After countless forum posts and disagreements back and forth, MakerDAO’s elaborate “endgame” plan is finally seeing concrete action.
Maker passed a poll that initiated the Spark Lend DeFi protocol on the Gnosis Chain. This sets the stage for the upcoming launch of its DeFi-focused subDAO. The move is intended as an example of how Spark Lend can move forward after the Maker’s “endgame” is completed and the subDAO becomes fully autonomous.
In preparation for the endgame, MakerDAO has launched a prototypical series of so-called subDAOs intended to control various aspects of the DAO. SparkDAO is Maker’s DeFi subDAO, and its Spark Protocol lending platform is buoyed by the popularity of sDAI, or savings DAI, a yield-bearing token that benefits from high government bond yields.
Users can now access Spark Lend, an Aave fork with similar features, on both Gnosis Chain and Ethereum. As demand grows, Karpatkey – Gnosis’ treasury manager – provides liquidity to the DAI market, essentially acting as a stand-in for Maker until it takes over operations itself.
The endgame is largely focused on reducing DAO governance fatigue, an issue that MakerDAO founder Rune Christensen called the “central issue” of DAOs on the Unchained podcast this week. For now, the protocol’s governance process remains unchanged, and the adopted proposal is headed for a second “executive” vote.
Maker subDAOs are intended to be specialized groups that can make decisions quickly. They operate with their own governance tokens and have a smaller number of stakeholders voting on each proposal.
Currently, Spark and other initial Maker subDAOs lack their own tokens and are not autonomous. While subDAOs could ultimately destroy Spark’s work, Sam MacPherson, CEO of Phoenix Labs, believes Spark is setting a precedent for future subDAOs. Until management of SparkDAO begins in earnest, Maker’s focus remains on expanding its Spark Lend deployment.
“Other chains will put out proposals, and we’ll go to all of them, that’s the idea,” MacPherson said.