Announcement: Kickstarting the Self-Sustaining MakerDAO Initiative

Hello all,

My name is Charles St.Louis and I work on the Engineering General team at the Maker Foundation. I am responsible for the initiative to further research, architect, and formalize Maker Governance processes on behalf of the Maker Foundation.

Last week, we took a big step forward in relation to the further decentralization of Maker: The formal transfer of MKR token control from the Maker Foundation to the community 35. This is a big milestone as the community embraces its larger, impending role in governing a self-sustaining DAO.

What’s next on our path to self-sustainability?

This forum post is meant to effectively kickstart the self-sustaining MakerDAO initiative. Beginning today, the Maker Foundation will lead the community in several very important governance discussions around the further decentralization of Maker. These discussions will lead to both actions and solutions that will help determine the future of the DAO.

The main tool for supporting and leading the path to self-sustainability is the Maker Improvement Proposals (MIPs) Framework. In short, MIPs are the preferred mechanisms for improving both Maker Governance and the Maker Protocol. Through an open and documented proposal process, community feedback will be collected to reach the broadest possible consensus on how the Maker Protocol should evolve.

The goal is that after several years of iteration of proposals and core governance processes, the MIPs Framework will define and set the stage for fully autonomous community governance of the Maker Protocol. Complete autonomy can then be followed by the dissolution of the Maker Foundation, as it will have fulfilled its purpose and no longer be needed.

With the introduction of this initiative, it is important to note two things:

1. While the Foundation will lead conversations and draft the initial MIPs, the community may propose competing MIPs and ultimately, the final decisions will be made by MKR voters.
2. Complete decentralization of MakerDAO means the eventual dissolution of the Maker Foundation.

What to Expect

• Thursday (2020-04-02): Rune will present The self-sustaining MakerDAO and answer questions during the governance call.
• Friday (2020-04-03): I will publish an in-depth forum post on the Maker Foundation’s vision for long-term governance and MIPs, and the importance of Maker becoming self-sustainable. I will also offer an in-depth description of how MIPs will work in practice, and an overview of what the initial MIPs we’re going to release will cover.
• Monday (2020-04-06): The Maker Foundation will create a new category on the Forum dedicated to MIPs. I will post the first 13 MIPs there (and on Github). Also on Monday, two upfront votes will be scheduled for the end of April. The first vote is for the timing of the MIPs ratification process. The community will have two options, the first one is to move ahead with the second vote, which ratifies or rejects the initial two MIP Sets and allows collateral onboarding to begin in May. The other timing option is to delay the MIP Set ratification by one month, and then institute the competition that will allow the community to propose competing MIPs for any of the Foundation MIPs releases, and then, at the end of May, have a series of governance polls that pick and choose exactly which MIPs go into the final ratification vote. This would allow collateral onboarding to begin in June.
• Lastly, I will be proposing myself as the first MIP Editor as a part of the MIPs ratification process that will happen in April. If elected, I will be responsible for supporting the core Maker community members and the Governance Facilitator(s) in shepherding and enforcing the administrative and editorial aspects of the overall MIPs process and framework.

As information regarding the self-sustaining MakerDAO initiative is presented, I’ll be available to answer any questions and facilitate discussion on the topic of MIPs and long-run governance here on the forum and in the dedicated #mips channel on MakerDAO’s public Rocket Chat 14. Lastly, please also visit the Maker blog 4 for a series of blog posts on these topics beginning with “Beyond Holding MKR: The Responsibility of Decentralized MakerDAO Governance Voting” 30.