From the very beginning, the Maker project has been focused on creating a more inclusive and transparent global economy. Over the past year, Dai has proven the viability of a decentralized, asset-backed stablecoin. Dai has successfully maintained its $1 USD peg in an exceptionally volatile market, hundreds of integration partners have joined our community and started to build Dai into their projects and volumes have steadily grown (almost $75MM in circulation at last count).

In that time, the organization tasked with bootstrapping the Dai Credit System, the Maker Foundation, has progressed MakerDAO down the path toward decentralization. From proposing foundation principles to onboarding partners to navigating the MKR holders’ governance over the first votes on stability fees and debt ceilings, the Foundation has been tirelessly building a decentralized ecosystem that is critical to the long-term strength and growth of the organization.

As Multi-Collateral Dai moves from the Kovan testnet to mainnet, it’s time for the Maker Foundation to continue evolving to support a fully decentralized and independent Dai.

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First, let’s start by clarifying some terms:

The Maker Community is the wide world of people and organizations that use or support Dai. In short, the Maker Community IS MakerDAO. From early adopters to Maker Foundation Employees to MKR holders, the Maker Community is an indispensable and critical part of the Maker system. Dai and Maker fundamentally cannot exist without the diligent and direct governance by the entire community and as a result, the community is the most critical component of Makers success.

MKR Holders are a group of individuals and entities that collectively manage and are responsible for the governance of the Dai Credit System. They exert control through voting rights that come with the MKR token and meet through various forums to discuss and debate everything from collateral types to Emergency Shutdown. Their educated and balanced guidance is central to the health, survival and ultimate success of the Dai Credit System.

The Maker Foundation is tasked with bootstrapping the system to ensure that it can survive as a fully decentralized organization. The Maker Foundation employs people to develop the strategies and manage the tasks required to build enough momentum so that MakerDAO can successfully thrive on its own. Per the Foundation Proposal, decentralization is a top priority and is ongoing. The Maker Foundation is responsible for regular updates on progress being made toward decentralization. It’s important to note that the Foundation does not occupy a privileged position within the community.

With a mainnet launch of Multi-Collateral Dai on the horizon, the Foundation has recently undergone a major restructuring to increase clarity, efficacy, and efficiency. The goal is to provide stronger support to help the Dai Credit System navigate an increasingly complex and ever-changing regulatory and competitive landscape. Our various entities are currently housed in the singular Maker Ecosystem Growth Group (MEGG), a conglomerate of subsidiaries housed under the Caymans-based Maker Ecosystem Growth Foundation(MEGF). The foundation is temporary and will dissolve once MakerDAO has achieved its decentralization goals.

The priorities of the Maker Foundation do not change with this new structure.

The primary areas of focus are:

1. System development: Finish building out the layer 1.5 infrastructure for Multi-Collateral Dai as well as governance elements: synthetic assets, governance user interface, leveraged tokens, and the Maker Community Foundation, while overseeing the gradual move towards full decentralization.
2. Oasis: A reimagined and rebuilt Oasis will be a flagship regulated product supporting the MEGG ecosystem. It will be a place where people can trade a multitude of collateral assets backing Dai, including security tokens, while also conveniently accessing CDP features for all of these assets.
3. Informational equilibriums with the Maker Community: The Foundation is going to contribute information from our proprietary trading desk and internal research team to educate market makers and MKR holders about the day-to-day in Dai markets. This step is mission critical for two reasons: one, we want other actors, specifically MKR holders, to see important trends that may foreshadow the need for MKR votes, and two, we want our team to be one voice among many providing reliable market information to the Maker Community.

One very important change as a result of the restructuring is that the Dev Fund will be managed by the new entity. We expect to transfer control of the Dev Fund, currently housed at this Etherscan address, from the old multi-signatory wallet to the new MEG Foundation’s multi-signatory wallet by February 2, 2019.

All of this change comes with a commitment to greater transparency. After Multi-Collateral Dai launches, and as soon as it is feasible to do so without impacting the primary goals of the Foundation, MEGG will provide deep insight into the composition and capabilities of our teams, constantly updated roadmaps and deep insight into our development and business and marketing processes, as well as other key activities.

Again, the ultimate goal is to ensure that MakerDAO has the infrastructure and momentum required for long term, decentralized success. To that end, we plan, in the future, to transfer our copyright and IP to an independent, non-profit entity called the Maker Community Foundation (MCF). The MCF will be driven by the sole goal of protecting and supporting MakerDAO. In contrast with MEGG, the MCF will be a permanent institution and will be funded directly from Maker Governance, making it fully independent.

The new structure ushers in a new chapter of transparency and productivity in the operations of the Maker Foundation. With a more streamlined structure and a clear set of priorities, MEGG ensures that the foundation is fulfilling its purpose and carrying out the goal of a fully decentralized autonomous organization to the full satisfaction of the community.