valuable crypto-asset. The index token can be sold, bought, or swapped like any other ERC-20 token. It can also be deployed into other yield farming strategies or added into a liquidity mining pool to further boost yield at the holder’s discretion. 

    Guiding Principles of Formation Fi

    Chain-agnostic

    Early DeFi is a collection of protocols, chains, dapps, tokens, pools and other inventions. Some work together, most don’t. Most only work within their own vertical ecosystems. Investing optimally across them all, one at a time, is virtually impossible manually. 

    Formation Fi takes a holistic view — aiming to be chain-agnostic and all-inclusive. From the ideals of crypto and Web3 will come the internet of value, where all blockchains are seamlessly connected through a decentralized infrastructure of bridges and relays.

    All types of DeFi assets will be able to move from point A to point B quickly and smoothly, with no barriers. Their goal is to make the network dependency irrelevant. In other words, ultimately all users of Formation Fi will be able to add any type of uncorrelated DeFi assets available in the world of Web3 to their portfolio, regardless of the protocols of the asset and those already in the portfolio and claim profits from the network of their choice.

    Low Transaction Costs

    DeFi investors have learnt that fees can eat into their capital at an alarming rate, becoming a barrier to entry for some of the more complicated protocols. Costs on Ethereum made it nearly unusable in 2020–2021 for many yield farmers, forcing them to move to other blockchains with different scalability, decentralization and security characteristics. (goldchannel.net)  

    Formation Fi will minimize users’ costs at all opportunities. There are two types of costs to consider: fund management fees and the underlying protocols’ gas/network fees. Most Wall Street hedge funds traditionally charge in excess of 30% of fund profits as management fees and carries interest. Formation Fi will not only charge a significantly lower management fee (only 5%) but will also redistribute a share of the profits to holders of the Formation Fi token, $FORM. 

    Fees for gas/network and other on-chain services such as oracles will also be kept low. For example, when it makes sense, instead of using expensive price feed oracles, Formation Fi will call sets of APIs or build their own oracles to achieve the same results. Over time and with progressive decentralization, they expect on-chain costs to reduce. Formation Fi will always strive to reduce costs and pass the savings and profits on to their users and token holders.

    Radical Simplification

    Many of the first-generation yield farming protocols were thrown together as fast as possible to catch as much of the new booming market as they could. Aspects like the user interface and automation were not top priorities. As a result, 50% of yield farming investing is repetitive and requires a high degree of understanding and attention to detail. This creates a barrier to entry for novice investors, causing confusion and increasing the probability of costly mistakes. 

    Formation Fi will make the user experience as simple and efficient as possible. They will develop algorithms and bots to predict requirements and remove repetitive tasks. They will design the user experience to be simple and a pleasure to use. Formation Fi aims to allow users to focus on investing instead of battling a screen.

    Investment over Speculation

    First-generation yield farming was about speculating on the next coin to 100x and maximizing gains out of the latest scheme. Farmers rushed in, ignorant of the risks and in the long run will lose on gas, impermanent loss, slippage and other hidden fees. 

    Formation Fi is at the lead of the second generation. They will motivate and enable users to form coherent, sensible portfolios instead of collections of random coins. Second generation yield farming is about intelligent investing — calculating quantitative risk as well as reward. 

    This methodology was pioneered by Benjamin Graham in his book “The Intelligent Investor” and employed extensively by Warren Buffet. Formation Fi takes techniques and skills learnt over decades on Wall Street and applies them through algorithms to DeFi. They aim to generate personalized funds that not only catch the market highs but also provide protection from the lows.

    Communal Effort

    DeFi is taking off because so many people can see the benefits of transparency and community governance over the centralized banks, which so often charge hidden fees and make secret backroom deals we’ll never know about. The community is what makes DeFi so compelling — but community governance is a double-edged sword. You can cast your vote and yield the reward, but you have to invest your stake and in reality, only the whales can achieve meaningful results. 

    Formation Fi is turning that around. Ultimately, through progressive decentralization, their DAO will achieve open governance by financially incentivising long-term engagement and offering exclusive original research and quantitative analysis. They will empower a new generation of yield farmers to take control of their assets, achieve better risk-adjusted results and become better investors. 

    Long-Term Focus

    Yield farming has been a fast-moving, get in and out quickly, type of business so far. The first generation of farmers were often risk-seeking ‘degens’ who loved the thrill of the 100x chase and if a coin failed, that’s ok — move on to the next one. That isn’t investing though and Formation Fi isn’t about short-term gambling. 

    Second generation yield farming is for investors who want intelligent, serious management for the long haul with safe exposure to crypto. Formation Fi’s algorithms will build personally risk-adjusted indexes for the long term that can automatically reinvest the yield across multiple chains so users can benefit from the laws of compound interest. 

    Future development, guided by the DAO community and taking advantage of progressive decentralization, will ensure a safe, intelligent and personalized haven for users.

    Constant Innovation and Safety

    Innovation is taken as given in DeFi but unfortunately, for many, is a buzzword that means hitching onto the latest craze and heading off on a dozen random paths. The biggest casualties are then the users when it all implodes, taking their invested capital with it. 

    Formation Fi has a strategic direction to build their vision of low-risk wealth for everyone. The force of innovation and safety drives the project, guided by the DAO community and regulation. The project will adopt progressive decentralization, not hide behind security audit reports, care for the TVL as if it were their own money and try to safeguard it to the best of their abilities.

    $FORM Token

    The Formation Fi protocol will enable the minting of an index token, the $FORM token, to track underlying cross-chain DeFi assets and strategies. $FORM is a triple-utility token with the following functions:

    • Governance Voting — $FORM holders vote on proposals for the FORM operational treasury.
    • Staking & Liquidity Mining — $FORM will be awarded to a user who deposits or stakes underlying digital assets to generate Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Parity or swap among the index coins.
    • Dark Pools — $FORM will confer access to investment liquidity pools which harness the wisdom of the crowd to incubate and fund the most promising new DeFi projects.

    Conclusion

    Every yield comes with risk. Formation Fi brings the risk mitigation strategies which let hedge funds conquer the stock market to crypto, for everyone to use. 

    Their focus is to better manage your risks while protecting your hard-earned yield through thick and thin. Imagine what can be accomplished as a community of smart yield farmers. The Formation Fi DAO will harness the wisdom of the crowd to make the protocol more accurate and more powerful.

    The risk parity protocol is just the first chapter of Formation Fi’s ever-expanding story. Follow Formation Fi’s development on their official channels:

    Website – https://formation.fi/

    Twitter – https://twitter.com/FormationFi

    Telegram – https://t.me/FormationFi

    Medium – https://medium.com/formation-fi

    Sources:

    https://docs.formation.fi/

    https://www.financetldr.com/posts/simply-explained-wealthfronts-risk-parity-whitepaper

    https://morioh.com/p/fcf80bde60d4

    https://cointelegraph.com/press-releases/formation-fi-closes-33m-strategic-sale-to-build-smart-yield-farming-20-framework

  • Dot Finance: Polkadot’s Yield Aggregator & DeFi Hub

    Dot Finance: Polkadot’s Yield Aggregator & DeFi Hub

    Dot Finance is a new decentralized finance (DeFi) platform designed to incentivize the growth of the Polkadot ecosystem. Similar to other DeFi applications, Dot Finance uses smart contracts instead of third parties to provide financial services to users.

    By providing access to a variety of battle-tested high-performing financial instruments, Dot Finance is designed to bring DeFi to a wide range of users and will help increase user exposure to the many benefits of the Polkadot ecosystem. This will help grow the adoption of not just the Polkadot framework but the many new DeFi products and services that Dot Finance is building on top of Polkadot’s safe, secure, and resilient architecture.

    What is Yield Farming?

    Anybody that has been in DeFi long enough has heard about yield farming. At its core, yield farming is the practice of using DeFi protocols to make your money work for you. Instead of having funds stashed in a zero-interest account or a hardware wallet hidden under your mattress, you can use them to lend, borrow, trade, or provide liquidity. DeFi platforms incentivize user participation by rewarding them with native tokens and/or a portion of the transaction fees.

    Yield Farming Strategies

    Yield farming strategies are in constant flux as farmers must continuously adapt to protocol changes, market demands, and gas prices. That being said, the primary goal is to earn the highest rewards by locking up your funds. This is accomplished by supporting Automated Market Makers (AMMs) through addition of funds to Liquidity Pools (LPs).

    When liquidity is added to a pool, you receive LP tokens that represent the amount of your contribution to the pool. The LP tokens can entitle you to a portion of the swap fees from that pool, but you can also stake the LP tokens in different farms to earn rewards. The staking rewards come in the form of a new token, (e.g. PancakeSwap rewards LP token stakers with CAKE tokens) that can also be swapped or staked in different farms and pools. 

    The complexity of strategies increases quickly with all the different options and varying returns available.

    Yield Farming Optimization

    Keeping up with the fluctuating rates and ever-changing market conditions takes a lot of time and energy. If you make a mistake or miss the optimal compounding times, your APY drops significantly. If you farm on Ethereum, you also must worry about the crazy high gas fees eating into your yields with every transaction. Ethereum yield farming has become a space where only whales turn a profit.

    Dot Finance helps farmers avoid these issues and earn the highest returns possible with their yield aggregator. By working on the Polkadot and Kusama blockchains, the transactions are fast, and the gas fees remain low. 

    Dot Finance’s smart contracts automatically compound yields at the optimal frequency to increase your APY and the already low fees are shared across farms by batching the auto-compound transactions. Farmers also have access to automation and compounding at scale. It’s like farming with a tractor instead of pulling a yoke on your shoulders.

    How Dot Finance Maximizes Yields

    Normally, after providing liquidity to a pool and receiving LP tokens, you can stake those to earn new tokens. The rewards incentivize people to add liquidity to the pools but it takes a little more time and effort from the farmers because the funds have to be manually converted and restaked.

    Optimal compounding can be almost magical in how much it increases your returns. For example, if you were to auto-compound once a day for a year, a 40% APR becomes 49%. That’s almost a 25% increase in returns! 

    Dot Finance’s yield aggregator auto-compounds farming yields for you by converting them to LP tokens then staking them. Using their platform means the smart contracts will compound your yields at the optimal rate and entitle you to a share of their performance fee – the Pink Distribution.

    When you harvest your yields (collect rewards), Dot Finance gives you 70% of your earnings in LP tokens, and the other 30% will be issued in their native $PINK tokens. This is based only on your profits, your principal remains untouched. The 30% for which $PINK is minted is the performance fee that goes to the $PINK stakers.

    $PINK Token

    Governance

    Staking $PINK tokens will allow you to participate in DAO governance protocols. When future changes are proposed for the platform, you will be able to vote and help steer the protocols in a direction you think is best.

    Utility

    The native $PINK token is more than just a regular governance token. $PINK incentivizes liquidity provision and helps increase returns when using the platform. It can be staked to earn rewards and is used as an APR multiplier when claiming profits.

    The following shows the fee structure of $PINK:

    • 30% performance fee (the $PINK distribution) – This means 30% of profits will be converted and issued as $PINK tokens upon user withdrawal. The original profits are used to reward individuals that staked their $PINK tokens in the $PINK staking farm.
    • 0.5% withdrawal fee if the withdrawal happens within 72 hours of deposit.

    $PINK Staking

    There is a separate $PINK staking farm that will allow you to stake your tokens and receive a share of $PINK distribution profits. These profits come from the vault’s performance fee – the original 30% that were converted to newly minted $PINK tokens.

    This is an automatic process that happens with every withdrawal, e.g., a user takes profits, the smart contract executes and 30% of those profits are converted and given to everyone with staked $PINK tokens.

    Simply put, when you stake $PINK tokens in the $PINK farm, you receive a share of the $PINK distribution for the entire community.   

    Dot Finance prioritizes community and wants everyone to benefit from the growth and success of the protocol, therefore choosing this mechanism to share the earnings of the protocol with all the $PINK holders.

    Why Polkadot?

    Polkadot is a highly successful blockchain protocol that was designed to connect multiple specialized blockchains into a unified network. Isolated blockchains can only process a finite amount of traffic, and all blockchains make tradeoffs to support a variety of features and use cases. For example, one blockchain might optimize for security, while another might optimize for speed.

    These are the real-life challenges that Polkadot was designed to address. With a sharded multichain network, Polkadot can process many transactions on several chains in parallel. This eliminates bottlenecks. Also, the platform supports blockchains of different designs that are optimized for specific use cases. In this way, Polkadot overcomes the interoperability problem by uniting isolated blockchains, thereby enabling its user base to access and harness all of its advantages in one holistic protocol, making it a real contender for the next generation of blockchains.

    Because of these features, Polkadot has grown significantly over the last year and numerous projects have committed to building on it.

    What’s Next for Dot Finance?

    • Users can expect additional farms to be launched such as DAI-USDC & BUSD-USDC, and other projects in the Polkadot ecosystem.
    • Users will be able to deploy their vault strategy and integrate with Sushi decentralized exchange, enabling users to auto-compound gains and maximize returns on Sushi farms.
    • Plans to launch and support additional vault strategies to offer even higher yields for current farms.
    • Integration with Chainlink oracles to enhance vault’s security with additional price feeds.
    • Dot Finance will conduct additional audits for their smart contracts to ensure the security and safety of users’ funds.

    Check out Dot Finance’s official channels to learn more:

    Website – http://dot.finance/

    Twitter – https://twitter.com/dot_finance

    Telegram – https://t.me/Dot_Finance

    Medium – https://dot-finance.medium.com/

    Sources:

    https://docs.dot.finance/

    https://morioh.com/p/110b7f4a031a

    https://dot-finance.medium.com/hello-polkadot-we-are-live-eb40187c146a

    https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2022/01/04/dex-aggregator-dot-finance-migrates-to-polkadot-from-bsc/