Harvest Finance (FARM)

About Harvest Finance (FARM)

What is Harvest Finance (FARM)?

Harvest Finance is an innovative automated yield farming protocol designed to optimize returns for cryptocurrency holders. By depositing assets into harvest vaults, users can automatically engage in yield farming without needing to manage the process themselves. The protocol aggregates user-deposited tokens and stakes them on their behalf, which significantly reduces gas fees and saves time while maximizing Annual Percentage Yields (APY).

At the heart of Harvest Finance is its native governance token, FARM, which serves as both an incentive and a reward mechanism for platform participants. FARM holders are rewarded with a performance fee generated from the profits of the yield farming strategies deployed by the platform. This fee is used to purchase FARM tokens from the market, which are then distributed to users who stake their FARM in the Profit Sharing Pool.

This streamlined approach makes Harvest Finance an attractive solution for yield farmers seeking to optimize their earnings without the complexities of managing individual farming strategies themselves.

Who are the Founders of Harvest Finance?

Harvest Finance was launched in September 2020 by an anonymous group of developers. The team behind Harvest Finance has chosen to remain pseudonymous, which is common in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space to maintain privacy and security. The daily operations and management of the platform are handled by the Harvest devs, a group of developers that oversee the protocol’s ongoing maintenance and improvement.

How Does Harvest Finance Work?

Harvest Finance simplifies the process of yield farming by automating it for users. Here’s how the platform works:

1. Depositing Assets:
   • When a user deposits assets (such as cryptocurrencies) into a Harvest vault, they receive a share of the vault represented by a fASSET token (a share of the vault). This token acts as a receipt for the user’s deposit.
2. Compounding Strategy:
   • Harvest Finance automatically reinvests the rewards earned through farming by selling the rewards (such as governance tokens or other incentives) for more of the underlying vault asset. This process compounds the user’s interest without requiring manual intervention.
3. Vault Withdrawals:
   • When users decide to withdraw their funds, the fASSET token is burned, and the user receives a proportional amount of their original deposit, plus any gains from the farming strategy, based on the growth of the investment since the time of deposit.
4. Timelock Investment Strategy:
   • The assets deposited into the platform are invested using a “timelock” protected strategy defined by the Harvest developers. This ensures that investments are securely managed and rewards are reinvested in a way that benefits the platform and its users.

Governance and Community Involvement

• Council of 69:
  • In the early stages of investment, Harvest Finance relies on a governance body known as the “Council of 69”, a group of experienced and trusted users who suggest proposals for the platform’s development. These proposals are then turned into Snapshot governance proposals.
• FARM Token Voting:
  • Holders of the FARM token have the power to participate in the governance process by voting on these proposals. Once a proposal is successfully voted on, it is reviewed by the team of developers and established investors. If the proposal is approved, it is implemented on the platform.

What Makes FARM Unique?

1. Strategic Yield Farming:
   • Harvest Finance is built to offer competitive yields by employing various strategic investment techniques. These strategies are designed to maximize the returns on deposited assets through automated farming.
2. Open-Source Protocol:
   • Harvest Finance is an open-source protocol, meaning that anyone can contribute to the platform’s development. This allows the community to suggest improvements, new features, and optimizations for the platform.
3. Trusted Platforms:
   • The platform integrates with more than 30 trusted DeFi platforms (such as Uniswap, Polygon, Lido Finance, etc.), allowing users to leverage a wide variety of liquidity sources and farming opportunities.
4. Security Audits:
   • The yield farming strategies used by Harvest Finance are audited by third-party security auditors. These audits help ensure the platform’s security and mitigate risks for users participating in the farming strategies.
5. FARM Token Use Cases:
   • FARM token holders are granted governance rights, allowing them to participate in the decision-making process for platform updates, new strategies, and proposals.
   • The FARM token is also used as a reward for liquidity providers and is distributed according to the platform’s governance decisions.
6. Token Distribution:
   • The newly minted FARM tokens are released weekly, with the following distribution:
     • 70% of the tokens are distributed to liquidity providers as rewards for participating in the protocol.
     • 10% is allocated to the operational treasury to support ongoing development and maintenance.
     • 20% is distributed to the development team as incentives for their work on the protocol.