[Brainstorm] 2021 mission and objectives

Some might say we are short term focused and prone to micro-management 11. A previous post explored 17 what MakerDAO can be in 5 years (without getting a clear view at the end). This post focus on the mission and objectives we can collectively decide for 2021.

Here, I define a mission as a short sentence that should be used as a red wire in almost all we do, how we should define MakerDAO in 1-3 years. The idea is to pick one in the end even if we can agree with many. Let’s define objective as a big chunk of work we want to be done around the end of 2021. We can have as many objectives as we think we can achieve. They should be open but still with a descriptive part.

This post is only for brainstorming, so we can propose anything, discuss anything and we will poll next year when the thing settle if there is enough traction. Maybe discussing the mission is more interesting, maybe starting with objectives makes more sense (quite sure there is a loop). I let you decide.

The following of the post will be updated with your addition/comments.

Mission list

Maker the CryptoBank corporation

Be the biggest bank amongst DeFi and CeFi thanks to a first-class workforce and governance.

Banks being defined as what a bank means in the future. Expanding the competitive landscape to CeFi (Square is next on the list, then HSBC and BoA). Put an emphasis on the importance of the workforce (paying our teams with the protocol money, being the best place to work) and the governance community.

Maker Autonomous Protocol

Be the leader in stablecoin lending and provide a good return to MKR holders

This is a narrower mission and it avoids pushing the scope too far and over-investing to remunerate the MKR token holders. One target is to have the least human interaction in the day to day activity. So most likely a small or no dedicated workforce and low governance overhead.

Maker The Money Lego

Be the key building block in DeFi and change the world

Support all the DeFi by having the best permissionless, trustless system. Be at the bottom on the Protocol Sink Thesis 12. Put an emphasis on the protocol versus front-end for instance. Also, need a lot of interaction with other protocols to collectively create the best possible version of DeFi.

Maker Making the World a better Place

Banking the Unbanked

Put an emphasis on the retail market, marketing, and the front-end. Leverage the work done by the Foundation in Latam and elsewhere.

Objectives list

Sustain a workforce

Attract, nurture, and retain a sizable workforce. See [Discussion] MakerDAO Contributors compensation brainstorm 3, [Discussion/Request] DAO's Organigram 3, and probably other discussions. Target full autonomy from the Maker structure (i.e. all facilitators and domain paid by the protocol).

Create EUR-DAI

Expanding from the DAI success, we will launch a Euro (or another currency, just for illustration here). It will be an independent copy/paste of the current DAI credit system (but all based on MKR at the end).

Depeg from USD

In order to avoid regulation issues, a new version of DAI will be launched (on the side) not related to any currency (maybe something inflation-linked). In case of a regulatory issue, we would depreciate the $-based DAI.

Launch Real World Assets

Target $300M RWA loans for the end of 2021.

Limit stablecoin exposure

The stablecoin exposure is around $500M at the end of 2020. It should be significantly lower (< $100M) at the end of 2021. The main solution is to add new collaterals but reducing SF or any other solution might be needed as well. cUSDC 1-type vaults are considered as stablecoin exposure.

Third-party protocol specific vaults

Integrate with at least one third-party protocol like Yearn (like yETH, yYFI) or B-Protocol 2 by providing them dedicated vault facilities. We can give them better risk parameters because we are confident that they will manage their position more carefully.

Develop a solution to bank the unbanked with the Maker ecosystem

Open to suggestions on this one by basically expanding on this post 3. Maybe having > xM users in LATAM at the end of 2021?

Use MakerDAO balance sheet to generate revenues other than stability fees

Basically, MIP32: Peg Stability Module - Compound Mixed Exposure. Can also link to Balance sheet manipulation: How to yield farm safely on Uniswap 4 and MIP31: Active Reserve Via AMM 1. Objective: generates more than $10M of revenues on an annual basis from such channels.

Layer 2 solution (including other chains)

xDAI or something else 9. Autonomous or just a L1-L2 bridge. More info on Ethereum L1 Gas Issue for little Dai holders/investors (ES/EN/PT) 1

Own and manage Maker assets

More or less take ownership of makerdao.com 3 and establish a MakerDAO brand on it. Currently, things are confusing 2. That would also mean paying a team to manage that.

Improve protocol functionalities

We should keep up with the competency. There is a lot we can do in this regard, adding Flash Mint module, we could use it to improve our internal functionalities, permitting things like Collateral Swap for the Vaults (integrating properly with Uniswap),

Special features for MKR holders

i.e. special lending feature for them, permit to borrow from special reserves, anything which makes holding MKR something with greater benefits

Governance by “political parties”

Delegated voting to bridge the discussion between the governance forum and the MKR whales.

Decentralize MakerDAO

Having MKR_t token/DAO for each collateral and automate the DAI_t <=> DAI convertibility if some solvency rules on this MKR_t DAO are satisfied. See more here.

Partners support

The value of DAI depends on having a whole ecosystem using it. Foster “Internal Incubators” encourage our world-class people to build things using our Credit System: what better way to harvest intelligence than to make your people use your product, love it and have “skin in the game” to improve it? (as old as Ford selling cars to his employees) Plus, with a truly global workforce, you could make Maker/DAI truly global.

Make Maker/DAI explainable to 5 year olds

With global communication, ideas spread fast. Simple ideas spread faster! If we want DAI in Latam, Africa and everywhere else, we should make it the most simple and powerful idea ever

Implement mechanisms to keep us opened to new DEFI users

This has become IMO a very important objective given what has been discussed in Signal Request to Increase the Dust Minimum.

We could start with simple proposals like Creating a Bite-Rebate Contract for Keepers Acting on Small Vaults 1