In a shocking twist, MakerDAO’s intentions to fork Solana for its future appchain migration have ignited a fiery dispute within the Ethereum ecosystem. The mastermind behind DeFi’s most significant collateralized debt protocol has proposed a central pivot, prompting strong reactions across the crypto space.
Maker’s MKR governance token faced a 5.6% drop from its recent high, all thanks to Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin’s eyebrow-raising actions. Buterin, in response to the news, swiftly sold his 500 MKR holdings for 353 ETH (equivalent to $580,000). A move that left many puzzled and intrigued.
Adding to the drama, Buterin emerged on Reflexer’s Discord server, the minds behind RAI—a fierce ETH-backed and unpegged rival to MakerDAO’s DAI stablecoin. Buterin’s call for Reflexer to adopt minority liquid staking tokens (LSTs) to boost its share of Ethereum’s stablecoin domain seems a strategic move against Maker’s impending departure from the Ethereum network.
Buterin’s bold statement against MakerDAO’s directional choices highlighted his concerns. He urged RAI to adopt a more “activist” governance approach and rally behind non-dominant forms of staked ETH. With Lido currently wielding control over a significant portion of the liquid staking market, concerns over centralization are rising.
The scene was set on September 1 when Rune Christensen, the co-founder of MakerDAO, presented his case for a Solana codebase fork for MakerDAO’s future appchain deployment. Christensen cited Solana’s scalability, multiple security clients, and the successful track record of Solana-based appchains. A point that holds more weight considering the resilience shown by the Solana ecosystem even after FTX’s downfall—a prominent Solana investor.
Christensen acknowledged Cosmos as a contender but pointed out its inefficiency compared to Solana. This revelation is unsurprising as MakerDAO had outlined its appchain migration plans as part of the “Endgame” overhaul. This proposed shift would lead to a dedicated network for MakerDAO, featuring updated MKR and DAI tokens, specialized subDAOs, and a revamped governance structure.
Dubbed “NewChain,” this new network aims to tackle the eight years of technical baggage that the protocol carries. Christensen explained that this approach would facilitate the purposeful rebuilding of each protocol component in alignment with the final “Endgame” technical design.
As for the launch timeline, Christensen estimates that the appchain migration is at least three years from becoming a reality. This move comes amidst the rising popularity of appchains for hosting applications with demanding requirements like speedy transactions and high throughput.
Recent developments in the crypto realm include the dYdX community’s decision to migrate to a Cosmos-based Layer 1 and Aave’s decentralized social media protocol, Lens, which is utilizing Momoka—a Layer 3 appchain backed by Ethereum.
With conflicting opinions, influential players, and the stakes higher than ever, the future of MakerDAO’s migration saga hangs in the balance, captivating the cryptocurrency community’s attention. Stay tuned for the twists and turns in this unfolding drama!
