Maker Governance Review: September 2020

October 9, 2020

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

Top Governance News

September saw a number of notable developments, with the Governance community voting to onboard several new collateral assets:

These and other Executive Votes raised the Dai Debt Ceiling to a record 1.4+ billion, as the total amount of Dai in existence topped 918 million toward the end of the Governance Cycle (September 26), before falling back below 900 million. 

September’s Governance Polls and Executive Votes

Governance Cycle Updates

Key Outcomes of the Fifth Governance Cycle

The fifth Governance Cycle, which began on September 7 and ended on October 2, included several significant developments for the Maker Protocol and MakerDAO as a whole.

Maker Improvement Proposals (MIPs)

Seven proposals were bundled into the monthly MIPs Executive Vote:

The monthly MIPs Executive Vote was ratified on September 30. MakerDAO now has a Risk Domain Team and a Smart Contract Domain Team!

MIPs in Progress

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

MIPs

Subproposals

Eight proposals (including subproposals) are now in the Formal Submission Stage, meaning they have completed the RFC phase and are proposed to enter the Governance Cycle:

MIPs

Subproposals

Additionally, there are three new discussions at the pre-MIP stage:

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. 

September’s Collateral Onboarding Community Polls ended on October 5, with the following results: 

A total of 15 collateral types were considered. Ten of these were greenlit by the community, with another five deferred:

What’s Ahead?

The sixth Governance Cycle began on October 5, signaling the start of the Formal Submission period for new MIPs, Subproposals, and Collateral Applications. The formal submission period ended on October 7. 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 October 12. 

Keep an eye out for the Weekly MIPs Update, 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. 

October 9, 2020