Question 1

What is FARM?

Accepted Answer

FARM is the Harvest protocol token. Harvest uses smart contracts and automated strategies to participate in yield activities such as lending, staking, or liquidity provision; FARM represents protocol-token status rather than a position receipt obtained after a user deposits into a strategy. Three asset types should be distinguished: a strategy’s fToken is a receipt for a user’s strategy position; FARM is the protocol token; and iFARM is a transferable, auto-compounding receipt token created by depositing FARM into a specific Communal Harvest arrangement. They arise for different reasons and represent different rights.

Question 2

How does Harvest auto-compound?

Accepted Answer

Harvest’s auto-compounding is performed by strategy smart contracts: a strategy first participates in underlying activities such as lending, staking, or liquidity provision, collects the rewards generated by those activities, and then uses the portion that can be reinvested to increase the amount of assets used by the strategy. This process serves the strategy positions held by users; it does not automatically turn returns into FARM. Accordingly, the result after auto-compounding depends on the specific strategy, underlying protocol, and relevant assets; FARM-related rewards are a separate arrangement determined by the particular method of participation. A strategy’s ability to auto-compound does not imply that holding FARM necessarily earns that strategy’s returns, nor does it imply that strategy users necessarily receive FARM.

Question 3

What might I receive after staking FARM?

Accepted Answer

Participants who stake FARM in the Communal Harvest pool may share FARM buyback distributions funded by a portion of strategy performance fees. The process is: certain strategies first collect performance fees to cover protocol-operation-related costs; part of those fees is used to buy FARM on the open market; the purchased FARM is then distributed according to each participant’s share staked in the pool. Distributions are not a fixed rate. According to the official explanation, FARM from each buyback is distributed over one day; whenever a new reward is added, the distribution period is reset, so the instantaneous reward rate fluctuates during the period and the page displays a seven-day average. Participants must first hold FARM and deposit it into this auto-compounding pool; total pool stake, performance fees actually generated by strategies, and buyback amounts all change the amount they may receive.

Question 4

How are FARM issuance and supply arranged?

Accepted Answer

When FARM launched in September 2020, it had no premine, presale, venture capital, or other fundraising tokens, and its initial circulating supply was zero. Issuance was originally planned to occur weekly for four years: 70% for incentives such as liquidity provision, market making, and strategy development and maintenance; 10% to the operating treasury; and 20% to the original development team. Subsequently, token holders voted to change the emission curve to decline by 4.45% per week and set the emission cap at 690,420 tokens; the final FARM was minted in September 2024, ending regular issuance. The official information also states that 14,870.23 FARM were irreversibly burned: burning reduces the available circulating amount, while FARM on L2 is a bridged version of Ethereum mainnet FARM, not newly minted tokens exceeding that emission cap.

Question 5

Does holding FARM provide governance voting rights?

Accepted Answer

FARM was used for voting rights on early Harvest governance proposals, but the protocol currently does not use formal voting for day-to-day matters; contributors primarily propose plans and reach consensus through discussion. Holding FARM itself does not grant voting rights over routine matters such as incentive distributions, strategy deployments or updates, or treasury additions and removals. This distinction matters: historical votes used to decide high-level strategic matters such as supply adjustments do not mean holders now have ongoing, general operational governance authority. Whether voting is used and what matters it addresses should be determined by the protocol arrangements in place at the time of the matter.

Question 6

Is Harvest’s displayed annualized yield guaranteed to be achieved?

Accepted Answer

Harvest’s displayed annualized yield is based on assumed projections, not a promised return. It reflects an annualized expression if certain assumptions continue, and cannot guarantee that users will receive actual token returns or fiat value at that figure during any holding period. Actual results are affected simultaneously by strategy and smart-contract operation, the performance of underlying third-party protocols, and changes in relevant token prices. Even if a strategy receives token rewards, price changes in the reward asset alter their fiat value; conversely, an annualized figure displayed on the page should not be understood as a guarantee of principal safety or return level.

Harvest (FARM) Price