Create a DeFi Portfolio

Change the way you handle your money and join the next financial revolution

DeFi has emerged as a breakout category on DappRadar over the last 6 months. Up 294% in terms of activity growth year-on-year. Many people are looking to take the first steps into building a DeFi portfolio and starting to generate revenues for themselves.

One product that has successfully navigated the space to this point is Zerion. The platform offers users a way to get started and to invest in DeFi from anywhere in the world.

As we enter the golden age of digital finance and ownership. It is important that our community is armed with the right resources. We wanted to go through Zerion, check it out, and provide a step-by-step guide for our users to start putting their assets to work.

For the more advanced that understand the principles of DeFi. But have still not taken the leap of faith and started a portfolio. You could skip to the ‘Let’s get started’ section. Or refresh yourself with the basics of DeFi below. For those completely new to the topic, continue reading.

What is DeFi?

Decentralized finance — or DeFi for short — is an umbrella term for services like investing, borrowing, lending and trading based on decentralized, non-custodial infrastructure. The protocols that underpin DeFi are interoperable, programmable and composable.

How does that help me?

Interoperability means that functionality isn’t siloed. The current financial system is controlled by middlemen and rent-seekers. It’s normal to restrict access based on arbitrary factors like nationality, income or the bank you use. DeFi is defined by transparency and functions that work seamlessly together, regardless of who created them.

Programmable means that transactions are controlled by smart contracts, not people. This makes the system more secure and customizable, so there are limitless possibilities.

Composable means that the entire system is a bit like a box of Lego blocks. There is no limit to what can be built. Everything can be assembled in multiple combinations and there’s always a perfect fit.

In human language

Even if the above is a little unclear for now, there are a couple of things that should be clear.

• DeFi is eliminating the need for middlemen in financial transactions.
• Interest rates as high as 8/10% are being offered on savings. For perspective, the average offered through centralized finance is 1/2%
• If you are a HODLR and have not been investigating DeFi you could be missing out.

Let’s get started

Zerion is non-custodial, which means it doesn’t have user accounts and never has access to your funds. Go to Zerion.io and click “Log in” to connect your Ethereum wallet. From here on, any transactions you implement will be strictly between you and the blockchain.

If you don’t have a blockchain wallet, we recommend using our guide to opening a Metamask account. Once you have done this we can begin building your DeFi portfolio.

If you don’t have any funds in your wallet, you’ll see a dashboard like the one below. Click “Deposit” and choose the asset you want to deposit, as well as the method you want to use.

Put your money to work

Using the Zerion interface to build a DeFi portfolio lets users do just about everything with DeFi assets. Earn interest on passive funds by investing in liquidity pools. Provide collateral to crypto loans, borrow crypto to leverage the market, or trade tokens at the best rates.

Liquidity pools

Once you get setup we recommend starting with earning interest on your holdings, by utilizing liquidity pool deposits. Liquidity pools are a way to passively earn on your holdings.

Step 1: Access your Zerion DeFi portfolio

Step 2: Connect your wallet (Metamask, Fortmatic or a mobile wallet with WalletConnect) and confirm your wallet connection.

Step 3: Open the “Invest” tab

Step 4: Select the Bancor or Uniswap pool that you would like to invest in by clicking “Add liquidity”.

Step 5: Input the amount of assets that you want to deposit and click “Add”. Note that you will need to enable the tokens before you can deposit them into the pools.

Step 6: Confirm the transaction in your wallet (if you’re using a browser wallet like MetaMask, you should see a pop-up).

Step 7: After depositing your assets into a pool, you can track their performance in the “Invest” tab.

Step 8: When you want to withdraw your assets, open the “Invest” tab and click “Manage pool” for the pool you are interested in. Choose “Remove liquidity”, then input the amount of assets that you would like to withdraw and click “Remove”.

Step 9: Finally, confirm the transaction in your wallet. After the transaction is confirmed, your assets will be returned to your wallet.

Congratulations you’ve just put your assets to work. You can now track your assets using the Zerion mobile app and keep a close eye on your DeFi portfolio and view the best liquidity pool rates.

We recommend signing up for the DappRadar bi-weekly email newsletter to ensure your up-to-date with developments and new opportunities in the DeFi space.

Originally published at https://dappradar.com on March 27, 2020.