March delivered events that we won’t soon forget. On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. The virus has since changed how society operates in every region of the world. People all across the planet have a singular goal: flatten the curve. 

Here at Maker, the month brought another problem: a plunge in the markets that eventually developed into an outright collapse over a 36-hour period. Human and system resilience were tested in the wake. We’ll break it all down below, but first let’s look at the numbers from Daistats.com as of April 1, 2020, 3:30 pm PT. 

Total Dai: 82,995,974.87 

Dai from ETH: 74,787,870.77 (90.11%)

Dai from BAT: 369,307.9  (.44%)

ETH Stability Fee: 0.5%

BAT Stability Fee: 0.5%

USDC Stability Fee:  16%

Dai Savings Rate : 0%

Dai in DSR: 24,161,863.38 (29.11%)

Vaults Opened: 7734 

The Market Collapse of March 12-13, 2020: How It Impacted MakerDAO

Nearly three weeks ago, the Maker Protocol and the Maker Governance community were tested by a severe downturn in the capital and crypto markets. Maker Governance came together during this near-perfect storm of externalities to assess and manage the Maker system in a truly decentralized way. Learn why this happened, how Maker was impacted, and what the community learned from the experience.

Maker Debt Auctions Succeed in Recapitalizing the Protocol

Market activity early in the month resulted in accumulation of protocol debt in the MakerDAO system. As a result, a series of MKR token auctions were held, beginning on March 19, to recapitalize the system. By March 30, over 5M Dai was raised to pay the debt.

The MKR token contract is now 100% in control of MKR holders! 

On March 25, the Maker Foundation announced the transfer of the MKR token contract from it to the Maker governance community. With MKR holders now in full control of the token, decentralized governance is the only avenue for changing MKR token authorizations.   

MKR holders have accepted USDC as a new collateral asset in the Maker Protocol

USDC, a stablecoin backed by the US Dollar, is the third collateral type approved by Maker Governance. Joining ETH and BAT, USDC can now be used to open Maker Vaults in order to generate Dai.  

Let’s Play!: Maker Dives Deep Into Gaming 

On March 10, the Maker Foundation announced a move into gaming through the new Dai Gaming Initiative, a targeted approach to helping Dai reach critical mass in the global economy. For the same reasons Dai is a perfect fit for the DeFi movement, the stablecoin is outstanding for blockchain and traditional game economies. Its stability and versatility will help both thrive. Developers should be sure to check out the details of the Dai Gaming Initiative Bounty Plan.

Dai is the Most Used Cryptocurrency in the DeFi Space, and Here’s Why

The Dai stablecoin is the better mousetrap of the financial services sector. Borderless, transparent, and soft-pegged to the US Dollar, Dai provides stability in an otherwise volatile crypto world, as well as liquidity, while offering advantages and features to users that other stablecoins can’t. 

Crypto Offers the Cheapest Way to Transfer Money Internationally 

Total global remittances reached $689B in 2018, and traditional money transfer service providers charged average fees of up to 11%. Sending crypto is a much better, less expensive alternative.

WBTC, TUSD, PAX, and LINK Now on Oasis Trade

Late in the month, two new stablecoins, TUSD (TrueUSD) and PAX, were added to Oasis Trade. Also now listed are LINK and WBTC, tokens that are heavily traded on Uniswap and Kyber and are useful to the DeFi community. Adding them to Oasis Trade will further boost their adoption, allowing for easier trading among DeFi protocols. 

Worth Repeating

Catch Up On the Welcome to Crypto Blog Series

The six-part Welcome to Crypto series is now complete. If you missed any of the installments, catching up is easy. Click away!:

Part 1: The Benefits of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Technology

Part 2: How Does Cryptocurrency Have Value, and Why Should I Care?

Part 3: The Different Types of Cryptocurrency Tokens Explained

Part 4: A Guide to Crypto Wallet Types 

Part 5: How to Buy Cryptocurrency: A Step-By-Step Tutorial

Part 6: How to Read Cryptocurrency Price Charts, and Why They Matter

New White Paper Describes the Multi-Collateral Dai System and the New Features of the Maker Protocol

As more people become comfortable with cryptocurrency and discover the benefits of Dai, the more important it is to communicate in simple language the benefits of the stablecoin and the advantages of all the new attributes of the Maker Protocol. Much more reader-friendly than the original white paper, the new version aims to clearly answer the questions people unfamiliar with crypto and the blockchain might have.

Explore Apps and Services Using Dai

In case you missed it, a new Ecosystem page on MakerDAO.com was unveiled last month. The page contains links to all of the dapps designed by Maker, as well as to the many Dai-integrated projects created by the Maker community.  

Developer Resources

Maker Protocol Technical Documentation

Everything—everything— you need to know about the upgraded Maker Protocol now 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

A series of Governance Polls and Executive Votes this month resulted in changes to the Stability Fees for ETH and BAT (both have been lowered from 8% to 0.5%), while the Dai Savings Rate was lowered from 8% to 0%, as of April 1, 2020, 3:30 pm PT.

Here’s the polling and voting history:

• March 27: Executive Vote: Adjust Multiple Risk Parameters
• March 26: Executive Vote: Unblock the remaining Debt Auctions
• March 23: Governance Polls: Adjustments to USDC Stability Fee, Debt Ceiling, Dai Stability Fee, and more 
• March 20: Executive Vote: Adjust Multiple Risk Parameters
• March 16: Executive Vote: Proposal for Collateral Onboarding of USDC and Governance Polls: Adjustments to Dai Stability Fee, Dai Savings Rate Spread and Sai Stability Fee
• March 15: Executive Vote: Adjust Risk Parameters, Governance Security Module and Liquidation Freeze Module
• March 9: Governance Polls: Adjustments to Dai Stability Fee and Sai Stability Fee
• March 6: Executive Vote: Set the Dai Savings Rate Spread
• March 2: Governance Polls: Adjustments to Dai Stability Fee, DSR Spread, Sai Stability Fee, and Reducing the frequency of DSR Spread

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.

The Latest Integrations

Buenbit has integrated the Dai Savings Rate! The platform’s Argentinean users who are worried about volatility now not only have access to the Dai stablecoin, but can also earn savings on it!

Community Highlights and Event Recaps

On March 3-5,  Maker reps attended Ethereum Community Conference (ETHCC) 3  at Maison de la Mutualité in Paris, France. We ran a campaign with Kyber and Unlock, offering a discount of 15% on tickets bought with Dai, and contributed educational and engaging content. Jacek Czarnecki of our European Legal team shared data results from the DeFi legal troubleshooting workshop he held during Devcon in October. Gustav Arentoft, one of Maker ‘s Business Development Associates in Europe, shared the stage with Lucas Vogelsang from Centrifuge to discuss tokenizing real-world assets for DeFi and what’s ahead for the movement. Watch the presentation:  

Also in Paris, our own Charles St. Louis hosted a discussion on March 5 about DAOs at DAOfest during Blockchain Week France. A great number of highly engaged DAO enthusiasts gathered for an evening of insightful and engaging conversations on topics ranging from DAO creation to governance participation. As one of the oldest DAOs, Maker has been influential over the years.  

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

Upcoming Events

April 1: Blockchain 2030— Online

April 3-6: Noncon —Online

April 24: Fantom & MakerDAO AMA/Online Meetup—Online

May 1: DeFi Full-Stack Summit—Online

May 7-8: Ethereal Summit New York 2020—Online

Sept. 22-24: Money 20/20 Europe 2020 — Amsterdam, Netherlands

Dec. 9-10: Paris Blockchain Week Summit

To see more events we sponsor, participate in, or plan to attend, head to our Events page, and bookmark it!

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!

In the meantime, stay home and stay healthy!

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