MakerDAO 'Endgame Plan' ratified in new 'Constitution'

More structure is coming to DAI issuer Maker following the majority approval of a constitution for the platform on MakerDAO, a cooperative decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that manages the protocol. 

Of those who responded to an open poll on the matter that closed on March 27, 76% voted to ratify “The Maker Constitution,” a proposal authored by Maker CEO and co-founder Rune Christensen.

“The Maker Constitution is a strategic tool for building as much resilience as possible into the political and operational interactions and processes that occur in Maker Governance,” Christensen’s documentation on the subject said.

The constitution itself introduces a significant reform for MakerDAO as part of the platform’s “Endgame Plan,” a strategy advocated by Christensen. It offers guidance on a variety of platform related functions pertaining to overall stability, decentralization and risk, frontend governance, voter committees and delegates, and more.

For Maker, the proposal means a new level of detail and strategy will be implemented in terms of the long term management of the platform, accounting for risk, partnerships, voter and governance infrastructure and asset management.

Constitutional conservers

The purpose of conservers is to protect Maker governance by “by ensuring it occurs according to the processes defined in the Maker Constitution,” and will “enable MKR holders to participate in Maker Governance in a manner where it is easy for them to make the decisions that best benefit their long term interests as MKR holders, even if the MKR holders have relatively little alignment,” according to the document.

Responsible for two critical governance roles as Constitutional Voter Committee members and Constitutional Delegates, constitutional conservers are to be anonymous. Conservers furthermore must take an oath to fight corruption, organizational drift, and other threats they may discover, and may be subject to additional requirements which may vary as their roles dictate, as described within relevant constitutional articles, the document said.

Voter Committees

Among those MKR holders who wish to publicly coordinate, Voter committees allow for the engagement of voting strategies, political alignment, and for compromise to be found in accordance with the common grounds that lie between various voter groups.

Additional parameters in the document define a Constitutional Voter Committee, made up of constitutional conservers who contribute more than the minimum requirements to platform governance. These committees receive benefits, resources, and support but are held to specific requirements.

Constitutional Delegates

Certain constitutional conservers operate smart contracts related to the Protocol Delegation System, making them constitutional delegates, according to the constitution. They “are eligible to receive significant income from the Maker Protocol … based on the number of votes delegated to them,” as long as participation requirements are met.

The delegates are to refrain from involving themselves in MakerDAO operational activities, nor are they able to allocate resources from their delegacy toward operations, with the exception of allocations which have a charitable impact. 

Delegates are encouraged to “compete and campaign on their ability to achieve some level of charitable impact with the resources available to them, in order to demonstrate alignment with the public good purpose of the DAO,” according to the constitution.

SubDAOs and communities 

The constitution provides details for the launch of six subDAOs comprising two FacilitatorDAOs that manage governance, two ProtectorDAOs that manage real-world assets, and two CreatorDAOs focused on innovating decentralization.

For each subDAO a well developed community will be required, and to spur the cultivation of such groups, infrastructure and support will be provided.

Provisions were also laid out to provide project-based funding for professional actors who aren’t classified as core units but still offer “critical services for SubDAOs, and professional and expert services for Maker Core, or b2b services for other Ecosystem Actors,” according to the document.