Happy New Year to all in the MakerDAO community! With one month under our 2021 belts, we’re ready for what’s ahead.

This first Making Maker of the year covers notable protocol and community developments from December 2020 through January 2021. But before we dig into them, let’s take a look at the latest figures from daistats.com as of February 1, 2021, 11:30 am PT. 

Blog Round-up

MakerDAO’s Year in Review: 2020

Last year was challenging for everyone, but thanks to Maker’s amazing community of people worldwide, 2020 also delivered accomplishments. Take a look at some of the year’s most significant developments for Dai and the Maker Protocol.

Decentralized, Stable Crypto Tokens Broaden Their Appeal to the Digital Artwork Market

Alongside the remarkable growth of the DeFi space in 2020, interest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) surged as artists discovered new ways to express themselves and reach new markets. 

Nine Most Common Missteps of Crypto and DeFi Users

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is a fast-growing blockchain-based movement. Users love its benefits, but some face a learning curve when navigating the new tech. This post details common user mistakes, and offers insight on how to avoid making them.

An (Updated) Guide to Dai Stats

Daistats.com provides valuable, real-time information about the size and health of the MakerProtocol. Learn all about the additions to the site since the first version of the guide was published last spring. 

How Linux Provides a Roadmap for Increased Adoption of Blockchain Tech and the Maker Protocol

The Linux operating system runs just about everything connected to the internet because it’s open source and highly customizable. One of the reasons blockchain applications, especially DeFi apps, are gaining in popularity and hold so much promise is precisely because they, like Linux, are open source. Learn how Linux provides precedent for how the Maker Protocol might significantly support the wider economy. 

Worth Repeating

Zero to One Billion Dai: Five Years of Growth for MakerDAO

In November, the Maker Protocol hit the milestone of 1 billion Dai in circulation. This post includes an infographic of the highlights from the five years since the concept for the Dai stablecoin was announced.

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

Maker Governance Review: January 2021

The Maker Governance Review is a monthly recap of all Governance activity. Each review is written to keep the Maker community informed of Governance developments.

Maker DsChief 1.2 Activation  

An executive vote to activate the DsChief 1.2 to mitigate the risk of governance attack posed by flash-loans passed on December 11.

Governance Polls and Executive Votes in December 2020 and January 2021 

• Jan. 29: Executive Vote: Add ETH-A to the Debt Ceiling Instant Access Module
• Jan. 25: Executive Vote: Approve January 2021 Governance Cycle Bundle and Governance Poll: Add NS-DROP (New Silver DROP) as a Collateral Type
• Jan. 22: Executive Vote: Collateral Onboarding, Debt Ceiling Adjustments, Other Changes
• Jan. 15: Executive Vote: Stability Fee Changes, Oracle Whitelisting, Other Changes
• Jan. 4: Executive Vote: Increase ETH-A & USDC-A Debt Ceilings
• Dec. 18: Collateral Onboarding, Rates Changes, Oracle Whitelisting
• Dec. 14: Governance Polls: Collateral Greenlights, Whitelist Oracle, and more
• Dec. 11: Executive Vote: Collateral Onboarding, ETH-B DC-IAM, Other Changes
• Dec. 7: Executive Vote: Activate DSChief v1.2 and Governance Polls: Parameter Changes, Collateral Onboarding, and more

Miss This? Maker Governance Review: November 2020.

The Maker community now 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 

ICYMI: The Redesigned MakerDAO Community Development Portal is Live.

Take a look at the MakerDAO Community Development site to learn how to increase your knowledge of Maker, join the team, and more.

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

Event Recaps

On December 1, Jocelyn Chang, the Maker Foundation’s Community Lead in Southeast Asia, attended Blockbali DeFi Summit, a leading annual blockchain conference in Asia. She participated in a panel discussion titled DeFi Composability: Creating Usable Money Legos with DAOs, alongside Alexander Russman, Director of Business Development for Enjin; Clayton Roche​, Community Lead at ​UMA; and Vladimir Nikitin from ​Polkadot. 

On December 2, Gustav Arentoft, the Maker Foundation’s Business Development Associate in Europe, participated in a fireside chat with Stani Kulechov of Aave and Ilya Volkov of YouHodler. The discussion, titled The Rise of DeFI, focused on the upsides and downsides of both centralized and decentralized protocols and applications.

On December 3, at the Ethereum in the Enterprise: Asia Pacific 2020 conference,

Kathleen Chu, the Maker Foundation’s Community Lead in Japan, participated in a panel discussion about the Ethereum ecosystem. She was joined by Aya Miyaguchi, Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, and Dorjee Sun, CEO of Perlin. Watch the talk.

Kathleen discussed MakerDAO and exciting Ethereum ecosystem projects with conference attendees.

On December 7, Jacek Czarnecki, Global Legal Counsel for the Maker Foundation, participated in a panel discussion titled The evolution of DeFi: Opportunities and Challenges during the World Fintech Festival’s Singapore track. He was joined by Robert Patalano, Deputy Head of Division at OECD, and Cardozo Law School DeFi specialist Aaron Wright. The panel was moderated by Yuji Kawada, Deputy Director of the International Affairs Office for the Japanese Financial Service Agency.

On December 9, Jennifer Senhaji of the Maker Foundation’s Business Development team discussed digital art and gaming NFTs with others at a virtual event hosted by Maker in collaboration with Google Cloud, Axie infinity, and Async Art. Panelists at the event titled Intro to the Crypto Metaverse included Conlan Rios and Lisa Liang from AsyncArt; Devan Mitchem, senior cloud engineer from Google Cloud; and Aleksander Leonard Larsen, founder of Axie Infinity.   

Also on December 9, Bartek Kiepuszewski, Head of Oasis, participated in a panel discussion during the Paris Blockchain Week Summit about how DeFi is creating an alternative financial system. Fellow participants included Zoe Adamovicz of Neufund and Carolyn Reckhow from KEEP; John Orthwein of i-am Lab moderated.

The Singapore World Fintech Festival took place in mid-December, and Maker Foundation CEO Rune Christensen was there. Rune joined Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave, and Min Teo, investments lead at ConsenSys, on December 11 for a panel discussion titled DeFi: Threat or Opportunity for the Financial industry? Watch: 

Also on December 11, Gustav participated in the 2020 Cutting-Edge Games Conference, where he joined Alex Salnikov of Rarible, Gabby Dizon of Altitude Games, John Wang from Neo Smart Economy, and Terrence Wang from IOST to discuss DeFi and NFT use cases and success stories

On December 12, Kathleen Chu introduced Dai and the Maker Protocol to attendees of the Business Blockchain Expo, an event that connects blockchain operators around the globe with Japanese industries.  

On December 16, Rune spoke at the REDeFiNE TOMORROW Global DeFi and Blockchain Virtual Summit about the future of DeFi and the role of real-world assets. The event was hosted by Siam Commercial bank (SCB), the largest commercial bank in Thailand. Other speakers from the DeFi space included Robert Leshner of Compound and Stani Kulechov of Aave. Watch part one and part two of the discussion on Facebook.  

On December 17, the Maker Foundation collaborated with PwC to present the second edition of the webinar series Decentralized Finance and the Future of Banking, with guest speaker Marc Zeller from Aave. Maria Magenes, the Maker Foundation’s Community Lead for Europe and Africa, co-hosted. The conversation focused on how DeFi smart contracts enable decentralized and direct lending and borrowing, while simultaneously avoiding high costs. 

Also, on December 17, Maria participated in an all-female DeFi-focused panel hosted by KeyTango. Maria and Mona El Isa from Avantgarde Finance discussed how newcomers to the crypto space can discover DeFi products. Ana Maria Yanakieva moderated the talk.

On January 18, The Maker Foundation’s Head of Business Development, Greg Diprisco, participated in a talk titled The Global Business of Tokenization: Challenges and Opportunities! The panel discussion, part of a series of webinars on startups, was produced by Starterbites Ventures in association with Ctech Events.

Monthly Events

Yasashi (Easy) DeFi: Kathleen Chu, the Maker Foundation’s Community Lead in Japan, co-hosts this friendly educational series of meetups focused on educating the Japanese community on the financial opportunities and services DeFi provides. Check the schedule for dates and times.

FriDai Brunch: Maria Magenes, Maker’s Community Lead for Europe and Africa, hosts this monthly meetup series that offers blockchain newbies and old-schoolers a welcoming space to learn about new projects and advancements in the space. Join her and special guests on the first Friday of every month. The December 7 edition of FriDAI Brunch featured a panel discussion and demo of blockchain gaming. 

Upcoming Events

See the Maker Events page for a list of the many events we sponsor, participate in, or plan to attend. 

Reminder: If you’re organizing a small event that incorporates Maker or Dai—whether it's a meetup, panel, talk, or workshop—we want to support you! Learn more about our global meetups and micro-grants initiative. 

The Maker Foundation Is Hiring!

The Maker Foundation is looking for awesome people to join our growing, hard-working, and overall badass team. Check out our open roles and reach out if you’re interested!

Learn more about MakerDAO:

Website: https://makerdao.com/

Blog: https://blog.makerdao.com

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/MakerDAO/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/makerdao