Maker’s ‘endgame’ readies launch, aims for 100B DAI to take on Tether

Decentralized finance protocol MakerDAO is preparing for the launch of its highly anticipated “Endgame” transformation that will focus the platform “toward scalable resilience and sustainable user growth,” according to co-founder Rune Christensen.

On March 12 X and MakerDAO forum posts, Christensen proclaimed it was “launch season” for the decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol’s five-phase plan — with the mid-2024 slated Phase 1 involving hiring an external marketing firm to rebrand the entire operation into something less complicated and more fun.

The ultimate goal of the Endgame is to scale the protocol’s decentralized stablecoin Dai (DAI $1.00) from its current $4.5-billion market capitalization to “100 billion and beyond,” on par with rival Tether (USDT $1.00).

Another goal, according to Christensen, is to “make savings fun” through yield farming of new tokens from semi-autonomous “SubDAO” projects.

Following the mid-2024 rebranding phase, a token launch phase will introduce new tokens that have been dubbed “NewStable” and “NewGovTokens” until real names are announced.

MakerDAO will redenominate each Maker (MKR $2,806) token into 24,000 NewGovTokens. Additionally, NewStable tokenholders not residing in the United States can farm 600 million NewGovTokens per year.

These will be “optional upgrades for Dai and MKR with new features,” said Christensen.

“Launch season will bring the most important yield farming and UX features rapidly to market,” Christensen added.

Speaking to Magazine in January, Christensen said MakerDAO wants “to bring back DeFi summer, but this time, it’s not going to end, and it’s not going to go to zero.”

After the new token launch, the “Lockstake Engine” (LSE) will launch, allowing NewGovToken and MKR holders to earn yields on locked tokens.

This will be followed by “NewBridge” — whose real name will be announced later — which enables low-cost layer-2 yield farming.

The final part of Phase 1 is the launch of SparkDAO, the first SubDAO focused on lending.

The Spark Protocol was launched in May 2023, offering supply and borrow functionalities for DAI and various cryptocurrencies.

Phase 2 involves scaling up with more SubDAOs and bridges and begins once Phase 1 is completed successfully, likely in late 2024 or 2025.

This will be followed by Phase 3, which sees the launch of “NewChain” — a dedicated layer-1 blockchain to host the tokenomics.

Phase 4 is the “Final Endgame,” when Maker’s core governance becomes immutable.