On February 2, 2021, Harvest Finance announced the ideation of a new Harvest token $iFARM – a new value accruing token which represents your profit share stake and could potentially be used in DeFi protocols like Aave without losing your profit share APY!
The $iFARM token was ideated in Harvest’s #Governance Discord channel where new improvement proposals are often discussed before moving on-chain for voting. Just 8 days after $iFARM’s announcement, the $iFARM improvement proposal voting went live on Feb 10 and ended on Feb 12.
The $iFARM proposal passed with the overwhelming majority of 97.27% voting with 52.45K $FARM for its approval:
$iFARM Proposal Snapshot Page (Source)
You know Harvest devs right? They don’t F*@k around when it comes to building and innovating. That’s why the all-new $iFARM token has already been vigorously tested and is now live as of Feb 23!
What is iFARM Token?
Illustration of the $iFARM interest-bearing token
The $iFARM token is an ERC-20 token that represents your share in the Profit Sharing Pool – where staked $FARM tokens are auto compounding to earn you interest paid out in $FARM.
By holding $iFARM tokens you can transfer them like any other ERC-20 token and put them to work in various DeFi applications all while accruing interest on your $FARM from the Profit Sharing Pool.
Benefits of $iFARM Token:
Gas Savings
The gas fee of the new iFARM vault (see next section) is about half the cost of the existing Profit Sharing Pool. Depositing $FARM in the iFARM vault requires only around 88,000 GAS compared to the existing Profit Sharing contract which requires about 250,000 GAS.
Transferability
$iFARM tokens can be transferred like any other ERC-20 token and continue to earn yield. You can store them in ERC-20 compatible wallets or transfer them from one address to another without the necessity of withdrawing FARM from the vault.
Composability
$iFARM tokens will enable staked $FARM to be used as collateral on lending services while continuing to earn yield in the Profit Sharing Pool. $iFARM composability will also open the way to more innovation down the line (DeFi platform integration is ongoing).
How to get iFARM Token?
iFARM Vault (Source)
You can get $iFARM tokens by depositing $FARM into the iFARM Vault, which is just like all of the other front-page fASSET vaults.
When you deposit $FARM to this vault, you receive receipts for it in the form of $iFARM tokens and your deposited $FARM is automatically staked into the auto-compounding Profit Sharing Pool to earn you interest (yield) as per usual.
When you deposit $FARM into the iFARM Vault, you will receive less $iFARM than you deposit $FARM, but it will become redeemable for more $FARM over time as it accrues interest from the Profit Sharing Pool.
If your $FARM tokens are already staked in the Profit Sharing Pool, simply unstake your $FARM and then stake them in the new iFARM Vault.
6 Things to Know about iFARM
- $iFARM tokens are transferable ERC-20 tokens - You can move your $iFARM around while accruing interest in the Profit Sharing Pool.
- $iFARM saves you GAS in Profit Sharing Pool - Less than half the cost 88,000 GAS compared to 250,000 GAS
- You can’t utilize staked $FARM but you can utilize $iFARM - You will be able to use $iFARM as collateral, in Futures products, etc. across DeFi applications.
- You make the same interest with $iFARM as you do $FARM - It doesn’t matter if you deposit $FARM to the existing Profit Sharing Pool or $iFARM to the iFARM Vault, the interest you accrue is the same.
- The value of $iFARM is always directly related to $FARM - $iFARM is simply a receipt for depositing $FARM to the iFARM Vault.
- The iFARM Vault is safe - It has all of the same audits and protections as other vaults.
