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FAQ

General

Is it safe to invest money in Yearn?

  • Please do your own research and decide for yourself.

Is Yearn audited?

Feedback & Support

If you have questions about how to do anything, we can help you on:

But if you think something can be improved, or you found a bug, we want to squash it. Please post it here:

  • Github — create a new issue in the relevant repository.
  • Forum — post in the feedback category.

Products

yearn.finance

  • yearn.finance hosts UIs for the Vaults, Earn, Zap, APR, and Cover products.

Vaults

What is a Vault?

  • Vaults employ strategies to automate the best yield farming opportunities available.
  • They were designed so that the community could work together to build new strategies to find the best yield.
  • Andre explains vaults and delegated vaults in these two blog posts.
  • Simply put vaults can do this:
    • Use any asset as liquidity.
    • Use liquidity as collateral and manage collateral at a safe level in order to avoid a default.
    • Borrow stablecoins.
    • Put the stablecoins to work on some farming.
    • Reinvest earned stablecoins.

Can't I just do all this myself though?

  • Yes you could, but vaults help you save on gas, keep a good collateral/debt ratio to avoid defaults, and auto optimizes for the highest yielding stablecoin strategies, even while you are sleeping.

I see ROI on the vaults page. Is it the current one?

  • No. This is the historical average for that vault. Current APY / returns are not shown as vaults are a beta product and being tested live.
  • Various third party sites provide APY and other info, they are listed below in Statistics.

What are the risks?

  • While the assets deposited can't decrease, the debt of the vault can increase. If a strategy does not manage to outperform the debt, then a portion of the asset will be impermanently locked. If a strategy later outperforms the debt again, the asset will again be available to withdraw. There are mechanisms in the vaults to prevent this but nothing is bulletproof.
  • As of now, only some Vaults have been audited.
  • Smart contract risk with any contracts that the vaults interact with.

What are the different yVaults?

yLINK and yaLINK

  • What's the difference between LINK and aLINK vaults?
    • None in terms of returns. Deposited LINK will be deposited into Aave generating aLINK (Aave interest bearing LINK). So depositing directly into aLINK vault you are one step ahead in the process.
  • Why is the yield different for aLINK and LINK vaults?
    • aLINK has a 0.5% insurance "fee" (this is returned when it is outperformed). LINK vault doesn't have this fee to avoid double dipping.

yETH and yWETH

  • What's the difference between WETH and ETH vaults?
    • None in terms of returns. Deposited ETH will be wrapped into WETH anyway. The WETH vault just makes it easier for other Ethereum protocols to interact with this vault.
  • How does ETH vault protect itself from liquidation?
    • This vault reads ETH price directly from the Maker's OSM (Oracle Security Model), a system that reads Oracle price 1 hour in advance. This gives the vault 1 hour to pay the CDP debt before liquidation. Also, the vault keeps increasing collateralization by depositing profit on each harvest call.

Other Vaults

  • v1 Money Market vaults, formerly called iEarn, can be found here.
  • Additional vaults can be found here.

If the current strategy for the yCRV vault is farming CRV does it just get added to my balance when I withdraw?

  • No. The vault will farm CRV then sell it on the market automatically. When you withdraw 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 non-decreasing.

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 accrued - 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.

Why can’t we get a better APY for the YFI vault?

  • You can’t get the same numbers for two completely different coins. The new sBTC is following the same strategy that the yCRV vault using curve liquidity pool. The obvious answer is that there aren’t many safe platforms accepting YFI as stake so there aren’t much valid strategies for the YFI vault right now.

I deposited into a vault, what will I get out when I withdraw?

  • You can only withdraw the crypto asset type that you put in.
  • You will get the amount you originally put in, plus the yield you've earned, minus the fees.

What are the Fees?

Vault Version Management Fee Performance Fee Withdrawal Fee
v1 N/A 20% 0.5%
v2 2% 20% N/A

Notes:

  • Actual fees may differ for vaults at certain times. This may have to do with vault migration processes, or the bootstrapping of new vaults and strategies. You can confirm the fees currently applied for a vault in the vaults section of the yearn.finance website. Hovering over a vault's version number will display a tooltip with a break down.
  • Withdrawal Fee only applies on funds withdrawn from active Strategies.
    • Each vault has some amount of the total funds idle and most of them active in the Strategy.
    • Idle funds is the difference between vault holdings and strategy holdings, and can be seen on feel the Yearn.
    • When there is a withdrawal, if idle funds can cover the full amount, there will not be a withdrawal fee applied. If funds will need to be pulled from the Strategy in order to cover the withdrawal request, the Withdrawal Fee is applied.
  • Performance Fee is applied on performance gains. The proceeds from this fee is split between Treasury and Strategist 50:50.
  • Management Fee is annualized and assigned to Treasury. It accrues per block, is collected on each harvest and is applied on the total of the funds managed by the Strategy.
  • Further reading, see YIP-51, YIP-52, YIP-54, and YIP-56.

Yield

  • 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 yield 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 yield is on Curve's homepage for the Y pool

Vault Strategies

What is a Vault Strategy?

  • Yearn's vault strategies are modular smart contracts for each vault that tells it what assets to borrow, which assets to farm, and where it should sell the farmed assets.

What are the current strategies?

  • You can view the current strategies implemented 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?

  • Developers write them but the multi-sig, instructed by YFI voters, 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 or get in touch with the developer team, if you get support for your idea and it ends up being implemented and 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?

  • Strategy creators watch the markets and write strategies that they think are safe while giving the highest yield. They change them according to current yields on the market.

Earn

What is Earn?

  • Earn is a 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 Compound, Dydx or Aave (Ddex and Fulcrum are currently disabled).
  • Learn more in the Yearn Docs

Zap

What is Zap?

  • Zap allows users to convert supported tokens with just one contract interaction to reduce transaction costs.
  • 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 a zap you can take your DAI, for example, and get yCRV with it in one transaction. Normally, to turn DAI into yCRV, you would have to go to earn, deposit DAI and receive yDAI, then go to Curve.fi - Yearn pool and deposit your yDAI and then you would get yCRV. This is a lot 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.

yInsure / Cover

What's yInsure?

  • yInsure, also known as Cover, is a pooled coverage system providing insurance against smart contract risk.
  • It has no KYC requirement and is underwritten by Nexus Mutual.
  • Learn more in this article.

Products Currently in Research & Development

yTrade

yLiquidate

ySwap

  • yswap.exchange
  • Single sided automated market maker (testing in mainnet).

yBorrow

  • yborrow.finance
  • Credit delegation vaults for smart contract to smart contract lending (testnet).

Communication

  • Forum
    • 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 discussed on the forum.
    • This is the main place token holders check for governance related issues.
  • Discord
    • Including non-English channels.
  • Telegram - Main Chat.
  • Telegram - Trading/Social/Fork Chat.
  • Twitter

Governance

All about YIPs

What is a YIP? Why do they matter?

  • 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 Snapshot for everyone to vote on without spending gas.

How many people need to vote to pass a YIP proposed?

  • According to YIP-55 a proposal should be discussed in the forum for at least three days. If after three days there is a 25% “For” vote in the forum poll it will then move to formal voting via Snapshot.
  • As established in YIP-55 there isn't any quorum requirement for a YIP to be approved, but the votation on Snapshot must be open for at least five days and have a majority support (> 50%) in order to pass.

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 auto-fill in the template as well.
  • The process is roughly:
    1. forum discussion (minimum three days)
    2. promote to YIP (usually done by mods), add YIP to github, put on Snapshot (minimum five days off-chain votation)
    3. announce

Who can make a proposal?

  • Anyone can post a proposal on the forum for discussion within the community. If it's promoted to off-chain votation (via Snapshot), only someone holding 1 YFI can submit it to Snapshot. In case your proposal made it to off-chain votation and you don't have enough YFI, mods will help you.

Voting

How do I vote?

  • Stake your YFI in the governance contract or deposit it in the yYFI vault to be able to vote off-chain (gasless) for YIPs on Snapshot.

Can I vote if my YFI isn't in the governance contract or in the yYFI vault, for instance providing liquidity in a DEX or in a Maker CDP?

  • No, you'll only vote with the YFI that you have in the governance contract and in the yYFI vault prior to the snapshot taken at the start of each off-chain votation.

Where can I view the YIPs?

Why should I stake? Do I get any rewards?

  • You should stake only if you want to vote on YIPs. After YIP-56 there isn't any rewards distributed to governance stakers. Instead, all the fees collected by the protocol are used to buy back YFI on the open market. These YFI is used to reward contributors and other Yearn initiatives.

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 or in the yYFI vault to have your votes counted. Since Yearn uses Snapshot for off-chain votations, for each YIP voted off-chain there'll be a snapshot at a given block of all the YFI tokens staked in governance and in the vault. Only people with YFI staked in governance or in the vault at the time of the snapshot will be able to vote in that YIP.

What’s the difference between voting for a poll on the forum and an off-chain vote?

  • A poll just gauges the sentiment of what the community is feeling on the proposal while an off-chain vote (via Snapshot) will be binding and will take effect if it passes.

yDAO

What is its purpose?

  • 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 transactions 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 don't speak English, when will everything be translated?

  • We are working on translating to other languages but it will take time. For now you can go to your language in the global section in Discord.

Community

Does Yearn have a manifesto?

  • Some contributors got together and wrote a post about how they think about the protocol, with others joining in to support it. It's available on the forum.

Is Andre Cronje in charge of Yearn?

  • Andre isn't in charge of Yearn, the YFI token holders make the decisions on how to govern Yearn, Andre is one of the developers in the Yearn ecosystem.

What is the multisig 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 successfully.

Who are the 9 multisig signers?

Have the multisig signers changed?

What decisions can Andre make on his own?

  • Andre can build out the Yearn ecosystem and come up with new products. Usually, he posts his thoughts and ideas on the forum or on his medium blog for everyone to see.

Does the multisig group tell him what to do?

  • They are in close contact with one another, but Andre's priorities are his own. They can be instructed via YIPs.

Who else writes code for Yearn? Is there a team?

Does anyone get paid for working on Yearn?

  • Yes. Yearn has a core team that receives recurring payments. Grants are also distributed to valuable contributors in a monthly basis. For instance, see the September Grants Announcement.

How can I work for Yearn?

  • If you want to contribute to the project as well just reach out to our community managers on Discord/Telegram/Twitter. We'll also release soon a Contributor's Guide.

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 off-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.

Ongoing efforts to improve the Yearn ecosystem

  • You can view the active YIPs in the Snapshot website or here.

User Interface

Can I use the Yearn ecosystem dApps on my phone?

  • Yes, you have to use the Metamask browser

Technical Support

I sent my ETH transaction but it says pending? How do I fix this?

  • You should always make sure to set your gas properly if you want a transaction to go through quickly. Check current gas prices at Ethgasstation or gasnow.
  • If you're using MetaMask and you put your transaction through but it's going too slow, you have the option to speed it up by clicking the speed up button below your last pending transaction under "activity". This should resend the same TX again with a higher gas price to get it confirmed faster.
  • If you've tried everything and your transaction is still stuck pending, you can fix it by sending a transaction to the nonce of the first stuck transaction with a high gas price to overwrite the stuck queue. Here's a good guide explaining how to do this.

Why is the withdrawal fee so high?

  • If you're seeing higher than normal fees while using the Yearn ecosystem then it may be due to Ethereum congestion and abnormally high gas costs. Check Ethgasstation. Your options are to wait until gas prices drop or spend the money to process your transaction now.
  • If the gas prices are crazy high, that means there is an error and the transaction will not be able to process. For instance if you are trying to deposit a token you don't have or if there is no cover available for a contract at http://yinsure.finance/.

Related Projects

Curve

  • 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 yearn.finance where it generates even more income for liquidity providers.
  • Curve FAQ.

Aave

  • Aave is an open source and non-custodial protocol enabling the creation of money markets. Users can earn interest on deposits and borrow assets.

Resources

Where can I learn more about Yearn?

Lists of Smart Contracts

Registry of Tokens and Utility Contracts

Vaults Detail Reference

Statistics

Latest Yearn News

Podcasts

Blogs

Logos