Yearn Finance Newsletter #9
Week Ending November 1st, 2020
Welcome to the 9th edition of Yearn Finance Newsletter. Our aim with this newsletter is to keep the Yearn and the wider crypto community informed of latest news, including product launches, governance changes, and ecosystem updates. If you’re interested in learning more about Yearn Finance, follow our official Twitter and Medium accounts.
Summary
Initial v2 yVaults Have Launched
2nd Yearn AMA Completed
Bugs Identified & Remediated
How Should Protocol Earnings Be Distributed?
Winners of the ETHOnline Hackathon
Evaluation of Strategist Fees
Keep3r Network
Initial v2 yVaults Have Launched
The first few v2 yVaults have launched this past week, and include UNI-WBTC-ETH, UNI-DAI-ETH, and yvCRV. However, these yVaults are under active testing and have not been audited. Bugs may exist that could result in loss of user funds, so please use extreme caution if you choose to interact with these vaults. The two UNI vaults are capped at $100k in deposits, while the yvCRV vault is capped at 250k CRV.
The UNI-WBTC-ETH and UNI-DAI-ETH yVaults utilize both Uniswap and pickle.finance. Users deposit WBTC-WETH or DAI-ETH Uniswap Liquidity Provider (LP) tokens into the respective yVault. The yVaults deposit these tokens into pickle.finance, and thus automatically earn both UNI and PICKLE tokens. UNI earned is automatically sold and used to purchase more of the underlying Uniswap LP tokens by pickle.finance. The PICKLE earned is periodically sold by the Yearn yVault and used to purchase more of the underlying pickle.finance LP tokens. For more information about the specifics of these strategies please refer to our State of the Vaults newsletter. The yvCRV deposits CRV into the C.R.E.A.M lending protocol and earns interest. At the time of writing this is approximately 54.4% APY, but is subject to change.
We would like to emphasize that these vaults are under active testing and have not been audited. These vaults are not on our UI yet as they are under testing. Bugs may exist that could result in loss of funds. Do not deposit unless you are willing to accept these risks and understand that they are still experimental in nature.
2nd Yearn AMA Completed
We conducted our 2nd Ask Me Anything (AMA) last Tuesday, October 27th on our Discord channel. You can read a summary of this AMA here. Thank you to all the participants.
Bugs Identified & Remediated
Two bugs were identified and remediated this past week. They were related to the TUSD & GUSD yVaults.
The Yearn Security team was notified on October 30th of a vulnerability in the TUSD yVault that could be exploited by a flash loan, or a user with a large amount of capital. This vulnerability was identified by security researcher Wen-Ding Li, and patched by the Yearn Security Team a few hours after communicated. No funds were exploited and no action is required by users.
You can read more about the technical details of the vulnerability and a timeline of events here. Wen-Ding will be rewarded a 50k yUSD bug bounty for his efforts, in accordance with our Bug Bounty program.
There was an error in the GUSD yVault resulting in one user receiving less funds than anticipated at withdrawal. This was related to decimals not being accounted for in the _withdrawSome() function. The error was corrected and the user was reimbursed. You can read more information about this issue here.
How Should Protocol Earnings Be Distributed?
A new proposal has been introduced on the governance forum related to the distribution of protocol earnings. Currently, protocol earnings are distributed to YFI holders that stake in the governance voting contract. YFI holders govern the Yearn ecosystem and by doing so they are eligible for protocol earnings distributed as yCRV.
This proposal would eliminate protocol earning distributions to YFI stakeholders in the governance contract, and instead use earnings to purchase YFI that would be distributed to contributors. It is not entirely clear how contributors would be selected for the distributions, or if rewards would be vested. This proposal is still being debated and we encourage you to join the discussion here.
Winners of the ETHOnline Hackathon
We are proud to announce the winners of the ETHOnline Hackathon. The winner received 2,500 yUSD and the runner-up received 1,500 yUSD. You can read more about the winners and our official announcement here.
Evaluation of Strategist Fees
Strategists currently receive 0.5% of revenue earned by yVaults. However, several developers have expressed concern that these amounts are not sufficient to cover their expenses, while also incentivizing them to continue to contribute to the ecosystem. A discussion is ongoing on the governance forum related to altering Strategist fees in order to more appropriately align long-term incentives among developers in the ecosystem. You can join the discussion here.
Keep3r Network Launch
We would like to be very clear and state that Keep3r Network is not an official Yearn product, and that Keep3r Network is not managed by YFI token holders. However, Keep3r was launched by Yearn contributor Andre Cronje, and will likely be used by the Yearn protocol to do various tasks, such as calling the harvest() function for yVaults.
Keep3r aims to create a marketplace where users can submit jobs or tasks that need to be completed. Jobs include, but are not limited to, calling update() on an oracle, calling harvest() for a yVault, calling vote() on behalf of users, or triggering liquidations. Other users (Keepers) respond to these jobs and complete the specified tasks. You can read more about Keep3r here.
There is a separate governance token (KP3R), unrelated to YFI, that manages the Keep3r network. Once again, we want to be completely clear and state the Keep3r Network is not controlled or maintained by Yearn governance, but the Yearn ecosystem is likely to use the Keep3r network in the future.
Yearn State of the Vaults
You can read our weekly synopsis regarding Yearn’s yVaults, including current strategies and upcoming changes here. Written by Yearn Communications team member dudesahn.
Governance Updates (YIPs)
You can read our weekly governance roundup discussing newly proposed, on-going, or passed governance proposals here. Written by Yearn Communications team member Nomad.
Ecosystem News
Three Arrows Capital purportedly purchased 133 YFI
Yearn Finance not related or affected by the Harvest Finance incident
Yield farming fuels 623% growth in DAI supply
Yearn now comprises approximately 85% of the Curve Finance y Pool
Grand Finale to select new artwork for yCover NFTs
Upcoming events for v2 yVaults
3Pool yVault explained on Youtube
Diagram of new yVaults using pickle.finance
New stats added to the yearn.finance/stats page
Resources
YCosystem: Aggregator of Yearn community links
Y.finance: Development Yearn frontend
yGov Finance: Yearn on-chain voting
yGov Rocks: Alternative voting and claiming portal
Learn Yearn: Yearn education and explainers
Yield Farming Info: Yearn Vault APYs
Feel the Yearn: Yearn Vault APYs, wallet holdings, and earnings
Stats.Finance: Yearn Vault APYs, value locked in yVaults and Strategies
yVault ROI: yVaults ROI for any wallet address
Yearn ROI: Estimate future yVault ROI
DeFi Marketcap: Yearn Vault and token marketcaps
Recycler: Zap multiple stablecoins into yUSD Vault
yVault explainer graphics by DeFinn
We invite developers to conceive and propose any new yVault strategies or potential product offerings to the governance forum (https://gov.yearn.finance). Introduce strategies and get paid for your work! We are also always looking for security auditors to help us identify vulnerabilities and exploits. Please reach out to us if you are interested in assisting our security efforts or would like to discuss any business collaborations at franklinyfi@yearn.finance or info@yearn.finance