- MakerDAO Rebrands to Sky, Marking a New Direction
- Sky Launches ‘Endgame Plan’ for Decentralized Governance
- The goal is to make the protocol resilient to external risks.
Just as Ethereum is the largest platform for decentralized applications, MakerDAO has been one of the oldest players in decentralized finance (DeFi). The best Ethereum-based lending protocol with stablecoin DAI is now rebranding to Sky.
This rebrand is part of the “Endgame Plan,” an ambitious proposal to completely overhaul MakerDAO’s governance and token economics. This rebrand and the launch of the USDS and SKY tokens on September 18th herald the beginning of this new phase.
Sky’s Final Game Plan: Rethinking How Decentralization Works
MakerDAO is taking a new step towards building a more resilient and scalable DeFi ecosystem. On Tuesday, August 27, the protocol officially rebranded to Sky and announced the launch of a new governance token, SKY, and a stablecoin, USDS.
At the heart of this change is the Endgame Plan, a comprehensive strategy to revamp the decentralized governance of the protocol. The plan aims to strengthen governance and stability, and provides new token economics designed to further decentralize the system and make it more resilient to external threats.
How Sky’s new governance will work
A key component of the Endgame Plan is the restructuring of MakerDAO into “Sky Stars,” formerly known as SubDAOs. Each operates as an independent DAO with its own governance token, rules, and community. The first of these is Spark, a DeFi lending platform that currently has over $3 billion in total value locked (TVL).
At the same time, Sky Star maintains synergy with the core protocol through the incentive network. In this way, each Sky Star operates within the ecosystem while maintaining the autonomy to innovate in its field.
How will Sky’s new token economy work?
To maintain synergy between these Sky Stars and the core protocol, Sky will introduce several changes to its token economics, the biggest of which is a change to the burn mechanism.
Under the new framework, the protocol uses its profits to purchase liquidity pool tokens SKY, USDS, and Sky Star governance tokens. After purchase, these tokens are strategically burned to increase their value. In this way, the protocol aims to align the interests of SubDAO with those of the core protocol.
Additionally, the protocol conducts SKY mining every year, and the proceeds fund the entire ecosystem. They foster new Sky Stars, fund the governance committee, and provide incentives for contributions.
The overall plan will take some time, but it is important to create more resilient and decentralized governance. If successful, Sky will become a model for other decentralized protocols that seek to balance decentralization and innovation.
On the other side
- Sky’s decentralized structure and novel token economics conflict with the regulations of certain countries. Certain features, such as rewards to USDS and SKY holders, are restricted in jurisdictions such as the US and the UK.
- Sky’s new stablecoin will have to compete with giants like Tether.
Why this matters
MakerDAO’s rebrand to Sky represents a major change in governance, and if successful, other projects could learn from its decentralized structure.
Learn more about institutional investment in MakerDAO:
Grayscale Continues to Expand with MakerDAO (MKR) Trust
Learn more about the new risks Solana faces.
Solana Memecoin Exposure Emerges as a Major Risk to the Network