> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.tythe.finance/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Earn > Two ways to put idle balance to work: lending to the credit market behind Tythe's first-loss reserve, and saving into curated venues you or your agent choose. Idle balance earns nothing. Tythe offers two ways to change that, and they are different in kind. Lend puts your capital behind underwritten credit that Tythe originates and stands behind with its own money. Save puts it into third-party venues that you or your agent choose, with Tythe supplying the information and none of the discretion. This page covers both, and where each risk sits. ### The two, compared | | Lend | Save | | -------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | What it is | Supplying the on-chain credit market and holding shares in it | Depositing into curated venues on Base from your account | | Who decides | You, by supplying; Tythe underwrites the borrowers | You or your agent, per venue | | Where the yield comes from | Interest paid by borrowers | The venue's own strategy | | What protects you | Captured revenue, the borrower's lien, legal recourse, and Tythe's first-loss reserve, in that order, before any lender loss | Nothing from Tythe. Venue risk is yours | | Liquidity | A buffer serves ordinary withdrawals; beyond it, a queue, because Loans are fixed-term | The venue's own redemption terms, including any cooldown | | What Tythe charges | A performance fee on credit yield above a hurdle | Nothing | | Requires | The Subscription Agreement, once | Nothing beyond verification | ## Lend You supply USDC from your account and receive shares in the credit market. Borrowers draw Loans from it; interest accrues to the market; your shares appreciate. ### What stands ahead of you Tythe's first-loss reserve is the market's junior tranche. On a default, the loss is absorbed in a fixed, formally verified order: the borrower's remaining captured revenue, then the borrower's lien, then a legal claim against the borrower, then Tythe's reserve, and only then lender shares, pro-rata. Tythe's own capital is consumed before yours. The reserve is finite and its balance, the book it backs, and the coverage ratio are published and reproducible. Read [First-loss coverage](/get-started/resources/first-loss-coverage) before supplying. ### Liquidity Loans are fixed-term, so the market cannot always return capital on demand. * A **liquidity buffer** is kept unlent and serves ordinary withdrawals immediately. * Withdrawals beyond it enter a **queue** and are served as Loans repay. * The buffer size and the current queue are shown in the market's dashboard before you commit. ### What you sign The Subscription Agreement, once: that you are supplying a pooled market and hold shares, the reserve and the waterfall, the buffer and the queue, that losses beyond the waterfall reduce share value pro-rata, and your representations as a verified participant. ### Agents and lending An agent with lend authority in its mandate can supply and withdraw on your behalf, within its limits. The position is yours. Nothing else about the mandate changes. ## Save Save is client-directed. Your account deposits into a curated venue and holds that venue's shares. Tythe integrates the venues, curates the allowlist, and publishes what it knows about each one. It does not pool your funds, does not manage the allocation, and takes nothing on the yield. ### What Tythe provides * **A curated allowlist.** Every venue is verified live before listing: that it is a standard vault, how it redeems, whether it is at its supply cap, and what its governance has done. Venues that fail verification are not listed; venues that change are flagged. * **Per-venue signals.** Realised yield against advertised yield, depth, utilisation, redemption latency, cap status, governance flags, drawdowns. * **Indices and reference weights.** A Funding Rate Index and composites, and a reference set of weights published on a cadence with its rationale. ### What you do Deposit and withdraw from the console, or give an agent earn authority and let it allocate within the caps you set. "Follow Tythe weights" is an action you or your agent take; Tythe never executes it. ### Where the risk sits A venue can lose value, pause withdrawals, hit a supply cap, change its parameters, or fail. Venue intelligence is information, not advice, and Tythe's curation is not a guarantee. A venue loss is risk you chose. This is the deliberate difference from Lend, where Tythe underwrites the borrower and puts its own capital in front of yours. ### Agents and earning An agent with earn authority can move up to a share of idle balance into venues, within per-venue caps you set in its mandate. Its venue actions are scored: allocations that perform as expected raise its Conduct Rating, and material underperformance lowers it. It can read Tythe's venue signals and indices before acting. ## Choosing between them Lend if you want yield from credit Tythe underwrites and stands behind, and can accept fixed-term liquidity. Save if you want exposure to established on-chain venues and prefer to choose them yourself. Do both from the same balance if you want; what remains after reservations and liens is yours to deploy. What is published about each venue and how it is measured. What Tythe charges on each, and what it does not.