SPECIAL NOTICE: TERRA HAS FALLEN

So you got some 🥩 cooking with a few worthy Terra Station validators. You got some of your extra LUNA in Anchor [bonded] (/posts/terra-now-what/now-what-02a-on-saving/), provided as collateral, and you have borrowed UST against it. Now you got some UST burning a hole in your proverbial pocket. What can you do with it?

“Saving” with UST (Option 1)

Anchor is, at it’s core, a savings platform. While we are earning a yield on our collateralized bLUNA (in the form of ANC), another, more traditional, way to save on Anchor is with UST. It doesn’t have to be the UST we just borrowed, but it certainly can be. So we’ll deposit our unused UST and earn an APY on it (currently 20%). While that APY has fluctuated higher, Anchor’s yield is programmed to always be at least 20%. This is one of the places the UST you borrowed from your bLUNA comes from! By doing this, your UST deposit is automatically compounded (APY) by 20% and you can save and grow your unused UST.

This is simply done by going to the Earn tab and selecting the “deposit” option and selecting how much UST you would like to earn on. That’s it, your anchor is dropped, you are saving.

Keep in mind that you never want to use all of your UST on any transaction. Partly because there’s so many things you can do with it throughout Terra’s platforms, but mainly because you are always going to need some UST to pay for transactions. Paying for each transaction is what makes the Terra network churn.

ANC (Option 2)

Another thing you can do with your UST on Anchor is directly buy the native coin ANC. Remember this is also the coin you get paid out in for providing your bLUNA and borrowing against. If you would like to own more of this token you could do so by going to the Govern tab and selecting the “Trade Anc” option, and purchasing as much as you’d like to convert your UST to.

How to deploy ANC?

There are a couple things you can do with your ANC on the Anchor platform. The first option is fairly straightforward, and that is directly stake your ANC. This currently earns about 7% APY (paid in ANC) and is a very safe option. It can be unstaked at any time with no unlocking period.

To do this you would go to the middle of the Govern tab’s page and select the “Actions” icon "(…)" on the “ANC Governance” line and select how many ANC you would like to stake. Once staked you are also eligible to vote on governance proposals in Anchor in the “Polls” at the bottom of the Govern tab. A recent proposal that passed was the [Harpoon Protocol] (https://forum.anchorprotocol.com/t/proposal-harpoon-protocol-an-elegant-ui-for-community-liquidations/369) (yet another unique Terra platform on the horizon).

Mirror Teaser (Option 3)

The final option on the Anchor protocol is a good segue into our ensuing post(s) about one of the things you can do on Terra’s Mirror platform. You have the option, on Anchor, to provide liquidity for the people trying to trade UST and ANC in the form of providing your ANC and UST to the Anchor protocol’s “ANC- UST Liquidity Pool”. More to come on “LP’s” in the next post, but keep in mind that we’re gambling a bit here. You are a bit more exposed to risk during times of volatility as opposed to the safer options of staking your ANC or depositing your UST. But with more risk, comes higher rewards (currently about 90% APR). The ANC that you earn by providing liquidity is not compounded automatically, and has to be claimed along with your “UST Borrow” rewards.

Here you are giving Anchor equal parts (in UST value) of ANC and UST. This is done by selecting the “ANC-UST LP” option on the Govern tab. On the next page you will choose how much ANC you wish to “provide”, of which there is required to be an equal amount of UST to go with it, so the pool remains balanced. After you have selected this option you will then finalize by clicking “Add Liquidity”. Doing this will give you ANC - UST LP tokens. These tokens represent an amount of liquidity you have provided and can only be used at the moment for staking. Once that has been completed you will return to the Govern tab and select the “Actions” icon on the “ANC - UST LP” line and select the “stake” option. These too can be unstaked at any time, however upon unstaking, you must “withdraw” your liquidity in the “ANC - UST LP” section on the Govern tab in order to turn your ANC - UST LP tokens into ANC and separate UST.

We would recommend holding off on this process until our next part on Mirror describing liquidity pooling more. You are liable to have your ANC token amount decrease due to Impermanent Loss which is a complex topic on the surface but a generally logical concept.

Well now we know how to “Save” (we use that term liberally here) on Terra. After we have secured our funds now we are ready to head to Mirror and start investing.

RnodeC

We’d be happy to answer any questions in our telegram or twitter. You can also find us in the Terra network discord and telegram communities.

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