TIYlab Evolves: Adaptive Shield Replaces Funding — and a New Free Simulation Changes How You Can Try the Platform
A major strategy update, transparent version history, and a new way to discover TIYlab without payment, API access, or real trades
Building TIYlab in public means showing not only what works, but also what changes.
Over the past few weeks, we made two important decisions that materially changed the product:
1. The original Funding strategy has been replaced by Adaptive Shield.
2. The onboarding experience has been redesigned around a free 14-day simulation.
These are not cosmetic updates.
The first changes how the third part of the TIYlab portfolio behaves across different market regimes.
The second changes how new users can evaluate TIYlab before giving the platform any access to their exchange.
This article explains both changes, why we made them, and what they mean going forward.
From Funding to Adaptive Shield
The original TIYlab architecture used a fixed initial 60/10/30 allocation:
- 60% Macro Bot
- 10% Adaptive DCA
- 30% Funding Bot
The Funding Bot was designed around a market-neutral BTC carry strategy using coordinated spot and futures positions.
Its purpose was relatively simple: capture favorable funding conditions while reducing direct dependence on Bitcoin’s direction.
That approach had several advantages.
It created a return source structurally different from directional BTC exposure and gave the portfolio a third independent behavior.
But it also introduced limitations.
Funding opportunities are not equally attractive across all market regimes.
The strategy depended on funding conditions, basis behavior, margin mechanics and execution quality.
It could therefore become relatively passive at times when another type of exposure or protection might have been more useful.
As the research progressed, we started asking a broader question:
«Instead of dedicating 30% of the portfolio permanently to funding carry, could that allocation adapt to the market regime itself?»
That research eventually became Adaptive Shield.
What Is Adaptive Shield?
Adaptive Shield is a multi-regime strategy.
Instead of using the same market-neutral structure continuously, it changes its role depending on the environment.
In rising markets, it can provide additional upside exposure.
In deteriorating or bearish conditions, it can shift toward controlled protective exposure.
The objective is not permanent hedging.
It is not permanent leverage either.
The idea is to allow the third portfolio sleeve to behave differently depending on the regime rather than forcing one strategy structure across every market condition.
TIYlab still starts with the same overall allocation:
- 60% Macro
- 10% DCA
- 30% Adaptive Shield
Each strategy then manages and compounds its own settled results independently.
Exact signals, thresholds, sizing rules and internal state-machine logic remain proprietary.
What matters publicly is the role of the strategy:
«Adaptive Shield is designed to complement the Macro and DCA allocations by adapting exposure and protection to changing market conditions.»
Why We Replaced Funding Instead of Running Both
We considered keeping Funding and adding Shield as a fourth strategy.
We decided against it.
TIYlab is intentionally designed to remain understandable.
Adding more strategies is not automatically an improvement.
Every new component creates:
- additional execution complexity
- more interactions between allocations
- more operational states
- more failure modes
- more capital fragmentation
- more difficulty explaining the portfolio to users
The question was therefore not:
«Can we run four strategies?»
The real question was:
«Does Funding still deserve a dedicated 30% allocation if Adaptive Shield provides a better portfolio role?»
Our research suggested that the answer was no.
So Funding was retired from the current production architecture rather than being kept simply because it already existed.
The Backtest Changed Significantly
The previous architecture — Macro + DCA + Funding — remains publicly documented.
Archived version: 2026.07
Period: March 15, 2018 to July 27, 2026
- Return: +646.13%
- Maximum drawdown: -53.42%
- Sharpe ratio: 0.725
The current architecture uses Macro + DCA + Adaptive Shield.
Current version: 2026.09
Same historical period: March 15, 2018 to July 27, 2026
- Return: +1389.77%
- Maximum drawdown: -46.69%
- Sharpe ratio: 0.969
For comparison, Bitcoin Buy & Hold over the same period produced approximately:
- Return: +690.29%
- Maximum drawdown: -76.63%
The difference between the two TIYlab versions is substantial.
That requires an important clarification.
This Is Not Independent Validation
We do not present the new backtest as proof that Adaptive Shield will reproduce these results in the future.
The historical period was used during strategy development.
That means the simulation is development evidence, not fully independent validation.
This distinction matters.
A strategy can look extremely strong historically and still disappoint in real market conditions.
This is exactly why TIYlab keeps the previous Funding results publicly visible instead of silently replacing them with the better-performing Shield version.
The evolution should remain visible.
The correct interpretation is:
Funding was the previous architecture.
Adaptive Shield is the current architecture.
Historical simulations helped us compare both.
The live track record is the prospective validation.
TIYlab has been running with real capital and real execution since April 6, 2026.
Adaptive Shield entered production on August 30, 2026.
The current 2026.09 architecture entered production on September 2, 2026.
Those dates matter because we do not want to imply that the current architecture has been running unchanged since April.
It has not.
The product evolved.
And that evolution is publicly documented.
A Second Major Change: Trying TIYlab No Longer Requires Trust Upfront
The strategy was not the only thing we changed.
We also reconsidered the onboarding experience.
Previously, discovering TIYlab still brought users relatively quickly toward API configuration.
That created an obvious problem:
«Why should someone give trading permission to a service they have only just discovered?»
Even with withdrawals disabled, a trading API key still carries risk.
A compromised trading key can place unwanted orders, generate fees or create losses.
So we changed the trust model.
New users can now start with a completely free simulation.
No payment.
No credit card.
No API required.
No access to the exchange account.
No real trades.
Only virtual capital.
The New Journey: Discover → Verify → Automate
The new TIYlab onboarding is deliberately progressive.
① Discover
The user starts a free 14-day simulation.
They choose:
- language
- exchange
- virtual capital
That is enough to start.
TIYlab then runs its decision process using simulated capital.
The user can observe:
- Macro decisions
- DCA behavior
- Adaptive Shield behavior
- simulated orders
- portfolio evolution
- market regime
- Telegram notifications
No exchange access is required.
No real order can be placed.
② Verify
After seeing TIYlab operate, the user can optionally verify their exchange.
This uses a strictly read-only API key.
The purpose is not trading.
The purpose is to verify that exchange authentication and the required account data are compatible with TIYlab.
The same simulation continues.
The same start date is preserved.
The same virtual portfolio is preserved.
The same simulated history is preserved.
Nothing is reset.
And TIYlab still cannot place a trade.
The exchange itself provides the proof: users can directly verify that the API key has no trading permission.
This step remains optional.
③ Automate
Only when the user decides to move to real execution does TIYlab request a trading-capable API key.
And it must be a new dedicated key.
The read-only verification key is not reused for Live trading.
The user selects a paid plan.
Payment occurs.
Then the Live API is configured with the required trading permissions.
Withdrawals remain disabled.
The simulation is not converted into a real portfolio.
No simulated positions are imported.
No simulated equity is carried forward.
No simulated decision is treated as if it had actually happened.
The Live bots initialize from the real balances and real positions present on the exchange at activation.
That separation is intentional.
Why We Think This Is a Better Trust Model
Automated trading requires a different level of trust than ordinary SaaS.
A user is not simply uploading a document or connecting a calendar.
They are eventually allowing software to place orders on a financial account.
That trust should not be demanded at the beginning.
It should be earned progressively.
The new TIYlab journey therefore follows a simple principle:
«Discover without account access.
Verify without trading permission.
Automate only when you decide to.»
The user controls when each level of access is granted.
The Free Simulation Is Not the Pilot Program
We are also keeping the TIYlab Pilot Program separate.
The free simulation is available broadly and uses virtual capital.
The Pilot Program is different.
It is limited to up to five selected users who receive 12 months of Live access in exchange for regular feedback.
Pilot users operate TIYlab with real execution.
The free simulation does not.
The two programs therefore serve different purposes:
Free simulation: discovery and evaluation.
Pilot Program: deeper product validation with selected real users.
No Artificial Social Proof
We also made another small but important decision.
TIYlab no longer displays placeholder-style testimonials.
A young product does not need to pretend that it already has a large user community.
Right now, the strongest evidence we can provide is not a quote.
It is:
- the public live tracker
- the public backtest methodology
- archived strategy versions
- the public changelog
- real production history
- free simulation
- read-only exchange verification
- transparent documentation
Real customer testimonials will be added when real customers provide them.
Not before.
Building in Public Means Keeping the Old Versions Visible
One principle has become increasingly important as TIYlab evolves:
«Product history should not disappear when a new version looks better.»
Funding was part of TIYlab.
It was tested.
It went into production.
It was later replaced.
That history remains relevant.
The same principle will apply to future changes.
A better backtest should not erase a weaker previous one.
A new architecture should not pretend it has existed longer than it actually has.
A disappointing live month should not disappear because the next one looks better.
Transparency is more useful when the results are inconvenient.
What Does Not Change
Despite these changes, the core TIYlab philosophy remains the same.
Client assets stay on the client’s exchange.
TIYlab does not take custody.
API withdrawal permissions remain disabled.
The system remains focused on Bitcoin rather than hundreds of speculative assets.
The portfolio continues to use three complementary strategy sleeves.
Risk management remains part of the architecture rather than an afterthought.
And no backtest, strategy or live result is presented as a guarantee of future performance.
What Comes Next
The technical product has matured significantly.
The next challenge is different.
It is no longer primarily about adding more strategies or more features.
It is about getting more people to try TIYlab, observe how it behaves and decide for themselves whether it fits their approach.
That is why the free simulation matters so much.
The barrier to discovering TIYlab is now intentionally close to zero:
- no payment
- no card
- no API required
- no real trades
- no transfer of funds
Start with a simulated portfolio.
Observe the decisions.
Verify your exchange if you want to.
And only automate when you are ready.
Try TIYlab
Website
https://tiylab.com
Live track record
https://tiylab.com/en/tracker
Backtest and version history
https://tiylab.com/en/backtest
Documentation
https://tiylab.com/en/docs
Security
https://tiylab.com/en/security
Public changelog
https://tiylab.com/en/changelog
Telegram
https://t.me/TIYlabBot
TIYlab is software for automated cryptocurrency trading.
Cryptocurrency and derivatives markets involve substantial risk of loss.
Backtests are historical simulations and cannot predict future performance.
Live results and past performance do not guarantee future results.
Never invest more than you can afford to lose.