FAQ
What is Folks Finance?
Folks Finance is the leading protocol serving capital markets built on the Algorand blockchain. The protocol offers services of borrowing and lending in a decentralized and permissionless way. Through the lending operation, Folks users can deposit and lend their asset liquidity, and start earning a passive return immediately. Through the borrowing operation, the users can request crypto loans by locking deposited funds as collateral.
Why Algorand?
Algorand is a permissionless, pure proof-of-stake blockchain that offers speed and stable transaction costs compared with other blockchains. Low fees directly reflect in a higher yield for depositors, since they can re-invest profits with high frequency, without having to consider the fees impact.
Algorand, thanks to the PPoS, solved the so-called โblockchain trilemmaโ in which there are three key objectives โ security, scalability, and decentralization โ Before Algorand, blockchains had to sacrifice at least one of these key objectives for the sake of the other two.
Which wallets are supported?
Currently, interaction with Folks Finance is permitted through the use of Pera Wallet, MyAlgo Wallet, Defly, Fireblocks, and Exodus. In the future, other wallets will be added that meet the requirements of the protocol.
What are the differences between the first ALGO Liquid Governance (G3) and the new ones?
Folks Finance has strongly believed in the Algorand ecosystem since its inception, and we continue to have this conviction today. Our new liquid governance design reaffirms that commitment by emphasizing the long-term sustainability of governance and DeFi on Algorand.
Specifically, we have made several upgrades, including:
gALGO is now continuous. There will be a single gALGO asset, no longer connected to a single governance period (unlike gALGO3 which was only for the third governance period). Moreover, the new smart contracts are built to be flexible and adaptable to the future development of the Algorand Foundation governance through xGov.
New voting system. The ALGO liquid governance will allow Folks Finance liquid governance users to vote on the Algorand Foundation proposals. Folks Finance will vote respecting its governors' choices proportionally.
No Fees & Early Claim. The new Liquid Governance will not have any fees and will allow users to early claim their expected rewards in gALGO. Users will then be able to burn the gALGO rewards for ALGO as normal at the end of the governance period.
What can I do with gALGO?
Visit the following link to have an overview of the gALGO ecosystem.
What can I do with the Ledger wallets?
Through the Ledger wallets users can:
Deposit
Withdraw
Participate in the Algo Liquid Governance
Why is the page not loading correctly?
There could be several reasons why this may happen. One thing that may help is to change your connection to the blockchain. This can easily be done via the settings menu in the top right, select node and then the available alternative node. If the problem is not resolved you can contact Folks Finance support via the available channels.
Learn more about node types here.
What are fTokens?
The Folks Finance Deposit Token: fToken, is the asset distributed to users following a deposit for each asset (i.e. fALGO, fUSDC) and represents that user's ownership. fTokens are instrumental to the system's operations and are minted by the protocol itself. It is possible to use the fToken to withdraw the deposit or use it as collateral to obtain a loan. The fToken is designed to help calculate the interest accrual on the deposited asset.
What are frToken?
The folks rewards token: frToken, is the asset distributed to users for performing qualified operations on the Folks Finance protocol. frToken is instrumental to the system's operations and are minted by the protocol itself. They are distributed when users repay their loans' interests or provide liquidity through Lock & Earn. These tokens should be traded with the rewards token through the Rewards Aggregator.
Where are my deposited funds stored?
Your funds are allocated in special smart contracts called dispensers. These smart contracts store your deposit and send you fTokens. You can always withdraw your available deposits and see all the smart contract information through its address on Algoexplorer.
How can I get a loan?
You can establish a loan on the asset you wish to borrow through the dedicated Borrow page. To receive a loan, it is required to lock an amount of a deposited asset as collateral. As an obligation, you will need to repay interest on the borrowed asset.
Learn more about how to get a loan here.
What is a collateral?
The user must lock all or part of a deposited asset to obtain a loan. The collateral committed to obtaining the loan will be locked in an escrow account. If the user partially repays the loan, they redeem the correspondent part of the collateral; if they fully repay it, the whole collateral will be unlocked. The collateral asset value, due to market volatility, may vary rapidly. In order to avoid a liquidation operation, the user can add collateral to the open escrow account related to the loan position, keeping the loan position safe from the liquidation.
What is an escrow account?
An Escrow Account is an account that will hold the collateral of your loan until a withdrawal operation occurs.
Does the creation of an escrow account cost money?
Yes, the creation of an escrow account has a very small cost as per Algorand network fees.
Learn more about the details of the costs here.
What is the Liquidation Margin?
Due to market volatility, your collateral values may change. The Liquidation Margin helps you to control your loan position status and avoid liquidations. It varies between 0-100% and the closer the value is to zero the closer the liquidation.
Learn more about how the Liquidation Margin works here.
Why was my debt position liquidated?
A loan position is liquidated when the users' borrow balance is greater than or equal to the under-collateralization threshold. As a result, the Liquidation Margin is equal to zero. Below you will find the two causes that lead to this:
The value of the asset you put up as collateral has fallen, making your debt under-collateralized
You accrued too much interest, and the collateral was not sufficient to cover the balance of the borrowing
Check the status of the Liquidation Margin frequently to avoid the risk of the position being liquidated.
What is an Opt-In operation?
All of the tokens supported by the Folks Finance protocol are ASAs (Algorand Standard Assets). Thus, the opt-in operation is required before utilization of them. The Opt-in procedure has to be performed once per token if the asset has not previously been held in the wallet. However, the Folks Finance web app will warn users if the opt-in procedure has not been performed, and support them through the opt-in process. Once all the requirements are fulfilled, you are ready to interact with the protocol.
Does the asset opt-in cost money?
Yes, the opt-in has a small cost for the Algorand network fee of 0.001 ALGO. In addition, you will also need to keep an extra 0.1 ALGO in your wallet for the minimum balance requirement of being opted-in.
Learn more about the costs here.
How do I undo 'never save' password on Google Chrome ?
Typechrome://settings/passwords into your Chrome URL bar and press Enter. At this page bottom, you can find 'Never Saved'. Remove the site you want Chrome to remember the password for. Login to that website again. Chrome will now ask you if you want it to save password again.
Learn more about saving passwords in Google Chrome here
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