There are many risks in DeFi and we believe that displaying audits can provide a false sense of safety for investors. We want everyone to think for themselves and not trust that their money will be safe in an audited codebase since even those can have major bugs resulting in loss of funds.
A lot of real-time discussion happens on the telegram and discord, but for a proposal to turn into a YIP (Yearn Improvement Proposal) it needs to be posted and disccused on the fourm.
This is the main place token holders check for goverance related issues.
A YIP or Yearn Improvement Proposal is how features are added to the yearn ecosystem. Users start a proposal on the forum, discuss it, and gauge the sentiment of if the proposal will be accepted. If a lot of users agree with it, then it can be posted on-chain for everyone to vote on.
How many people need to vote to pass a YIP proposed on-chain?
The quroum is 20%. Which means that 20% of the staked YFI needs to vote on a proposal for it to pass, or else it will fail. Also, it has to have at least 50% of the votes for yes.
You can post your proposal on-chain first, but if people haven't talked about it, they probably won't vote for it.
How do I make a proposal?
The default template for proposals can be found on Github + on the forum if you make a post under proposals or discussion it will autofill in the template as well.
Who can make a proposal?
Anyone can post a proposal both on the forum and on-chain.
Voting
How do I vote?
Stake your YFI and then you can cast your vote for YIPs that are on-chain on the voting dashboard
Why should I stake? What is the APY (Annual Percentage Yield)?
You should stake if you want to vote on YIPs and get rewards that are generated from the yearn ecosystem. The APY for staking is currently not listed on the UI. You can ask on the chat what the rate is.
Does staking my YFI matter for voting?
Yes. You have to stake your YFI at ygov.finance/stake in the v2 tab under Governance V2 to have your votes count. As of now, you can vote without staking, but you will waste your gas and it won't count so make sure you have staked first if you want to vote.
What if I want to take my YFI out before the end of the vote lock?
You can't, sorry. The lock lasts 3 days after you last voted, until then you cannot unstake your tokens.
I voted and I know the vote lock is 3 days, is there anywhere I can see exactly how long I have left till I can unstake my YFI?
Yes! You can read the contract directly ygov.finance staking contract go to 28 votelock and input your eth address. This will give you the eth block number when you can unstake.
What’s the difference between voting for a poll on the forum and an on-chain vote?
A poll just gagues the sentiment of what the community is feeling on the proposal while a on-chain vote will be binding and will take effect if it passes.
How long is my YFI tied up if I stake it?
Your YFI is locked for 3 days after you vote
Why can't I claim my staking rewards!
To claim your staking rewards you have to 1) be staked and 2) have voted. Within 3 days to be able to claim them. This will be fixed in an update soon.
Used to fund value-added contributions to the yearn ecosystem.
Who cares, how do I make money from this?
You don't. This is solely for allocating funding for projects, and the YFI donated will be spent and your share value will be diluted.
Who can join?
Open for anyone to join with a base rate of 1 Share = 0.1 YFI
How can I join?
Go here to Pokemol sign in with your web3 account. Click New Proposal button in the top right. Click member.
Title: your name/entity
Description: “Pledging X amount of YFI in exchange for Y Shares” (Please make this consistent with the amount being pledged at 0.1 YFI per share.)
Link: Link to you or your entity (Website, Twitter, Linkedin)
Shares Requested: The number of Shares being requested
Token Tribute: The amount of YFI being pledged (you will need to unlock YFI)
Loot: The number of shares being requested
After you submitted the two trxs and are in the new member queue, you will need a sponsor. Please copy the link to your proposal and let us know you’d like to join in the yDAO Telegram channel
How can I request funding?
The same ways as joining except instead of click member click the funding tab and fill in the details of your request. You can ask in the telegram chat if you have any questions.
I dont speak English, when will everything be translated?
We are working on translating to other lanuages but it will take time. For now you can go to your language in the global section in Discord.
Yearn.Finance
Yearn.Finance consists of the Earn, Zaps, APR, and Vaults sections
Yield aggregator for lending platforms that rebalances for highest yield during contract interaction.
Deposit DAI, USDC, USDT, TUSD, or sUSD and it will auto lend to the highest lending rate on these platforms Coumpound, Dxdy, or Aave (Ddex and Fulcrum are currently disabled)
Zaps were made by DefiZap which is now Zapper.fi as a type of all in one defi routing service.
Why use a Zap?
"Zaps allow you get into a DeFi position in one transaction—it’s called zapping in." - How to use Zaps guide
Note that this is an old article and Zapper was formed as a result of DeFiSnap + DeFiZap coming together to create the ultimate hub for Decentralized Finance aka #DeFi. So some of the stuff in the article above is out of date, but you can still use Zaps on Zapper.fi
So what can I do with Zaps on yearn?
With as zap you can take your DAI, for example, and get yCurve with it in one transaction. Normally, to turn DAI in to yCRV, you would have to go to earn, deposit DAI and recieve yDAI, then go to Curve.fi - Yearn pool and deposit your yDAI and then you would get yCRV. This is alot to do so instead you can do it in one transaction!
That sounds awesome, what's the downside?
Well, it does take a lot of gas and could be costly, even more so than doing it yourself manually, but if you have a big transaction and are in a rush it is a great method to get into a DeFi position or liquidity pool fast.
A Vault takes a more active approach than simply lending out coins for the highest APY. Via strategies it can farm coins such as CRV and then sell them, into the best DEX, to higher profits than simple lending.
Manage collateral at a safe level so you never default
Borrow stablecoins
Put the stablecoin to work on some farming
Any stablecoin earned above the debt (i.e. gains) are sold for the vault asset and returned to the vault.
Can't I just do all this myself though?
Yes you could, but vaults help you save on gas, keep it at a good collateral/debt ratio so you dont default, and auto optimizes for highest yielding stablecoin strategies, even when you are sleeping.
Risks
While the assets deposited can't decrease, the debt of the vault can. If a strategy does not manage to outperform the debt, then a portion of the asset will be impermanently locked. If a strategy then outperforms the debt again, this asset will become unlocked.
There are mechainsims in the vaults to help this not to happen, but nothing is foolproof
As of now, the Vaults have not been audited
Smart contract risk with any contracts that the vaults interact with.
You will receive yyUSDC. It's not the same token you will receive in Earn, even if everybody calls them the same.
USDT
y.Curve.fi
If the current strategy for the yCRV vault is farming crv does it just get added to my balance when I withdrawal?
No. The vault will farm CRV then sell it on the market automatically. When you withdrawal you will get more yCRV.
Why isn't yCRV worth $1, it's a stable coin right?
No, yCRV is not worth $1 and no it is NOT a stablecoin. You can think of yCRV as an index of yield bearing stablecoins (yDAI+yUSDC+yUSDT+yTUSD) that also generates yield (trading fees from the Curve Y pool) as well. Therefore the price of yCRV is always increasing.
If I unstake my yCRV from the yCRV vault does that then revert it back to the Curve Y pool at Curve, or do I have to do something else like restake it there?
When you withdraw your yCRV from the vault, you get back yCRV + plus interest accured - fees, all in yCRV. Since it is the yCRV token you got back, it is already staked in Curve Y pool making stablecoin swap fees. No need to do anything else with Curve, unless you want to stake it here to generate CRV.
Strategies
What is a Yearn strategy?
A Yearn strategy is changeable code for each vault that tells it what assets to borrow, which coins to farm, and where it should sell the farmed assets.
What are the current strategies?
You can view the current strategies implimented at feel-the-yearn
In the future we plan to make a dashboard to make the strategies and APY easy to understand.
Who is in control of the strategies?
Andre writes them but the multisig decides if they will be implemented or not.
How can I make a strategy?
For now you can post your strategy on the forum in the strategy section. Detailing what it should buy/sell/farm and what the current apy is. There will be a template to help you get started.
What is the process for getting my strategy onto yearn?
Post it on the forum and if it gets approved it will be used in the vaults and you can get paid for it.
When does a strategy changes and who changes it? Is it automatic?
For now Andre watches the markets and writes stratgies that he and the multisig thinks are safe while giving the highest yield. They change them according to current yields on the market.
I deposited into a vault what will I get out when I withdrawal?
You will always withdrawal only the coin type you put in + the pool yield - fees.
Fees
The fee on all vaults is 0.5% on withdrawals and a 5% fee whenever the harvest() function is called on the vaults which helps subsidize gas costs. The harvest function does the selling of the farmed asset on the market.
Fees can be changed by governance.
If you deposit and withdraw immediately, you will lose 0.5% of your principle
This shows you the current APR for a given amount of a coin across lending platforms, and the highest one for each coin is the provider that Earn is lending its coins to at the moment.
This will show you the best lending rates and will tell you what provider Earn is lending these coins to at the moment.
Andre & Leadership
Is Andre in charge of yearn?
Andre isn't in charge of Yearn, the YFI token holders make the decisions on what to build and governance decisions, but Andre is the lead developer of the yearn ecosystem.
What does Andre do?
Andre is the main developer building out the products that comprise the yearn ecosystem: Yearn, Ytrade, Yswap, Yliquidate, Yborrow. He is also currently in charge of running the Vaults and overseeing them.
What is the multi-sig and what do they do?
The multi-signature address is explained in detail in this thread. Basically it is a 6 of 9 multi-signature account that has control over minting YFI, if a vote to mint tokens has passed succesfully.
Andre can build out the Yearn ecosystem and come up with new products. Usually he posts his thoughts and ideas on the forum for everyone to see.
Does the multi-sig group tell him what to do?
They are in close contact with one another, but Andre's priorities are decided by YFI token holders via YIPS.
Who else writes code for yearn? Is there a team?
Does anyone get paid for working on yearn?
As of this moment, not yet, but thanks to the passage of YIP 36 and the creation of a community pool of funds that will be kept at 500k usd, we can now pay Andre for his work, fund audits, and pay for new devs to be hired along with anything else the the yearn ecosystem needs.
How can I work for yearn?
You can make a YIP to apply for funding from the 500k USD treasury directly or ask the yDAO for funding.
Do you have any job openings?
Yes, we do! We need all kinds of people to help make the yEarn ecosystem a thriving product and to give value to YFI. You can ask in the Discord or Telegram about applying or post on the forum. State how you think you can add value to Yearn, and how much you think you should be paid from the community pool. Also, you can go to the yDAO as well for funding on your work for the Yearn ecosystem.
How to participate
You can participate in YFI by voting on YIPs that are active, discussing the YIPs yet to be proposed on-chain on the forums, and talking about YFI in the telegram and discord. If you know a second language help us translate the site and YIPs into that language.
We plan to make a dashboard in the future that will clearly show your current APY of all the positions you have open. Currently for the Vaults as they are still in beta we are not showing the APY live, but it is post on twitter around once a day. You can roughly estimate the yeild you are getting by looking at what the current strategy is farming and checking what its apy is.
For example if yCRV vault is farming the CRV token, you can check what the yeild is on Curve's homepage for the Y pool
YFI
YFI is the governance token of the Yearn ecosystem and where the fees from the system accure to.
Curve is an exchange liquidity pool on Ethereum (like Uniswap) designed for (1) extremely efficient stablecoin trading (2) low risk, supplemental fee income for liquidity providers, without an opportunity cost. Curve allows users (and smart contracts like 1inch, Paraswap, Totle and Dex.ag) to trade between DAI and USDC with a bespoke low slippage, low fee algorithm designed specifically for stablecoins and earn fees. Behind the scenes, the liquidity pool is also supplied to the Compound protocol or iearn.finance where it generates even more income for liquidity providers.
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