For a couple of months, I have used both Compound and Harvest Finance with interesting results. Compound is the bigger name in the DeFi industry and even has their token COMP listed on Coinbase's tradeable assets. Compound is known to be a very safe DeFi application to use while Harvest has been a victim of a flash loan attack. That's not to say Harvest is not safe as the issue has been addressed and the compensation plan has been put into action for those affected.
What is the big difference between the two then you might wonder? Well, Compound reminds me a lot of the sure and steady way to do something much like a bank. If you would want to put your money in the solid safe bet then Compound would be the DeFi place for you. With the extreme safety though does come the drawbacks of limited gain in both interest and COMP crypto.
Harvest is the younger higher risk much higher reward, brother. Harvest uses strategies that use several different DeFi applications to get the biggest bang for your buck. Harvest also rewards you in their native token FARM like Compound rewards you in COMP. Holding FARM tokens and staking them rewards you with even more FARM. 30% of the profits are distributed to FARM stakers by buying FARM off of exchanges and distributing these tokens to the profit share participants.
Harvest generates these profits by using your token you stake (for me I used DAI) and stakes it either in Compound or Idle DeFi pools. The COMP or Idle tokens generated are then sold which generates the profit. This utilization is done automatically by Harvest and does not cost you as a staker. In just a couple of weeks of staking $100 in DAI I have generated over $3 in DAI and a little bit of FARM but not enough that I will collect it. Currently, the APY on DAI is 35.07% with 29.73% coming from Compound and Idle and the other 5.34% coming in the form of FARM tokens.
Compound also is a lot more limited in the liquidity pools that they have 9 different crypto's you can lend. Harvest on the other hand has a lot more broken down into different categories. With Sushi Swap alone they have 4 pools and with stable coins, they have 10 different pools. Some require you to specific tokens like 3CRV which is made up of a basket of stable coins while others are like DAI and USDC which are much more accessible and easy to stake (also being cheaper for smaller amounts of money).
Both of these DeFi applications are still distributing tokens and allow the community to vote on proposals to influence and enact changes. Harvest does have a little more as you have the Creativity Farm and Developer Farm which reward you in FARM tokens for your contributions. Harvest has also developed a cult-like following and has held story competitions to further their outreach. Compound has been much more structured in how they do it giving me the thought of a more mature thing while Harvest has the contests that while they make it appear more playful and engaging it is just as mature code-wise as Compound.
If someone, were to ask me which one I would recommend it, would really be both. If I was not willing to lose the funds I would go with the slow but steady Compound but that is just because Harvest has had a previous hack before. By using a combination of Harvest and Compound I can get a really good bang for my DAI buck. Harvest is easily paying out way way more to lenders than Compound and while I 110% trust Harvests security a combo is the safest bet.
I hope you enjoyed this article and learned a little bit about the two of these amazing DeFi's! I would love to hear comments or suggestions below! If you enjoyed it and would like to further support me I have referral spots available on Coinbase Earn for Compound (COMP), Band Protocol (BAND), and Stellar Lumens (XLM)! I have attached my links below if this interests you! Thank you for reading and stay safe out there!
Compound https://coinbase.com/earn/comp/invite/86ztmj3w
