Making Maker: April 2021

May 5, 2021

Last month, the Maker community focused on learning more about, voting on, and eventually ratifying a significant upgrade to the Maker Protocol’s Liquidations System—Liquidations 2.0. That upgrade should enable the Maker Protocol to scale effectively, allowing MakerDAO to support the growing demand for Dai in the DeFi space. There’s much more to catch up on, but first, let’s take a look at the latest figures from daistats.com as of May 5, 2021, at 11:00 a.m. PT.

Blog Round-up

The Maker Foundation Returns Dev Fund Holdings to the DAO

On May 3, 2021, the Maker Foundation returned 84,000 MKR from the Development Fund to MakerDAO. In particular, these MKR tokens were transferred to the DSPause Proxy smart contract in the Governance Module, and are now under the control of Maker Governance.

Why the MakerDAO Forum Is the Heart of the Maker Community

The Maker Forum is a community venue used to promote civil, productive discussion that advances the DAO and the Maker ecosystem. While community members also share information on a variety of other social channels, the Forum is the place for the conversations that can lead to significant changes to the Maker Protocol.

Crypto for Good: DePhi—Decentralized Philanthropy—the New Blockchain Frontier

The intersection of crypto and charity is helping to drive innovation on-chain and putting the spotlight on a new arm of trustless finance: decentralized philanthropy, or DePhi.

Worth Repeating

The Top 5 DeFi Developments to Watch In 2021

As the DeFi movement shows no signs of slowing down, several key trends have become fixed while others are worth watching as the space continues to develop throughout the year. Take a look at what they are and why they matter.

Infographic: A Brief History of Decentralized Finance

Explore the history and amazing trajectory of DeFi, and why many believe it’s important to the future of finance.

Developer Resources

Maker Protocol Technical Documentation

Everything—everything—you need to know about the Maker Protocol exists in (highly technical) documentation. Get your geek on!

Developer Guides

MakerDAO’s Developer Guides help anyone integrate with Maker’s smart contracts, SDKs, APIs, products, and partners. Bookmark the guides and review them anytime.

Governance Updates

Informed Voting: 4 Top Resources for Analyzing Dai Markets

This is part two of Maker’s three-part Informed Voting series covering the tools available to best assist MakerDAO governance community voting.

Maker Governance Votes on ETH and WBTC Collateral Integration with Liquidations 2.0

The proposed integration of ETH and WBTC—the two most popular collateral types accepted by the Maker Protocol— follows the approved integration of LINK and YFI. In the coming weeks, two additional proposals regarding integration are expected to be placed into the Maker Voting Portal.

The Liquidations 2.0 Upgrade Executive Vote is Live

On April 19, the proposal to upgrade the Maker Protocol’s Liquidations system was placed into the Maker Governance portal as an Executive Proposal. (Three days later, it was ratified.)

Governance Polls and Executive Votes in April 2021

April 26: Executive Vote: Approve April 2021 Governance Cycle and Governance Polls: Additions to Liquidations 2.0 Framework
April 23: Executive Vote: System Surplus Buffer Increase and Burn, Parameter Changes and more
April 19: Governance Polls: Monthly MIPs, Greenlight Polls, and more
April 12: Executive Vote: Onboard New Silver Series 2 DROP and Governance Polls: Inclusion Polls, Signals, and Parameter Changes
April 5: Governance Polls: Adjust System Surplus Buffer and more
April 2: Executive Vote: Increase Debt Ceilings, Provide April Core Unit Budgets

Miss This? Maker Governance Review: March 2021

The Maker community hosts weekly governance Q & A sessions. All are welcome to attend and learn more about how Maker governance works.

To stay current on governance, risk, and community issues, bookmark the MakerDAO Public Events Calendar. Newcomers to Maker might want to review our series of posts on the MakerDAO Governance Risk Framework.

Community Highlights

The Maker Foundation Meetup Grants Program Comes to an End

Over the lifespan of the Meetup Grants Program, which launched in February 2019, events drew approximately 6,000 attendees. Moreover, the program met its aim of creating and educating new community members in financially underserved areas.

To stay current on Maker Community meetings, bookmark our Community Playlist on YouTube.

Event Recaps

On April 6, Maker Foundation CEO Rune Christensen participated in a panel discussion titled Behind the Decentralized Finance Hype during the World Economic Forum’s virtual Global Technology Governance Summit 2021. Rune and Lithuania's Minister of Economy and Innovation Aušrinė Armonaitė spoke about shaping the future of technology before an audience of 1,500 business, government, civil society, and media leaders. Watch the discussion here.

On April 29, Maker Foundation President and COO Steven Becker participated in a panel discussion titled CBDC Decrypted during Luxembourg Blockchain Week 2021. Steven, Scott Hendry of Bank of Canada, Jon Helgi Egilsson of Monerieum, Dr. Thomas Moser of Swiss National Bank, and Pierre Thissen of Banque Centrale du Luxembourg explained central bank digital currencies to the audience.