Yield Farming for Beginners: A Lucrative Opportunity in DeFi

Ben Baiju
Coinmonks
3 min readJul 27, 2023

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DeFi or Decentralized Finance has revolutionised the finance industry.DeFi is one of the major applications of crypto.And in DeFi one of the major methods in which we can earn money or passive income is from Yield Farming.In this article I will explain what Yield Farming is,the risks involved and give an example of how it works.

Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

Understanding Yield Farming

Yield farming, also known as liquidity mining, is a DeFi practice that involves providing liquidity to decentralized platforms in exchange for rewards. By becoming a liquidity provider (LP), you contribute your cryptocurrencies to liquidity pools that facilitate various DeFi services, such as decentralized exchanges or lending platforms.And as you provide your cryptocurrencies to the exchange the exchange gives out rewards.

The Mechanics of Liquidity Pools

Liquidity pools are smart contracts that hold funds provided by Liquidity Providers(LP). These pools enable users to trade or borrow assets smoothly without the need for traditional intermediaries. As an LP, you add your crypto holdings to the pool and receive LP tokens, representing your share of the pool’s total liquidity.

Earning Rewards

The rewards you earn as an LP vary depending on the platform and its native token. The most common method is earning trading fees or interest generated by the DeFi protocol. Additionally, some platforms offer governance tokens as rewards, allowing LPs to have a say in the platform’s decision-making process.

Risks and Impermanent Loss

Yield farming can be profitable, but it comes with certain risks. One significant risk is impermanent loss, which occurs when the value of your deposited assets fluctuates significantly compared to when you first provided liquidity. While impermanent loss is temporary and can be offset by rewards, it’s essential to understand this concept thoroughly.

Examples

Example of Yield Farming in Normal Case:

In a normal yield farming scenario, let’s say you provide liquidity to a decentralized exchange (DEX) by depositing an equal value of two tokens, Token A and Token B. You then receive liquidity provider (LP) tokens in return, which represent your share of the liquidity pool. As traders swap between Token A and Token B on the DEX, you earn a portion of the trading fees in the form of additional tokens. This process allows you to earn rewards in both the tokens you provided, as well as the trading fees.

Example of Yield Farming with Impermanent Loss:

Now, let’s consider a situation where you provide liquidity to a DEX, but the price of the tokens you deposited changes significantly during your time in the liquidity pool. For instance, suppose you deposited 1 Token A and 1 Token B when they were both worth $100 each. As time passes, the price of Token A increases to $150, while Token B’s price decreases to $50.

If you decide to withdraw your liquidity at this point, you would end up with more Token A and less Token B compared to what you originally provided. The increase in Token A’s value offsets the decrease in Token B’s value, but you experience impermanent loss, which means that your overall value is lower compared to simply holding the tokens in your wallet.

This impermanent loss occurs because as the price of the tokens changes, the value of your LP tokens fluctuates, and it might not align with the value of the tokens you originally provided.

Conclusion

Yield Farming is one of the most lucrative options available in Blockchain if a person can make proper use of it. It is important to note that this strategy may carry risks, and it is essential to learn about the strategies and risks in more detail before engaging in it.

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Ben Baiju
Coinmonks

Passionate about tech, business, and finance. Exploring their intersections and leveraging innovation to unlock new possibilities.