Defi is wonderful. And confusing. Time invested in learning is valuable in all senses of the term.

IL (Impermanent Loss) is a real issue in defi.
https://www.dlnews.com/articles/defi/why-defi-liquidity-providers-do-not-fear-impermanent-loss/

I won’t go into detail here, this isn't the post to do that. but do do some research on how it works and how it can affect your returns. Many of the resources below include sections on IL and how to manage for it. Read them carefully!

The protocols to start on

There are just so many defi protocols out there it's hard to know where to start. Aggregators have sprung up to help you with this problem. They are a great starting point as you can learn from a wide variety of projects at the same time.
Below are the ones I recommend starting with.

Kamino Finance - Solana

The tools here are amazing and the vaults are all auto-rebalanced for you.
Plus it’s only concentrated liquidity so the yields a lot higher.
This is THE place to defi IMO. Solana is cheap and fast and Kamino offers a lot of tools and data to help you manage your portfolio.
Dive into the docs and the blog, get educated, and start defi-ing with the best of them.
https://app.kamino.finance/
Docs https://docs.kamino.finance/
Blog https://blog.kamino.finance/

Yearn Finance - main EVM chains

https://yearn.fi/
The defi OG. They invented a bunch of defi as we know it today. Still a very good protocol.
Read the docs, they’re good https://docs.yearn.fi/

Beefy Finance - nearly all EVM chains

https://app.beefy.finance/
Great analytics to help manage your positions. And the widest coverage of any aggregator out there. Use Beefy as your jumping off point to explore chains and opportunities.
Also join their Discord to keep up to date with the latest integrations.
Docs are really good here. Lots of education https://docs.beefy.finance/

DYOR isn’t a meme (or a scam)

Staying safe in defi and DYOR (do your own research). Crypto is about handing you the power to control your own destiny. That also means you’re responsible for your own safety too.

• https://ignasdefi.substack.com/p/how-to-stay-safe-in-defi-my-personal: the definitive guide of how to approach the space from a risk aware stance
• https://www.binance.com/en/blog/from-cz/keep-your-crypto-safu-czs-tips-421499824684900429: a long but thorough post about safety from CZ of Binance fame. It's a little old and focused on more the CEX experience, so bear that in mind when you read it, but still very useful. Regardless of how good a CEO CZ was, he was (and remains) a very good trader.
• https://defillama.com/: Learn to use Defi Llama https://www.dlnews.com/articles/llama-u/ as this is the most comprehensive set of tools in defi and you’ll find not many people have taken the time to really dig into everything on offer here.
• CoinMarketCap, DexScreener, CoinGecko, Birdseye: Take the time to learn to use these. They are all building out new functionality all the time. Both CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko have good learning resources too. Plus a listing on CoinMarketCap/CoinGecko signifies a token has reached the most basic level of credibility
  • https://coinmarketcap.com/
  • https://dexscreener.com/
  • https://www.coingecko.com
  • https://birdeye.so
• https://debank.com/ plenty of wallet explorers out there but DeBank is the best. Check out their social media platform they’ve built (apparently they are building their own chain for it) to follow interesting investors/traders directly from their wallets https://debank.com/stream
• https://chainlist.org install EVM chains easily and safely for your wallet
• A few tools you should be aware of for MetaMask
  • https://mevblocker.io/ - install and use instead of Ethereum Mainnet RPC
  • https://1inch.io/rabbithole/ same as MevBlocker only from the DEX 1inch
  • https://www.stelolabs.com/ turn transaction confirmations into easier to understand data and be alerted to known scams before you approve a transaction.
  • https://blowfish.xyz/ same idea as Stelo. Try both to see what you like.
  • A bunch of stuff available now from Metamask Snaps https://metamask.io/snaps/, explore https://snaps.metamask.io/ and there’s going to be a lot more to come.
• https://revoke.cash/ check to see who still has permissions on your wallet regularly. Great also to quickly kill permissions in the case of a hack
• Use DEX aggregators on EVM chains to get good prices and be protected against MEV bots
  • https://app.1inch.io/
  • https://swap.cow.fi
  • https://app.uniswap.org/swap https://support.uniswap.org/hc/en-us/articles/17515415311501
• https://extension.blowfish.xyz/ or Stello
• https://exponential.fi/ safety and risk scoring for defi protocols
• https://dappradar.com/ what are the trending apps. It’s all about users from now on, the infrastructure play is pretty much history.
• https://www.stakingrewards.com/ great resource on staking rewards and the blockchain ecosystem at an infrastructure level. Staking POS blockchains, I think, will more and more emerge as the bonds aspect of crypto. These are the low risk, reliable returns for investors. As opposed to the higher risk, higher returns of the general token market.
• https://revert.finance/: Is a great LP tracker but is only for Ethereum

But what about Solana!?

If you've been exploring the links above you will have noticed there's not a lot of coverage for Solana. It's one of the few downsides of Solana at the moment. That doesn't mean there isn't any tools out there, it's just they're more limited.

• https://sonar.watch/: Is a DeBank like app. Not perfect, won't cover some positions you have ($HXRO staking being one of these) but it does the best job I've seen out of the options on Solana.
• https://app.step.finance/en/dashboard: Has been THE wallet explorer on Solana for ages. Not as good as Sonar Watch but offers decent enough coverage and a few things Sonar Watch does.

This the third in a series of posts I've done about about getting started in crypto. Check out my profile for the rest.

Stay safe out there degen...