The yearn.finance team hosted an AMA on Oct. 27, 2020. Questions were submitted to a Google Form and answers were shared in the yearn.finance Discord.
When will ySwap be in production? Is there any more detailed doc on how ySwap can almost eliminate IL?
Currently, none of Yearn’s devs are working on ySwap and are instead focused on other things such as v2 yVaults as well as new strategies. However, you can see that ySwap is still in Andre’s backlog of projects (https://twitter.com/bantg/status/1318146715594199042?s=20). The most up to date info we have on ySwap is in our docs (https://docs.yearn.finance/r-and-d/yswap) along with the initial blog post (https://medium.com/iearn/yswap-exchange-99bf906311db).
Any plans with Pickle.Finance? New strategies?
We currently don’t have any plans for a collaboration, but we are now testing a strategy that stakes Uniswap LP tokens with pickle.finance to farm PICKLE and UNI. It is currently undergoing testing, see more here: https://github.com/iearn-finance/strategy-uni-lp-pickle.
How many developers are behind Yearn Finance now, and is Andre still a part of it?
Yearn has many contributors. A full list of people who have contributed to our GitHub can be seen here (https://ycontributors.finance/). For the main developers on payroll, you can see here (https://gov.yearn.finance/t/september-grants-announcement/7044) that we have banteg as the lead dev, and @x48#2975, fubuloubu, doug, and luciano as full-time devs as well. orbxball serves as our lead strategist. For this month Matt Bridges also received a grant for his dev work, along with Bob_The_Buidler. Yearn’s list of grant recipients is published monthly, and may change from month to month. If you’re a dev and wish to contribute, we’re always looking for skilled devs, so please head over to the #dev channel to get started.
Regarding Andre’s involvement, Andre does still work closely with Yearn’s developers, but his main focus is developing new projects. Some of these projects are related to Yearn and some are not. Andre sums up his relationship with Yearn and with investors here (https://andrecronje.medium.com/unpacking-my-involvement-in-defi-cdb6479e337d).
Any more news about the audits/release for v2 Vaults?
Audits are in discussion. We are talking to 3 firms and they should start around November.
What about NFT competition on yinsure?
The team has selected the three best images they saw for yInsure and will hold a Snapshot vote to determine the winner.
Will GUSD vault be shifted to voter proxy strategy? From what I can tell it’s got no boosties for now.
It is currently on a voter proxy strategy as can be seen here (https://feel-the-yearn.vercel.app/) which means that the strategy can be boosted by veCRV, and GUSD is currently boosted.
Any updates on the UNI Vault?
Progress for this vault can be seen here (https://github.com/iearn-finance/yearn-protocol/pull/49)
Any updates on testing the leveraged COMP farming strategy for the DAI/ETH/wBTC vaults? Will this be going live soon?
The v2 Dai Comp farming strategy is mostly done and it is being tested now. Hopefully there will be a limited production version in the next few days or early next week.
Has there been discussion of how the new Keep3r project can be used to help Yearn in any way? What is the reason that Andre appears on the surface to be working more heavily with Synthetix than with the Yearn core devs on this project? Can you tell us more about Keep3r, MetaWallet and yOracle?
Again, Andre is not paid or compensated for working on yearn in any way nor did he get a ‘founder’ reward, so Andre is free to develop and work with anyone he likes, but he is in constant contact with the core Yearn devs. Having said that, as of now, Keep3r will be an essential utility network for yearn — used to call harvest on time. You can read more about keeper here (https://andrecronje.medium.com/keep3r-network-ba5af26c1f24) and here (https://andrecronje.medium.com/keep3r-network-update-audit-967a9ecbab4c). And as of now all we have about these new protocols are what is written on Andre’s blogs.
Is Keep3r network is going to be a part of Yearn brand?
Keep3r has its own token and Yearn will be relying on it for calling the Harvest() function of the vaults in a timely, optimal manner. This is all we know for now.
Cross-chain strategies?
Currently, we are not actively pursuing this, but anyone is free to work on it or propose it on the forums if that is something they want the yearn team to research.
What’s the difference between y.finance and yearn.finance?
y.finance was temporary site. yearn.finance is now the up to date official site.
Any updates on the yaLink vault?
Not yet. But we are actively looking for new strategies. You are all invited to propose in governance forum.
I’d like to withdraw from the DAI vault but I’ve noticed there’s a message that says “withdrawals might be subject to high slippage due to a recent large withdrawal” can anyone explain: 1. Why slippage occurs; 2. How to calculate the amount of slippage; 3. How long it will take for things to return to normal. Thanks!
For 1. If there are available funds in the vault that are more than the amount you wish to withdraw then your fund comes straight out of the vault. (Calculated by vault holdings — strategy holdings here https://yearn.finance/stats) — otherwise the strategy has to trade in order to supply your withdraw with may experience slippage.
I know there was a yHEGIC vault in the works… is that moving forward? Or still waiting for the finalized community strategy?
We don’t feel comfortable pushing yHEGIC as a v1 vault so we are waiting for the release of v2 vaults.
I’m a software developer engineer. Is there a way to get a job at yearn.finance?
Yes! Well, since yearn isn’t your average company, but a DAO, we work a little different than traditional companies. We encourage users to jump in and contribute where they can help out, and if you don’t know where that is usually the best place is to ask mods or join our discord. In discord we have channels set up for everything that needs developing. We give grants out once a month depending on how much and what someone has contributed, so if you’re actively contributing, you will get recognized and people will vote you a grant for your contributions. Those that are active frequently month-over-month can be recognized with a monthly grant as well.
Is Andre still a part of the yearn team?
Andre still works on things directly and indirectly related to yearn. But yearn is more of a network than a team.
Has the yearn minting function been burnt?
Yearn’s minting function has not yet been burnt, but it has the overwhelming support of the community to do so based on this snapshot vote (a polling vote) (https://snapshot.page/#/yearn/proposal/QmXywy67BG2rMwaMnfWWP5op6MWPdYUU3RPxD38WdxkN57). Though some have argued on the forum that since YIP1 passed (https://yips.yearn.finance/YIPS/yip-1) we should mint more YFI. This will probably be discussed more on the gov forum, but it does seem like the community is overwhelmingly in favor of burning the minting keys.
What are we doing to make it easier for users to create new vaults?
We are working on a document to clarify the process of creating vaults. As for coding strats that a user has suggested, that’s up to you to team up with a developer. We’d love to see more community made strategies and vaults.
What’s up with the ETH vault? Seems like the biggest opportunity for adoption. Are changes coming?
A DAI strategy that farms COMP is in testing right now and should be released soon; this is planned for use on the yETH Vault.
Will Andre Cronje come back as the main public figures behind Yearn.Finance?
Yearn is a DAO as such there is no one person in charge. In fact, we have many devs who work on various things of their own initiative. While it is true that Andre started Yearn, the reason he launched the YFI token was to hand over the keys, so to speak, to others; therefore, Andre will not be coming back as the main lead dev for Yearn. Having said that, Andre does still work closely with Yearn’s developers, but his main focus is developing new projects. Some of these projects are related to Yearn and some are not, as they may not be suited for Yearn to develop. Andre is not paid by Yearn (despite our best efforts to pay him) and is not obligated to give Yearn anything, but he still does and he still actively works with the dev team. Andre sums up his relationship with yearn and with investors here (https://andrecronje.medium.com/unpacking-my-involvement-in-defi-cdb6479e337d).
1) Do the yearn devs believe they have enough of a strong incentive to continue to build yearn and see it be successful? 2) What are your general thoughts on incentivization and onboarding of new devs to help with the product pipeline?
We believe that the current incentives and pay the devs get is quite good and commensurate with a developer job in the cryptocurrency industry. Yes we believe it is a strong enough incentive for the devs to build out the yearn ecosystem. Having said that we are always looking for new ways to incentivize members of the community that are actively contributing. Recently there have been a few proposals on the forum that try to address this issue, I would suggest if you have any ideas on the matter to contribute to these threads here(https://gov.yearn.finance/t/lets-build-a-bigger-warchest/7160) and here(https://gov.yearn.finance/t/proposal-to-make-yfi-more-agile-and-provide-better-incentives-for-talent/7168). Yearn is community run so voice your opinion!
With regards to the recent harvest.finance arbitrage exploit on single-asset stablecoin vaults that deposit to Curve, do we have any concerns about our DAI, TUSD, or GUSD vaults and their current Curve-based strategies? Could an exploiter manipulate the underlying curve pool with flash loans, vault deposits, earn calls, and vault withdrawals in order to steal money from our DAI, TUSD, and GUSD vaults?
Since Yearn’s vaults use get_virtual_price(), as seen here (https://twitter.com/bantg/status/1320738907869372418?s=20) they are NOT able to be exploited in the same manner, none of them, not even the GUSD vault. Yearn has a much lower slippage limit than harvest did, and it is not able to be used to manipulate the price or steal user funds via any means flashloan or otherwise. The GUSD vault has some slippage to get into the vault now because it is not very active this is within limits and not exploitable.
EDIT 10/31/20: A potential vulnerability was mitigated after being reported by a security researcher Wen-Ding Li through Yearn’s security vulnerability disclosure process on October 29 2020. Through a flash loan vulnerability, funds of the TUSD vault could have been put at risk. It was not exploited. Full disclosure here.
In terms of increasing competition from other projects being created and so on, how do you see Yearn distinguishing itself from the pack and what would the our competitive advantage?
IMO Yearn is one of the top leaders of innovation. Where others are cloning and making security mistakes :(, Yearn is “ahead of the curve.” We are on the forefront of vaults with v2/other products, where as everyone else is just getting caught up on v1
Is yTRADE still on the near roadmap? and will it be as advertised by Andre in the past, or with different mechanics?
It has been advertised as open for collaboration with Andre: https://twitter.com/bantg/status/1316710584386289666?s=20
What is the dev team’s stance on copying and improving strategies from others such as $FARM to boost TVL and reducing end user fees which would provide value esp if yearn ecosystem is robust enough?
On this, anyone is free to submit a strategy for a new vault or an existing one, and if it is approved, they would get 0.5% of yield generated from by the vault by this strategy. Currently there are a few forum posts for how we should deal with fees, if you have any good ideas I would post them there.
Will users have to do anything to move funds from the v1 yETH vault to v2 once it launches? Or are we good to just leave ETH in the v1 vault?
V1 and V2 will coexist and if migration is needed, there will be a method to do it without the withdrawal fee.
I will ask the question we really want to know. Which would you rather fight: one horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses?
One horse-sized duck!
Thanks to everyone who asked questions! Make sure to get involved in the yearn.finance community on the governance forum and Discord.
