# Running a Keeper with a low initial capital **URL:** \ **Category:** Keep3r\ **Created:** [28 November 2020 01:49 UTC](https://gov.yearn.fi/t/running-a-keeper-with-a-low-initial-capital/8366 "2020-11-28T01:49:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![stpz](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/gov.yearn.fi/stpz/32/2599_2.png) [@stpz](https://gov.yearn.fi/u/stpz)\ **Post date:** [28 November 2020 01:49 UTC](https://gov.yearn.fi/t/running-a-keeper-with-a-low-initial-capital/8366/1 "2020-11-28T01:49:00Z")
Hi everyone, After reading about Keep3r a few weeks ago in a Medium article from @andre.cronje, I’ve been contemplating the idea of running my own Keeper. While I am relatively confident about the devops side of things, I am however worried about the initial capital requirements for running a Keeper. Essentially: - To be able to run jobs, Keepers have to have enough ETH to cover the gas fees; - Since I don’t have the capital to buy 100 tokens at their current market price, I can’t use the `MetaKeep3r` contract to recoup my gas costs by exchanging the bonded KP3R tokens that I would receive for running jobs; - Since the only active job which rewards keepers directly in ETH is the `Keep3rV1Oracle` which requires 200 bonded tokens–for completely understandable reasons–I can’t go this route either; - Therefore my only option seems to buy enough ETH upfront to cover 14 days worth of fees, to find jobs, to somehow finish them first without spending a gas price greater than the indicated fast gas price (which is not easy given that two or three keepers already have the resources to out-gas me), and then to unbond all of my KP3R after 14 days to swap them for ETH to recoup my gas fees. - Even in that last scenario, I have to hope that the KP3R/ETH exchange rate is going to either remain constant or go up (otherwise I’ll run at a loss here too since the reward would have been computed based on a 14-day old price), which I’m scared is a lot to ask given the speculator-induced volatility of the price. So I’m wondering if I’m missing something obvious here, or if you guys have any ideas as to how I could at least hedge myself against a drop in KP3R/ETH–I don’t really care about making profit here, I would just like to avoid running at a loss. Thanks a lot! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![KALEB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e480ec/32.png) [@KALEB](https://gov.yearn.fi/u/KALEB)\ **Post date:** [28 November 2020 16:53 UTC](https://gov.yearn.fi/t/running-a-keeper-with-a-low-initial-capital/8366/2 "2020-11-28T16:53:58Z")
Yeah I believe the 100 should be changed every once in a while to match a certain capital $ requirement… so for example, like $5k is maybe achievable by many… so once a week/month change the requirement based on the average price in the last day to match that $5k … ---
**Author:** ![Slothstin](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/gov.yearn.fi/slothstin/32/2561_2.png) [@Slothstin](https://gov.yearn.fi/u/Slothstin)\ **Post date:** [7 December 2020 13:18 UTC](https://gov.yearn.fi/t/running-a-keeper-with-a-low-initial-capital/8366/3 "2020-12-07T13:18:01Z")
Those are all questions/thoughts I’ve had myself. I too don’t have a large amount of capital to invest up front so I went with the option to do some work for a little period of time (a few days), then unbond and recoup my ETH to then be able to do work for a little longer period, rinse and repeat. I set up my bot to only work jobs if the KP3R/ETH rate was below a certain level to prevent a big loss if the price decreased too much over the unbonding period. Seeing that it’s near its ATH right now, I would not suggest on paying gas for KP3R. It was working well, but then the UniswapV1Oracle job was swapped out for Keep3rV1Oracle so I could no longer do work. The other jobs are still workable, but not nearly as often, so overall profit would be slashed. Seeing that the Keep3rV1Oracle job/MetaKeep3r is pretty much the only way to ensure you don’t run at a loss, keepers are kinda being pushed into the large capital investment. I’m not a fan of this move and proposed a change ([[Proposal] Reduce minKeep on Keep3rV1Oracle to 0](http://gov.yearn.fi/t/proposal-reduce-minkeep-on-keep3rv1oracle-to-0/8308/8)), but it appears nothing will happen (or really even be discussed). So it seems this project is for the whales at this point and being a keeper with a few KP3R does not make sense. A few KP3R = speculative asset, a lot of KP3R = utility.