An updated guide to DeFi and how to use Aave Protocol, written by someone with zero technical knowledge or skills
What’s up Aave Community?
We’re back with an update to our OG “Zero to Hero Guide”, but this time it’s for the mainnet. Keep reading to learn how to use Aave Protocol!
You might want to put on your sunnies, because the future of finance is looking bright. Decentralized finance doesn’t require any paperwork or your ID. It’s way faster and more efficient than the traditional financial system, because it doesn’t require any middlemen.
By not relying on a centralized institution, like a bank, DeFi allows people to earn higher yields on deposits and borrow with ease and without worry of discrimination. In other words, you get more bang for your buck.
What is Aave Protocol?
Aave is a decentralized protocol to earn interest on your deposits and borrow assets. It is open-source and non-custodial, meaning anybody has access to the code. It’s an ecosystem of smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, so it is completely transparent, trackable, and auditable by anyone.
Users can deposit some assets into the Aave reserve pool of funds and earn interest on those assets (with higher returns than most traditional banks, I might add). Users can also borrow some assets from the pool, provided that they have enough collateral.
Aave Protocol lets you do way more with your money than a traditional bank. For example, borrowers can switch between stable and variable interest rates, to keep the market on their side and get the best interest rate possible. Pretty cool, huh?
Dive into how to use Aave Protocol below!
Converting Fiat Currencies to Crypto
Before you can use Aave Protocol, you’re going to want to have some crypto assets (see the list of assets supported by Aave Protocol below).
List of Aave Protocol assets: DAI, USDC, TUSD, USDT, sUSD, ETH, LEND, BAT, KNC, LINK, MANA, MKR, REP, SNX, WBTC, ZRX
You can check the list of assets, interest rates, and borrowing rates on our website! Just scroll down to the bottom.
If you don’t own any crypto but you want to join the fun, you’ll need to convert your fiat currency (normal money, like dollars, euros, etc.) into a cryptographic asset (like one of the above).
Lucky for you, Aave has some very cool integrations which allow you to do this:
My Ether Wallet is a simple way to purchase ETH directly, and then either deposit your ETH in Aave Protocol or switch it to another asset. The coolest part is, MEW has integrated Aave, so you can actually interact with our protocol directly from your MEW! For step-by-step instructions, read this.
Aave is also integrated with Trust Wallet, where you can directly buy ETH, BTC, and other assets. It’s worth noting that Trust Wallet is the official cryptocurrency wallet of Binance, a major cryptocurrency exchange, so you are able to make instant crypto trades. Thus, you could buy ETH, trade it for whichever asset you want (or keep it), and then deposit it straight into our protocol directly in Trust Wallet!
Other cool places where you can swap your crypto assets include: Totle, 1inch and Paraswap, all of which are integrated with Aave 🙂
Some other ways to buy crypto include (but are not limited to):
*This is a limited sample of different ways to go about this — it’s definitely worth exploring the options to see which ones you prefer!
Connecting your wallet to Aave Protocol
Once you’ve got some assets and you want to start earning interest on them or borrow, head on over to Aave Protocol!
Here you have a few options to link your crypto wallet, depending on which type of wallet you have:
I use Metamask, a browser wallet, so I simply unlock my wallet and connect to Aave.
OR if you’re using Trust Wallet or My Ether Wallet, simply go to their dapps page and connect to Aave from there.
Deposit
Once you have connected your wallet to the platform, you can deposit an asset into Aave Protocol. Right now, you can deposit: DAI, USDC, TUSD, USDT, sUSD, ETH, LEND, BAT, KNC, LINK, MANA, MKR, REP, SNX, WBTC and ZRX. From these assets, all of them can be used as collateral when you borrow except for USDT, sUSD and SNX.
When you click “deposit”, the interface will show you what you have available in your wallet to deposit. You then select the asset you would like to deposit, choose how much to deposit, and then voilá, you’ve done it!
As soon as you deposit, you benefit from the deposit interest rate, which you can find here if you scroll down. There are also more interesting statistics on this site, in case you’re interested.
All deposits in Aave Protocol have a corresponding “aToken”. This is an Aave interest bearing token pegged 1:1 to the value of the underlying asset. So for example, if you deposit 100 DAI, you get 100 aDAI! These aTokens accrue interest in real-time directly in your wallet! Seriously, you can watch your balance go up every second.
Now if you click on “dashboard” on the left side bar, you can see the assets you have deposited in Aave Protocol, the current APY, as well as your “aggregated balance”, which increases in real-time as you earn interest!
You can select “withdraw” at any time to take out funds.
Additionally, you can turn on/off the “use as collateral” option depending on whether or not you want to borrow against that asset.
Borrow
Once you’ve deposited an asset that can be used as collateral, you are able to borrow from Aave Protocol!
Select “borrow” on the left side bar, and now you can see all the assets that are available for you to borrow as well as the stable and variable APY rates.
Explaining stable and variable rates:
Variable rates are more volatile than stable rates. Stable rates act as a fixed rate (a rate that will not change) in the short term, but they can be rebalanced in the long-term in response to changes in the market. When borrowing, you can choose whichever rate benefits you the most.
Aave Protocol also lets you switch between stable and variable rates! For example, if you originally borrow at a variable rate but then the rate zooms up, you can switch to the lower stable rate option, and vice versa.
Now let’s say I want to borrow some DAI:
You can see how much interest you will have to pay back (at a stable rate or a variable rate) and you can choose how much to borrow. Borrowing 100% of what you are allowed to is riskier than borrowing only 25%, because you have more to pay back. You can select the amount you want to borrow, and then click “continue”. Then, you get to choose either a stable or variable rate.
*Remember: you can switch between stable/variable rate to keep the market on your side!
Repay your loan
You can repay your loan at any time with Aave Protocol. Remember you’re still earning interest on your deposits, so any money you get from this covers part of your loan cost!
Learn More
There you have it folks!
You can join our Aavesome community on Telegram or Discord! And if you really want to get into it, you can read our whitepaper or access our documentation.
For an amazing video tutorial about how to use Aave Protocol, I highly recommend this one by Chris Blec!
We hope this guide helps you get started, and we’re always available for answering any questions you might have — just pop into our Discord and ask away in the “Community-questions” channel 🙂
Cheers,
Aave Team
Zero to Hero Guide 2.0 was originally published in Aave Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
