Starting with a very pedestrian point of view we compare two different at the first glance definitions for an algebra associated to BPS states in supersymmetric fields theories. One proposed by Harvey and Moore exploits $S$-matrices of BPS states as structure constants of a new algebra. Another one proposed by Kontsevich and Soibelman gives a construction according to the structure of cohomological Hall algebras. We show these two constructions give equivalent algebras.