The Maker Governance Review is a monthly recap of all Governance activity, from Governance blog posts and polling/voting history to Governance Cycle progress. Each review is written by the Maker Improvement Proposals (MIPs) Editor to keep the Maker community informed of Governance developments.

Top Governance News

• Executive Vote: Onboard USDT and PAX, Multiple Other Changes - September 4, 2020
  • Onboard USDT and PAXUSD 
  • WBTC-A Debt Ceiling from 80 Million to 120 Million
  • Increase the Base Rate from -6% to -2%
  • Appoint Argent as an Oracle Light Feed
  • Appoint MyCrypto as an Oracle Light Feed
• Executive Vote: Raise the ETH-A Debt Ceiling - September 2, 2020

August’s Governance Polls and Executive Votes 

• Sept. 4: Executive Vote: Onboard USDT and PAX, Multiple Other Changes - September 4, 2020
• Sept. 2: Executive Vote: Raise the ETH-A Debt Ceiling - September 2, 2020
• Aug. 28: Executive Vote: Activate Liquidations 1.2, Multiple Other Changes
• Aug. 24: Executive Vote: Approve August 2020 Governance Cycle Bundle
• Aug. 21: Executive Vote: Increase the Base Rate
• Aug. 18: Executive Vote: Increase ETH Debt Ceiling to 420 Million
• Aug. 17: Governance Poll: Base Rate adjustment, ETH Debt Ceiling, Greenlight Polls, and more
• Aug. 14: Executive Vote: Modify Multiple System Parameters
• Aug. 10: Governance Poll: Liquidations 1.2 Upgrade, Base Rate adjustment, and more
• Aug. 7: Executive Vote: Urgent configuration change to the ETH lump size, Increase the WBTC-A debt ceiling 

Governance Cycle Updates

Key Outcomes of the Fourth Governance Cycle

The fourth Governance Cycle, which began August 3 and ended on August 28, included two proposals—one related to the DAO’s decentralized workforce and the other signaling an intention to create a Vault Holder Advocacy Group: 

• MIP0c13-SP1: Subproposal for Core Personnel Offboarding
• MIP13c3-SP1: Declaration of Intent (Forward Guidance)

These proposals were ultimately rejected by the Maker Governance Community.  

MIPs In Progress

Nine proposals, outlined below, are currently in the Request for Comments (RFC) phase. This means it is time for the Maker community to provide feedback on each or request changes from Proposal Authors. 

Proposals in the Request for Comments (RFC) Phase:

• MIP21: Real-World Assets—Off-Chain Asset-Backed Lender
• MIP22: Centrifuge Direct Liquidation Module
• MIP13c3-SP5: Declaration of Intent—Maker to commence onboarding work of Centrifuge-based Collateral
  • In short, this proposal highlights Centrifuge’s intent to commence onboarding work of Centrifuge-based Collateral to the Maker Protocol. 

• MIP13c3-SP4: Declaration of Intent and Commercial Points—Off-Chain Asset-Backed Lender to Onboard Real-World Assets as Collateral for a DAI loan 
• MIP23: Domain Structure and Roles
  • In short, this proposal provides a flexible and consistent structural framework for MakerDAO personnel within any domain.
• MIP20: Target Price Adjustment Module (Vox)
• MIP14: Protocol Dai Transfer
• MIP17: Weekly Actual Debt Ceiling Adjustments
• MIP13c3-SP3: Declaration of Intent—Strategic Reserves Fund (SRF)

Proposals in the Formal Submission Phase (Planned for the October Governance Cycle)

The Formal Submission phase is when MIPs or Subproposals have concluded the RFC phase and are proposed to enter the Governance Cycle.

Collateral Onboarding: 

• MIP12c2-SP5: COMP Collateral Onboarding
• MIP12c2-SP6: LINK Collateral Onboarding
• MIP12c2-SP4: LRC Collateral Onboarding

Domain Team Onboarding and Offboarding:

• MIP7c4-SP2: Subproposal to Offboard Smart Contract Domain Team (Mariano Conti)
• MIP7c4-SP1: Subproposal to Offboard Risk Domain Team (Cyrus Younessi)
• MIP7c3-SP4: Domain Team Onboarding (Smart Contract Domain Team)
• MIP7c3-SP3: Domain Team Onboarding (Risk Domain Team)

Other

• MIP15: Dark Spell Mechanism
• MIP13c3-SP2: Declaration of Intent—Dai Flash Mint Module

Pre-MIP Discussions

• Debt Ceiling Instant Access Module
• A Governance Chief Contract Redesign
• A Liquidation System Redesign
• Adding a Poll to Prioritize Collateral Applications

Collateral Onboarding Community Greenlight Polls 

Community Greenlight Polls are Governance polls that are specific to gauging community sentiment for collateral onboarding. Specifically, Greenlight Polls allow MKR token holders to inform the Domain Teams (Risk, Smart Contracts, and Oracles) of their preferences for collateral types that have been proposed through Collateral Onboarding Applications. These polls run for a period of two weeks starting the third week of the Governance Cycle. 

While Domain Teams are free to choose their own workload, an on-chain Governance poll provides them with key insights into community sentiment for each collateral type proposed. In addition, it is important to gather the opinions of MKR token holders before the full domain work takes place, as a matter of efficiency.

August’s Collateral Onboarding Community Polls went live on August 17 and ended on August 31. The polls, 12 in total, covered the following collateral types:

What’s Ahead?

The fifth Governance Cycle began on September 7, signaling the start of the Formal Submission period for new MIPs, Subproposals, and Collateral Applications. The formal submission period ended on September 9. Proposals will be approved or denied by Governance Facilitators on the weekly (Thursday) Governance call. If approved, proposals will enter the Governance Cycle in week two of the August Cycle through Inclusion polls on September 14. 

The Weekly MIPs Update is typically posted in the Maker Forum on Sundays or Mondays. The update summarizes the most recent events in the world of MIPs, the previous week’s activity, what to expect from the current week, and what’s on the agenda for the next week. It also covers updates with respect to Governance polls and votes, collateral onboarding, and rate adjustments.

Resources

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.

Also, remember to review the Maker Improvement Proposals category in the Maker Forum and visit the #mips rocket.chat channel to discuss topics related to MIPs, the Self-Sustaining MakerDAO Initiative, and long-run Governance. 

To learn more about the Governance activities that occur during the Monthly Governance Cycle, see MIP3 for a week-by-week breakdown. 

For the most current MIP-related activity, see the official MIPs Github page.

About Maker Improvement Proposals

MIPs support the organic growth that further expands MakerDAO’s self-sustainability by providing the Maker community and all stakeholders with a standard approach to proposing improvements, specifications, and process and state changes to the Maker Protocol and MakerDAO.