Original title: "The Maker Foundation Announces Mission Completion, MakerDAO Realizes Complete Decentralization", author Kyle
Maker Foundation CEO Rune Christensen issued an article "MakerDAO Has Come Full Circle" declaring that MakerDAO was officially handed over to the community to achieve complete decentralization. The Foundation will be disbanded in the coming months.
MakerDAO is now fully decentralized.
With several core units of governance approval effectively organizing all areas of work within the DAO, the global community is now responsible for all aspects of the Maker Protocol, the DAO is now fully self-sufficient, and the Maker Foundation has fulfilled its leadership responsibilities. As a result, the Foundation will be officially dissolved in the next few months.
After everything I've been through, it's still hard to believe this moment has actually arrived.
Six years ago, when I introduced the first iteration of Dai (which I called eDollar) on Reddit, I hoped that it would become a popular currency that ordinary people could use to interact with dapps on Ethereum — — without having to worry about wild swings. Today, there are over 5 billion Dai in circulation and over $8 billion in assets locked in Maker Protocol smart contracts.
Maker has come a long way in a relatively short amount of time. It went from being a DAO created by me and some passionate developers, to a foundation tasked with bootstrapping an amazing project, and back to being a DAO again. While the Foundation has played a specific and important role in the further development of the Maker Protocol and the growth of the global team, it exists only temporarily. It was created to serve a remarkable purpose - an autonomous, self-operating DAO.
From the early days of Maker, all participants have worked tirelessly to design a scientific governance framework and create the infrastructure for a new generation of open financial services that can be used by anyone, anywhere, anytime. We all want success, but know it's never guaranteed. We realize that only a very independent, passionate and committed Maker community can ultimately make success a reality.
It does.
Over the years, with each technical and philosophical milestone charted by the original DAO members and later the Foundation team, the global Maker community has assumed its governance responsibilities. People from all over the world came together to discuss in detail the ramifications and viability of each proposed concept, module, user experience and more, and each executive vote was a clear step towards full decentralization. The community has repeatedly acted in support of the Foundation's efforts to prioritize slow and methodical development over a rush to get code out. Only after extensive testing and a thorough audit did this practice help MakerDAO earn its reputation for proceeding with caution.
Additionally, over the years, the community has demonstrated their proactivity by independently designing creative solutions to a range of problems and identifying new opportunities for development.
Together we have accomplished so much, and on this exciting day, I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has played a part in this amazing journey. There would be no MakerDAO without the OG who participated in the first Sunday afternoon TeamSpeak call, the hard-working Foundation team members, and everyone else in Maker's wonderfully diverse community.
MakerDAO Milestones: 2015-2021
March 26, 2015: MakerDAO and its first stablecoin launched
The original concept of Dai (then called "eDollar") was first described in a reddit thread.
November 2015: MakerDAO team present at DevCon1
MakerDAO co-founder Nikolai Mushegian detailed the components of Maker. This was an early introduction of the organization and protocol to the wider Ethereum community in the early days of the blockchain.
May 2017: ProtoSai launched
MakerDAO developers launched and started using the first version of Dai, called ProtoSai. This marked the first limited issuance of the Dai stablecoin system and was a precursor to the public launch of Single-Collateral Dai (SAI) a few months later.
December 10, 2017: Sai white paper released
The original white paper describing the Dai stablecoin system articulated the final design of SAI and provided a roadmap for the future—including the ultimate goal of Multi-Collateral Dai.
December 19, 2017: Sai released
Single-collateral Dai goes live; ultimately fueling the current DeFi movement.
June 21, 2018: Foundation proposal published
The proposal was later updated to lay out core principles for sustainable decentralized governance.
November 18, 2019: Multi-collateral Dai goes live
The launch of multi-collateral Dai allows anyone to generate Dai based on the corresponding digital asset category approved by Maker governance.
March 25, 2020: MKR token contract transferred to Maker governance.
Since MKR holders now have full control over the MKR contract, decentralized governance is the only way to change the MKR token mandate.
The MIPs framework was approved on May 2, 2020
The Maker Improvement Proposals (MIP) framework including MIP0 and two MIP sets was approved.
25 March 2021: Core unit framework approved
The Core Unit framework paves the way for decentralized governance of all Maker Protocol teams and activities.
May 3, 2021: Maker Foundation returns assets held by Dev Fund to DAO
The return of 84,000 MKR to the DAO is another critical step in the process of further decentralization.
June 2, 2021: Liquidations 2.0 module activated
Liquidation 2.0 has been activated for all collateral types and has been approved by Maker Governance for acceptance in the Maker Protocol.
July 20, 2021: Rune Christensen Announces MakerDAO Fully Decentralized
The global Maker community is now responsible for all aspects of the Maker protocol and DAO.
I'm very proud of what we do and what it stands for. Maker's complete decentralization means that the future development and operation of the protocol and DAO will be determined by thousands or millions of actively engaged community members, all determined to extend the benefits of digital currencies to people around the globe.
Thank you all again for your support and enthusiasm. After enjoying a short summer break with my family, I'm looking forward to being an independent community member and Maker Forum participant again.
MakerDAO is fully developed and well managed.
This article is reproduced from The Way of DeFi and is reproduced with authorization.
