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Yearn v2 is coming soon, YFI hits the $40,000 milestone, intense debate in the community over whether to issue more tokens

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Yearn v2 is coming soon, YFI hits the $40,000 milestone, intense debate in the community over whether to issue more tokens

Boosted by the rise of DeFi tokens, Yearn.finance's YFI reached $40,333 on January 18th, nearing its all-time high of $43,966 set on September 12th last year. The crypto community has been debating fiercely recently over whether to increase the token supply, with a minting proposal by Yearn's core developer banteg sparking widespread discussions on Twitter.

More YFI?

Since last year, Yearn.finance, with continuous updates and development, has become one of the core protocols in the DeFi space. Its token model, based on "fair distribution" and a total supply of only 30,000 tokens, has become a model for subsequent protocols to imitate. However, the topic of additional token minting has always been a subject of discussion due to concerns about liquidity shortages, insufficient protocol incentives, and investor greed.

On the 14th, Yearn's core developer, banteg, proposed a token minting plan on Twitter, aiming to issue an additional 1,000 tokens to the core team based on the original 30,000 YFI tokens to reward ongoing development work.

Both supporters and opponents believe the other party is too greedy. Opponents argue that this goes against the original principle of "fair distribution" and should be based on the initial issuance amount. They also point out that YFI's total supply of 30,000 is equally robust as Bitcoin's 21 million. Supporters, on the other hand, believe that incentives and the potential for diluting the token price are equally important.

Founder: Public Governance is Frightening

The proposal for additional token minting has sparked widespread discussion. In fact, there have been many governance proposals in the past regarding whether YFI should exceed the 30,000 limit, but no substantial issuance proposals have been approved, including:

  • Proposal 0: Unlimited total supply beyond 30,000 tokens - Passed
  • Proposal 5: Increasing supply with weekly decreasing issuance - Not passed
  • Proposal 8: Increasing supply, mimicking Bitcoin's halving model - Not passed
  • Proposal 30: Issuing an additional 20,000 YFI over 8 years - Not passed

In addition, the concept of "buyback and build" mentioned inProposal 56 is gradually brewing, and Yearn founder Andre Cronje has also participated in the discussion. He pointed out that there is a divide between developers and token holders, with both sides labeling the other as "greedy." He emphasized that developers have not proposed or initiated any plans, and the roadmap remains v2, buyback, and build. He stated:

As governance continues, people are beginning to find public governance frightening, but "transparency" is a double-edged sword. Although it instills fear, I believe it will make us stronger. There have been no changes to Yearn's roadmap. I hope everyone spends more time participating in discussions, reflecting on their own positions. Governance now represents not just you, me, or him, but us.

In reality, Yearn developers seem inclined to maintain the 30,000 YFI limit. Today, many foreign media outlets have reported that "Yearn's core developer, banteg, posted a screenshot of the Yearn v2 whitepaper on Twitter, indicating that the YFI supply may increase to 33,333 tokens." However, this was just a joke by banteg, mocking the initial migration of LEND tokens to AAVE, which increased the supply by 3 million tokens as reserves for the Aave ecosystem.

Regardless, Yearn is about to benefit from the arrival of v2 vaults, and the official account has also released a video of v2. YFI has experienced its strongest surge in months, briefly surpassing the $40,000 mark.