FAQ
Learn more about HaloFi Savings Challenges
What are savings challenges?
Savings challenges allow you join other HaloFi users in a collective effort to achieve your personal savings goals. By joining a challenge and making timely deposits according to the challenge's rules, you can earn rewards. Our smart contract technology secures and tracks everything, so you don't need to trust anyone else using HaloFi. Our challenges are designed to help you save, earn and invest while having fun. It's an engaging way to reach your goals and earn higher yields than traditional savings solutions.
How long does a savings challenge last?
A savings challenge has a fixed duration that is determined when the challenge is created. It includes one or more deposit rounds, during which participants deposit funds into the challenge, followed by a waiting round. Once the challenge concludes, participants can withdraw their funds and any rewards earned.
How do I win a savings challenge?
When participating in a savings challenge, making all required deposits before each round's deadline is key to completing the challenge and earning a share of the generated rewards. If you miss a deadline, you won't be able to participate in subsequent rounds and your rewards will be redistributed to all winning players.
At the end of the final round, you can claim your winnings, which include your share of the rewards generated from all the deposits made by participants. If you cannot make a deposit on time, you can still claim your initial deposit back in most cases, but you won't earn extra rewards. Want to dive into the specifics? Check out our Savings Challenge Mechanics or Getting Started.
How do I get started with HaloFi?
To get started you'll need to connect your digital wallet like for example Metamask or Coinbase Wallet on our website. Once connected, you can deposit your digital assets into a challenge and start saving and earning immediately.
We offer detailed guides to help you navigate the platform and make the most of its features and tools. These guides provide step-by-step instructions and visual aids to make the process as smooth and straightforward as possible, whether you're new to DeFi or an experienced user.
pageGetting StartedHow much do I need to deposit?
For most challenges, players can choose how much they deposit initially, however once the first deposit is made, players will need to make deposits of the same amount for the rest of the challenge. Some challenges are fixed, requiring a fixed amount from all players from the start.
How are rewards generated on HaloFi?
When you deposit funds into HaloFi, our smart contracts automatically transfer them to audited decentralized finance (DeFi) services like Aave or Curve, in a transparent and secure way. This earns interest and other rewards such as trading fees and incentive tokens. To sweeten the pot even further, we often have additional rewards from external sponsors. And most importantly, if a HaloFi user forgets to make a timely deposit, we redistribute their rewards into the savings challenge. This gives all winning players a boost and helps to keep everyone motivated. This means that the rewards pool for the savings challenge increases, resulting in larger payouts for all users who successfully complete the challenge.
For more information, please see our Savings Challenge Mechanics and Yield Strategies in the Technical Documentation.
How can I maximize my earned rewards?
What type of challenges are there?
We offer a variety of challenges to suit different goals and preferences. Some challenges have custom deposit amounts, while others have fixed amounts. Some challenges require multiple deposits, while others only require a single deposit. Additionally, we offer Hold challenges with a longer waiting round, designed for long-term investments. Some challenges also charge an early withdrawal fee to motivate users to hold onto their funds.
Which digital currencies are supported?
We accept a wide range of digital assets for savings challenges, including stablecoins which are pegged to the US Dollar (like DAI, USDC, USDT, cUSD) or pegged to the EURO (like cEUR, agEUR and jEUR) or other currencies such as cREAL. We also support more volatile cryptocurrencies such as Ether (WETH), CELO, MATIC, Wrapped Bitcoin (BTC), and many other ERC-20 tokens. Thanks to our integrations with external DeFi platforms like Aave, Moola, Mobius, and Curve, we can generate yield for 20+ assets. Additionally, we can now deploy savings challenges without any yield generation, where we can support most available ERC-20 tokens on Polygon and Celo. This means that we can offer a variety of savings pools with different asset options to suit your investment goals.
Can I get these digital currencies on HaloFi?
Yes, you can buy or bridge all required currencies quickly and easily on our platform. Simply go to https://app.halofi.me/#/buy and select your preferred payment method, including Apple Pay, Google Pay, Revolut, credit card, or bank transfer via our integration with Ramp. You can also sell crypto to top up your credit or debit card in this way. Plus, you can bridge and swap your existing holdings from 25+ different blockchains, all without needing any technical knowledge.
Is the annual percentage yield (APY) guaranteed?
No, the APY% rate that is indicated on an individual challenge's page is an estimation based on the current rewards accrued by the challenge smart contract. Past or current performance is no guarantee of future results.The APY will fluctuate based on the performance of the yield strategy, as well as the number of participants who make all required deposits (i.e. winners). This can fluctuate over time. The APY also depends on the net Dollar value of all rewards from lending interest, trading fees, sponsorship and incentive tokens, which can vary with different market conditions.
What benefits does HaloFi provide that the underlying DeFi protocols do not?
By joining a HaloFi savings challenge, you gain access to a range of benefits that you wouldn't have when using the underlying decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols on your own. Our platform takes care of everything from tracking your progress to distributing rewards, so you can focus on your savings goals. Plus, with HaloFi, you can earn higher yields than you would on the underlying DeFi protocol, due to our yield optimization strategies and external sponsorships. We also offer a user-friendly interface that simplifies the DeFi experience and eliminates the need for any technical knowledge.
But that's not all. With HaloFi, you can also earn NFTs, badges, and your spot on our leaderboard as you hit savings milestones. This adds a fun and engaging aspect to personal finance that you won't find when using the underlying protocols directly. Plus, you can create and vote on challenges of your choice, making HaloFi a community-driven platform that gives users more control over their savings journey. As you continue to use HaloFi, your vote becomes more powerful, and you can track your progress in your dashboard. So not only can you grow your savings, but you can also enjoy a more engaging and rewarding personal finance experience.
Is my money safe?
Yes. We have helped people save over $4 million without any incidents resulting in a loss of funds. Although we only use audited platforms, have undergone multiple multiple professional security audits, and follow strict security practices, there is always a chance of unknown bugs.
To minimize the risk of unforeseen losses, all our yield strategies run on public blockchain networks like Celo and Polygon, and allow for immediate withdrawal of deposits (i.e., they are non-custodial). This approach greatly increases transparency and reduces counterparty risk compared to more centralized applications.
However, it's crucial to note that investing in DeFi products always carry inherent risks. Therefore, we encourage our users to invest only what they can afford to lose. While we do everything we can to ensure the safety of our users' funds, we cannot guarantee 100% security.
Can I withdraw my money at any time?
Yes, you can withdraw your funds at any time. HaloFi is fully non-custodial, meaning that you have complete control over your funds at all times. Our smart contracts are designed to operate 24/7. If you wish to withdraw from an ongoing savings challenge, you may be charged an early withdrawal fee to compensate the remaining players. This is designed to ensure that the other participants in the challenge are not penalized for your early withdrawal. The exact amount of the fee varies depending on the specific savings challenge and is disclosed upfront when you join the challenge. However, if you need to access your funds before the challenge ends, the early withdrawal option is always available to you.
Can I expect high transaction costs on HaloFi?
No, you do not have to worry about high transaction costs (i.e. gas) on HaloFi. Unlike other DeFi platforms, we have addressed this issue by launching on Polygon and Celo, two scaling solutions for public blockchains. They allow for faster and cheaper transactions than on Ethereum, using the same tools.
In the world of DeFi, transactions on the Ethereum network can be expensive due to the need to pay gas fees. Gas fees are payments made to Ethereum miners to execute transactions on the network. By using Polygon and Celo, we are able to provide a more cost-effective and efficient DeFi experience for our users. At the time of writing, you can complete a full GoodGhosting game for less than $0.1 worth of transaction fees. This is significantly less than what you would pay on the Ethereum network.
What is HaloFi's revenue model?
At HaloFi, we are committed to providing a reliable and high-quality service to our users. While most of our services are currently free of charge, some of our savings challenges do charge a performance fee on the rewards generated by the challenge. This fee is set during the deployment of the smart contract and is typically 10%, but it can vary depending on the challenge. You can check whether an performance fee is active by navigating to the "Admin" tab in the user interface. Please note that we do not charge any management fees.
In addition to this, we offer communities the ability to create their own fully configurable savings and investment challenges, upon request. This is a paid service, and the pricing may vary based on the requirements of the community. We will provide a transparent breakdown of all the costs.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding our fees or revenue model, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Can I access HaloFi from any country?
Yes, you can access HaloFi from any country. We are a permissionless platform built on top of the open and decentralized Ethereum network and similar networks, which allows anyone to directly interact with HaloFi, regardless of their country of residence or nationality. We welcome savers from all over the world to join our platform and benefit from our DeFi services.
However, it's important to ensure that you're not violating any local laws or our Terms of Service when using our platform. It's your responsibility to understand and comply with the regulations and laws of your jurisdiction related to cryptocurrency and DeFi. If you have any questions or concerns about your eligibility to use our platform, we encourage you to consult with a legal professional.
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