Launching Labs: advanced yield farming without complexity

Gro DAO
Gro DAO
Published in
4 min readDec 2, 2021

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Gro is launching Labs next week with Alpha Homora v2 on Avalanche as its first strategy. Labs will make cutting-edge leveraged strategies accessible to more DeFi users, offering high returns at low gas costs while removing complexity.

Labs will launch on Avalanche next week with our first strategies based on Alpha Homora v2 to offer automated leveraged yield farming. Expect attractive yields even without additional governance token incentives. To reward Gro DAO members, only those holding 500+ GRO tokens will have access to this yield strategy at the initial launch next week.

Pioneer new ways to DeFi

What type of people do you find in a laboratory? Pioneers. Labs will be the place for Gromies to get their hands on cutting-edge yield strategies that are different to what PWRD and Vault use. These new strategies may have different risk profiles, offer higher returns, or even be on a different network. Labs offer us a space to introduce new ways to DeFi, while continuing to offer PWRD and Vault as the base products on Ethereum.

Eventually Labs will be open to everyone, but first we want to reward Gro DAO members who are the most committed. That’s why only those with 500+ GRO tokens will be given access to Labs at the launch next week. If that mechanism sounds familiar, it was exactly the same way we opened up access to Gro protocol — except this time we’re using GRO tokens instead of Degenscore as the gatekeeper.

After users have had a chance to use these new strategies in Labs, the DAO can assess whether the strategies are also a good fit to be included in the base products PWRD and Vault.

First strategy: Alpha Homora v2 on Avalanche

Alpha Finance Lab is our natural choice as Labs’ first partner. Alpha Finance Lab continuously innovates to bring better leveraged products to the DeFi community — its spirit is very fitting for Labs as it’s a place where pioneers gather.

For those who aren’t familiar with Alpha Finance Lab and Alpha Homora v2 yet, Alpha Finance Lab is a blockchain lab with cross-chain DeFi product offerings; one of which is Alpha Homora v2 on Avalanche. Alpha Homora v2 is a leverage yield farming and leverage liquidity providing platform which allows users to borrow funds and multiply how much liquidity they provide to pools, which in turn enables much higher APY than what traditional yield farming offers.

But yield farming is hard work. A leveraged yield farmer needs to calculate their exposure and check the positions often to ensure they aren’t getting liquidated. Not everyone could afford the time it takes — wouldn’t it be great to have someone manage your positions while you enjoy life?

That’s where Labs shines — removing complexity from leveraged strategy.

Our first Labs strategy builds upon Alpha Homora v2 to offer automated leveraged yield farming. That means users don’t have to worry about when to open and close positions, claim rewards tokens, or calculate how much to borrow in order to remain market-neutral on the non-stablecoin asset. When there is a major pump (or dump), Gro gauges when the market resumes bi-directional volatility before opening a new position, so that impermanent loss is controlled.

As usual, your safety is our priority. That’s why we have also got Trail of Bits, one of the best auditors in DeFi, reviewed the strategy before launching it to make sure it is as secure as possible for our users.

In essence, Gro users can deposit funds then sit back and relax while the juicy leveraged yield farming APYs are automatically served to them. It’s time for blockchain agriculture to get automated — why do it yourself when Gro can do that for you?

Can’t wait to jump in? Check out our how-to guide for Labs!

What’s next for Labs?

We believe that bringing more cutting-edge strategies on Avalanche to Gro protocol will not only unlock more value for our users but also introduce more people to Gro protocol. Launching an automated Alpha Homora v2 strategy on Avalanche is only the first step for Labs. Our lab pioneers will continue to develop new ways to DeFi that Gromies can explore with us. Got ideas about which cutting-edge strategies we should bring to Gro protocol next? Come join us on Discord, Telegram, or Twitter to share what you have in mind — we can’t wait to hear from you!

Reminder about Risk

DeFi is still a very new space, and while that’s exciting, it comes with risk. Make sure you do your own research and invest responsibly to avoid severe losses. Always exercise best security practices when it comes to wallet and private key management.

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Gro DAO
Gro DAO

Gro DAO builds products to make web3 more accessible