#DAI #USDC #Stablecoins #MakerDAO

In a recent announcement, the MakerDAO community has decided to maintain the USD Coin (USDC) as the primary reserve asset for the stablecoin, DAI. This decision was made after a period of instability in the market, during which DAI and USDC temporarily lost their parity with the US dollar.

More than half of the DAI in circulation were issued through USDC deposits in MakerDAO. While the community had considered replacing USDC with the stablecoin from Paxos, they ultimately decided to stick with USDC.

DAI is a stablecoin that seeks to maintain a price linked to the US dollar through a collateralization system. Unlike other stablecoins, such as USDC or Tether, DAI is based on a lending platform and a set of smart contracts on the Ethereum network to ensure its stability and decentralization.

Users can lock different types of crypto assets as collateral in Vaults to generate DAI. The users depositing these collaterals are required to maintain a minimum collateralization ratio to ensure that the amount of DAI in circulation is always backed by a greater value of assets.

When users want to retrieve their collateral, they must return the amount of DAI they generated, along with a stability fee. This stability fee acts as an incentive to maintain the balance between the supply and demand of DAI and ensure that its value remains close to the US dollar.

In addition to collateral in crypto assets, DAI has been incorporating real-world assets, such as liabilities from traditional financial institutions, to back its value. This allows DAI to have a broader and more diversified collateral base, which seeks to increase its resilience to market fluctuations and risks associated with specific crypto assets.

With USDC as the primary collateral for DAI, the MakerDAO community hopes to maintain stability and provide a secure and reliable stablecoin option for users.

MakerDAO co-founder Rune Christensen has proposed the launch of a native blockchain, named "NewChain," for the Maker (MKR) ecosystem. This blockchain aims to enhance security and efficiency and is part of the fifth phase of Maker's long-term roadmap, known as "Endgame." Originally, Endgame outlined the launch of NewChain as a separate chain with backend security interacting with Ethereum through a bridge. However, Christensen's recent blog post suggests that a Solana-based fork should be considered as the foundation for NewChain, citing specific reasons for this choice.

Solana Codebase Advantages

Christensen identifies three key reasons for considering Solana's codebase as the basis for NewChain:

Technical Quality: The Solana codebase is highly optimized for efficient blockchain operation, aligning well with NewChain's objectives. It benefits from being designed after blockchain bottlenecks and challenges were well understood, addressing Maker's technical debt. Solana already boasts two client implementations, crucial for resilience.

Ecosystem Resilience: Despite experiencing challenges, such as the FTX incident, the Solana ecosystem has demonstrated resilience with a thriving developer community. This resilience, coupled with a significant Lindy Effect, suggests long-term sustainability and cost-efficiency for Maker's development and maintenance.

Forking Success: Solana's codebase has successfully been forked and adapted for appchains, as evidenced by projects like Pyth. This adaptability indicates that it can serve as a reliable foundation for NewChain.

Conclusion

Rune Christensen's proposal to explore a Solana-based codebase for Maker's native blockchain, NewChain, represents a significant development in the #MakerDAO ecosystem. The potential benefits of Solana's technical quality, ecosystem resilience, and demonstrated forking success make it a compelling candidate. As MakerDAO progresses through the Endgame roadmap, this strategic choice could contribute to a more secure and efficient ecosystem. It remains to be seen how the Maker community and stakeholders will respond to this proposal and whether it will be integrated into the project's future developments.

$MKR

#MakerDAO the company that created the #DAI #Stablecoins pegged to the US dollar, stated in a forum post that on March 11, the company had various collaterals "exposed to USDC tail risk" as a result of the unusual de-pegging of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin that had started on March 10. For the DAI stablecoin, Maker DAO presently has more than 3.1 billion #USDC in collateral.

First, Maker suggests setting a debt ceiling of 0 DAI for the liquidity provider collaterals UNIV2USDCETH-A, UNIV2DAIUSDC-A, GUNIV3DAIUSDC1-A, and GUNIV3DAIUSDC2-A. In order to prevent "excessive dumping of USDC," Maker also wants to lower the daily minting limits of its USDC peg stability module from 950 million DAI to 250 million DAI and raise the fee from 0% to 1%. If the proposal is approved, Maker will also lower the daily minting limits of its #GUSD module from 50 million DAI to 10 million DAI.

Maker also wants to completely cut off exposure to the decentralized financial protocols Curve and Aave. While Aave doesn't have these risks, Maker still claimed that its "overall risk-reward of depositing funds into the D3M are not favorable under current conditions" because Curve "uses a fixed $1 price for USDC," which "presents a risk of bad debt accrual and potentially bank runs with cascading market insolvency if the market price of USDC falls significantly below the current collateral factor."

Last but not least, Maker suggests raising the protocol's debt ceiling from 450 million DAI to 1 billion DAI for the USDP stablecoin produced by Paxos. The company wrote:

"Paxos has relatively stronger reserve assets versus other available centralized stablecoins, consisting primarily of U.S. treasury bills, reverse repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. treasury bonds. They face relatively lower potential for impairment versus other available stablecoins."

Since its issuer, Circle, reported it had $3.3 billion in money collateralizing the stablecoin trapped on the now-defunct Silicon Valley Bank, USDC depegged from the US dollar on March 10. The price of USDC at the time of posting is $0.9025. The DAI stablecoin has likewise degged to $0.9235 in response to the announcement.

In recent news, MakerDAO, one of the pioneering projects on the Ethereum blockchain, has faced controversy as it contemplates a significant transition. Ethereum's co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has unexpectedly sold over 11,000 MakerDAO (MKR) tokens, raising questions about the project's future. This blog delves into the unfolding situation, examining the motivations behind MakerDAO's potential shift to a new blockchain and the implications for the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

MakerDAO Controversy Unraveled

The blog begins by introducing the recent events involving MakerDAO, highlighting the 2.5% drop in MKR's value and Vitalik Buterin's sale of MKR tokens worth half a million dollars. These events have sparked curiosity within the crypto community.

Rune Christensen's Vision for MakerDAO

In this section, we explore Rune Christensen's announcement regarding the "Endgame" phase of MakerDAO. He discusses the creation of a native blockchain, codenamed "NewChain," and its potential reliance on the Solana codebase. This move has surprised many in the Ethereum community, as MakerDAO has long been associated with the Ethereum ecosystem.

Maintaining User-Facing Stability

The blog emphasizes that despite the potential shift to a new blockchain for DAO governance, user-facing aspects like the stablecoin DAI will remain on the Ethereum network. This distinction is crucial for understanding the proposed changes' impact on the DeFi ecosystem.

Challenge of Decentralized DAOs

This section delves into the challenges of achieving true decentralization within DAOs. It discusses the typical token holder voting process and contrasts it with the potential for a contentious hard fork in public blockchains. The blog also mentions the unique case of Augur's governance.

Need for Hard Forking and Capacity

Rune Christensen's emphasis on the need for hard forking capability is explored in this section. It raises questions about why this requires a new blockchain and why an Ethereum-based chain isn't suitable. Additionally, the concept of "neural" tokenomics and its relevance to MakerDAO's evolution is introduced.

MakerDAO's Growing Complexity

The blog highlights the evolution of MakerDAO from a simple ETH stabilization project to one relying on USDc, US Treasury bonds, and Real World Assets (RWAs). It discusses the challenges of transferring RWA tokens and the project's pursuit of yield.

Centralization vs. Decentralization

This section addresses the tension between centralization and decentralization within MakerDAO's evolving ecosystem. It mentions the decentralized nature of Bitcoin and Ethereum and contemplates the motivations behind choosing Solana.

Role of Token Holders

The blog closes by pondering the role of token holders in MakerDAO's decision-making process. It raises questions about whether they will have a say in the potential transition to the new chain.

#MakerDAO $MKR #VitalikButerin #MKR #Ethereum #SOLANA $SOL $ETH