Yield

An evergreen guide to DeFi yield, including lending returns, vaults, liquidity mining, fixed rates, tranching, bribes, leverage, compounding, and risk-adjusted analysis.

Contents

Yield is the price paid for something: liquidity, time, risk, complexity, leverage, or governance influence. A useful DeFi yield framework starts by identifying the source of return, the party paying it, and the conditions that can make it disappear.

Reading Path

Start here

  1. 📖 How to make DeFinancial products work for youA practical overview of decentralized finance services that can put ETH to work, with base strategies, variants, and implementation risks.Expert17 minute read

    The strategy map: identify what pays before chasing the rate.

  2. 🤖 Vaults: DeFi Investing Streamlined?How DeFi vaults automate strategies and compound yield, with the risks they add. A 2020 comparison of Yearn, Harvest, Pickle and other early vaults.Beginner7 minute read

    Managed yield does not outsource your responsibility to understand the risk.

  3. Leverage Like a Sir: Polynomial Gains, No Liquidation PainsExploring a novel protocol offering no funding fee no liquidation leverage with convex returns, and announcing my involvment.Intermediate16 minute readAuthor project

    Leverage without recurring funding costs still has a price.

  4. veNFTs: Autopilot, 40Acres and haiVELOHow Autopilot, 40Acres and haiVELO use veNFTs for automation, collateral and leverage. The mechanisms and risks behind locked yield.Expert5 minute read

    How veNFT automation and collateral change the yield stack.

  5. How to build an inflation-proof DeFi portfolio?How DeFi strategies and products can respond to inflation, with practical examples and limits for onchain users.Beginner20 minute read

    Separate token emissions from the return that survives them.

Historical cases

Dated mechanism studies, not current product instructions. Historical does not mean defunct: check each post's context before acting.

  1. PoolTogether: Prize Savings, Not Zero RiskHow PoolTogether turns pooled yield into prizes while keeping deposits withdrawable. No-loss lottery design does not mean no DeFi risk.Beginner13 minute read

    The 2021 prize-savings mechanism. Read the risk note: no-loss is not risk-free.

  2. Risk Tranching in DeFi: Senior and Junior YieldWhat risk tranching is, how senior and junior tranches split yield and losses on Saffron or 88mph, and why money markets need this primitive next.Intermediate9 minute read

    The 2021 senior/junior exposure design, through Saffron.

  3. Fixed Interest Rate Protocols Explained With APWineHow fixed interest rate protocols work: splitting a yield-bearing token into principal and future yield, how APWine and 88mph differ, and who needs them.Intermediate6 minute read

    APWine's 2021 fixed-rate design, not a current product walkthrough.

  4. Yearn Finance and YFI: DeFi on Autopilot in 2020Yearn's early vaults, YFI launch and community governance, explained in their 2020 context. How DeFi composability made automated yield possible.Beginner8 minute read

    Yearn V2 in 2020: the original vault and YFI case study.

  5. The DeFi Farming Toolbox: Tools for Liquidity MiningA curated set of tools and concepts for yield farming: tracking positions, comparing pools, watching gas costs, and avoiding the usual farmer mistakes.Intermediate9 minute read

    A 2020 tools snapshot, not a maintained service directory.

For the voting-power side of returns, follow the CRV Wars series.

Core Concepts