Instead of rugging myself in a hopeless search for the bottom, I'm keeping things simple this time. No more chasing 5,000% APYs or the next pump. I, fortunately, took some profits and am going to be boring for a bit. Nexo, Exodus, BlockFi,PoolTogether, and a low-stress summer. 

Rates have gone down as market conditions change and this is not financial advice, but as we grind sideways/down, I think there are worse things you can do with your money than sit in stablecoins and park them in a pool or a cryptobank. Probably a lot of you are already doing this. 

I recently got my 60+-year-old parents into PoolTogether. I wrote them a long email explaining it all, I'm posting a version of it below. If anyone's not familiar with PoolTogether it might be useful. 

What is PoolTogether? 

PoolTogether is a protocol for no-loss prize games on the Ethereum blockchain network. 

From the PoolTogether FAQ, our protocol is “modeled on the concept of "no loss lotteries" and "prize savings accounts" the smart contract protocol offers a chance to win prizes in exchange for depositing funds.”

In effect, PoolTogether is like if your bank account suddenly became eligible to win lottery prizes and returned interest ranging from 1-15%. Even if you don't win, you keep all your deposited funds. Prizes money comes from the interest earned on all the pooled deposits. 

This analogy isn’t perfect because PoolTogether has a few more risks associated with it than your bank account. To read a detailed breakdown of risks, click here.

PoolTogether does seem to have a reputable team, and its code has undergone multiple audits. Therefore I feel comfortable trusting some amount of money to them. How much you trust them is an individual choice. 

Here’s how to get started.

Step 1:

Visit: https://pooltogether.com/ and bookmark this page for future reference. In the upper right-hand corner, click “App”. 

Step 2: 

If you already have Metamask or another wallet set up with assets that match a pool on the app (USDC, DAI, COMP, UNI, and a few others), proceed to step three. 

If you don’t, you’ll need to set up a wallet, buy some tokens from an exchange and transfer them to your wallet in order to deposit into PoolTogether. 

Here is a tutorial for getting started with Metamask.

Here is a tutorial for getting started on Blockfolio. Coinbase is another option, and it’s probably the most beginner friend one. 

Step 3:

Once you’ve reached the app, click on connect wallet in the upper-righthand corner. Key in your password,, and you’re in. 

Step 4: 

Scroll down the page and review all the potential pools that you might deposit into. Depending on what you want to do, select the corresponding pool and click deposit. 

For the sake of an example, let’s choose COMP. When you click deposit you will be prompted to this screen. 

Enter the amount you want to deposit. To automatically enter the maximum, click on the small text next to the card just above and to the right of the text bar. Click review deposit which will lead you to this screen. 

You will need to approve and then deposit. Each of these actions will pull up your wallet for confirmation. You will want to confirm both transactions. **Note transactions fees on ethereum make depositing small amounts unlikely to be worth it. You can click edit on the fee and adjust it downwards. The result is that your transaction may take longer but that you may save a bit of money. 

PoolTogether also offers an option to use the Polygon network, a faster and cheaper option. This requires bridging assets from ethereum to Polygon. A full description of how to do this can be found here. 

Step 5: 

That’s it, congratulations, you’ve now put some money into PoolTogether. You can review your deposits on the “account” tab and view the interest you’ve earned. 

Interest is typically paid out in POOL, the protocol’s governance token, which is as if your bank giving you a little bit of stock instead of interest in dollars or euros. Some pools payout in other assets like Sushi or WMATIC. If you have a question, you can join the PoolTogether discord. I’ve (generally) found their team and community to be responsive and willing to help.