Harvest Finance is a decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol designed to automate yield farming across selected DeFi platforms. It aims to provide users with potential returns by making yield farming more accessible and optimising potential returns using advanced farming strategies. The platform is built on the Ethereum network and uses smart contracts to facilitate these services. Its native token, FARM, serves governance purposes and rewards depositors .
Harvest Finance operates by automatically directing user deposits into liquidity pools that offer the highest returns. It uses smart contracts known as vaults to hold deposited assets and carry out predefined yield-generating strategies. The platform leverages features like automated yield farming, automated compounding, and multi-chain operations to maximise user returns while minimising manual intervention. These smart contracts are responsible for executing yield farming strategies, adjusting pool parameters based on market conditions, and managing users' funds efficiently .
Harvest Finance offers several potential use cases:
Harvest Finance was announced in July 2020 and launched in September 2020. It quickly gained traction, integrating with other DeFi protocols like Yearn.Finance by December 2020 and expanding cross-chain operations to platforms like Polkadot. By January 2021, the protocol had over $1 billion in value locked, making it one of the popular DeFi protocols on Ethereum. Harvest Finance has continued evolving with new vaults, strategies, and cross-chain expansions .