Basics
There is a token called Alchemist. It has the ticker symbol "⚗️". It is also referred to as "mist" and "$MIST". Do not confuse it with Mist (MIST), Alchemist DeFi Mist (MIST), and Cometh (MUST) - despite the alembic symbol ⚗️ and similar names, these three tokens have no relation to Alchemist (MIST).
What is ⚗️ good for? You can stake ⚗️ as with other coins, and you can ultimately use it to mint Crucible NFTs in the Aludel program.
The first way is to speculate on its value. In other words: you buy some and hope the price goes up and then sell it. Disclaimer: there is no guarantee the price goes up.
Crucible only supports the Uniswap V2 Liquidity Pool. Adding liquidity to the Uniswap V3 pool is not compatible with the Rewards Program.
The second way is to stake it in a liquidity pool alongside an equal value portion of Ether (ETH). When you do so you receive Liquidity Pool tokens (LP) that represent your stake in that pool. Ultimately these LP tokens are used to withdraw your original ⚗️ and ETH from the pool when you decide you are finished with it.
The liquidity pool is used to facilitate trades between ⚗️ and ETH that other people wish to make. Every trade made incurs a small fee for the person making the trade. Whilst you hold LP tokens, you receive a portion of those fees, proportional to the LP you hold relative to the total LP. (For example, if your LP makes up 1% of the total LP then you receive 1% of the pool fees)
This profiting from liquidity pool fees mechanism is no different to staking any other coin in any other liquidity pool. As such, it is susceptible to "impermanent loss" whereby as a staker you lose money by withdrawing your staked coins after their relative value has shifted since you subscribed them. If you are unfamiliar with this concept we recommend doing further research until you understand it - there are plenty of resources explaining it better.
This is where the alchemy happens. "Aludel" is the name of the reward program where you can gain ⚗️ and ETH for subscribing to it with the LP tokens in to a Crucible.
You can learn more about crucibles on the "Teach me about Crucibles" page.
