---
# System prepended metadata

title: 'Forum at a Glance: April 21 - 27, 2022'
tags: [Forum at a Glance]

---

---
tags: Forum at a Glance
---

# Forum at a Glance: April 21 - 27, 2022

![](https://i.imgur.com/F51KeH1.png)

Welcome to the one-stop shop for a TL;DR on everything discussed on the MakerDAO forum.

*Links reflect our views of the most noteworthy activities in the governance, risk, and oracles categories. Disagree? Think something should be added? Leave a reply or send a PM.*

[Online PDF version](https://pdfhost.io/v/hrhIGRF7Z_Forum_at_a_Glance_April_21_27_2022)
[Medium]() *publishing soon!* | [GovComms Medium Account](https://medium.com/@MkrGovComms)

</details>

---
![Three-Point Summary](https://i.imgur.com/n1GunxG.gif)

‘What is the most relevant information on the forums this week for MKR and Dai holders?’

1. A [lending market analysis](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/lending-market-analysis-cross-collateralization-market-opportunity/14763) explores ways for Maker to potentially see a revenue boost of \$1.06M.
2. A detailed [post](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/a-balance-sheet-approach-to-executing-an-aggressive-growth-strategy-the-road-to-300m-revenues/14818) investigates ways to design the Maker balance sheet to target aggressive growth.
3. A [Signal Request](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/signal-request-deploy-the-balance-sheet-in-eth/14834) is currently live to gauge community sentiment toward moving forward with the Maker Balance Sheet approach for Aggressive Growth by investing in Ethereum and ETH derivatives. 

---
![News and Announcements](https://i.imgur.com/Sfpwsws.gif)

**[MakerDAO talks at Devconnect](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/makerdao-talks-at-devconnect/14792)**

Members of the Sustainable Ecosystem Engineering, Protocol Engineering, and Development and UX Core Units spoke at several events during DevConnect in Amsterdam.

![](https://i.imgur.com/ktOWxQW.png)

<details><summary>ETHday (April 18th)</summary><br>

[Agenda](https://cryptocanal.notion.site/cryptocanal/ETH-DAY-Devconnect-d42e7b24768243eb9d4ebf782dd3c790)
[Stream](https://streameth.tv/event/eth-day)

-   Lenka (SES): Panel, *Learn from the serial DAOists*
    -   Speakers: Lenka Hudakova (SES Maker), Rolf Hoefer (Metacartel)
    -   Coordinators: Ryan (Developer DAO), Andrej Berlin (Deep Work)
    -   Mod: Jonathan Knegtel

-   Lenka (SES): Talk *How to create your dream job in crypto/Web3*
    -   Shared some of the decentralized workforce research highlights combined with my experiences while working & hiring in the space. The outcome is a set of actionable strategies to pursue people looking to join the space, outlining how one can shape own dream job in a proactive way, rather than waiting for getting the job as a response to a job ad.

[Slides](https://pitch.com/public/ab211e80-51f3-4560-b3a8-9448f60242e7)

-   Lenka (SES): Panel *Working in Web3*
    -   Speakers: Lenka Hudakova (SES Maker), Maria Magenes (Oasis, Balancer)
    -   Coordinator: Ryan (Developer DAO)
    -   Mod: Jonathan Knegtel

</details><br>

<details><summary>GGG DAOist (April 19th)</summary><br>   
 
[Recording](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwGSVEZFFjEzktq-Ph7OyE0iWMsW-dOKV)

-   Lenka (SES): *Open hours: Building healthy teams*
    -   Lenka is part of the People Ops guild (people jamming on contributor topics in DAOs) <https://twitter.com/TheDAOist_/status/1516355691203674113>
    - No recording! But the three main questions were:
        - How do you overcommunicate successfully in a DAO?
        - How do you balance a revolving door of contributors with liquid roles vs. small, focused teams with very dedicated roles?
        - What are the best practices around performance reviews in decentralized org?

-   Wouter (SES) - Talk, *Breaking the Dunbar's barrier at MakerDAO*\
    -   Since the dissolution of the Foundation, the Maker community has been working hard to scale up the DAO beyond the Dunbar number. This introduces significant coordination challenges. I want to discuss the difficulties we faced and what we've learned throughout this journey and offer these as takeaways for other projects following a decentralization compass.

[Recording](https://youtu.be/yt8OstQZYPI?t=6547)

![](https://i.imgur.com/vTiKbHl.png)

-   Deniz (DUX): Talk, *Solving common DAO governance challenges*
    - Sneak peek of the new voting portal
    - TLDR on the workshop (incl Element, Yearn, Orca, Livepeer, Radicle, Other Internet, etc.)
    - 3 core problem areas:
        - 1. Onboarding
        - 2. Accountability
        - 3. Participation

[Recording](https://youtu.be/yt8OstQZYPI?t=8842)

![](https://i.imgur.com/apGdA8G.png)

A [lending market analysis](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/lending-market-analysis-cross-collateralization-market-opportunity/14763) explores ways for Maker to potentially see a revenue boost of about $1.06M.

</details><br>

<details><summary>Layer 2 Amsterdam (April 19th)</summary><br>

![](https://makerdao-forum-backup.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/3X/f/b/fb9d084d0483919bf4fcd6cea8b7a907ee14ccbf.png) [amsterdam.l2beat.com](https://amsterdam.l2beat.com/)

![](https://makerdao-forum-backup.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/optimized/3X/1/2/1279b98e01dbf47c5df162e5b23f55f7c93432bb_2_690x361.png)

### [Layer Two Amsterdam 1](https://amsterdam.l2beat.com/)

Layer Two Amsterdam is a two-day technical conference dedicated to Ethereum L2 Scaling.

-   Bartek (PECU)  Talk *Introducing Risk Framework 2.0*\

[Recording](https://streameth.tv/event/l2-amsterdam) (Morning talk, at ~2:18:51)
    
</details><br>

<details><summary>MEV Day (April 22nd)</summary><br>
    
[Agenda](https://mevday.org/)
[Stream](https://streameth.tv/event/mev-day)

-   Sam (PECU): Panel, *Wallets, aggregators & dApps*
-   Moderator: thegostep
-   Flashbots Panelists: hexonaut [@MakerDAO](https://forum.makerdao.com/u/makerdao), Skeletor Spaceman @Yearn, Aleksandras Gaska @BlockWallet, Simon Brown @Consensys, Felix Leupold @Cowswap

![](https://i.imgur.com/UwRAKaU.png)

![](https://i.imgur.com/TvzMrFF.png)

</details><br>
    
**[Forum Explorer update](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/forum-explorer-update/14729)**
    
First [introduced](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/introducing-forum-explorer/14384) just a few weeks ago, the GovAlpha Core Unit team has made some updates to the Forum Explorer based on feedback from the community.
    
![](https://i.imgur.com/tl61JEy.png)
    
<details><summary>What's New?</summary><br>

-   User group filters: You can now filter topics not only by their category or tags but also by those created by members of a specific group (e.g., topics created by Recognized Delegates or members of the GovAlpha CU). After the tag filters, you can find these user group filters at the end of the sidebar.
-   Time filters: Added support for Custom Filters to only display topics created within a certain number of days/weeks/months ago.
-   UI/UX changes: Moved the Custom Filters to the top of the sidebar to unify the Explorer navigation and simplify the plugin layout. There are now only two columns, one for navigation and one for results.

</details><br>

**[Stakeholder Content Program | Q1 2022 Update](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/stakeholder-content-program-q1-2022-update/14820)**

<details><summary>Artem Gordon of Governance Communications published a breakdown and update of their Core Unit's Stakeholder Content Program involving publications, transcriptions, media accounts, etc.</summary><br>
    
Artem introduces and defines the [Stakeholder Content Program,](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yeSrKIeAY0Zy7MWgnGnxvOJBzDIN_iTQ/view?usp=sharing) which is made up of a number of projects, recurring tasks, and contributors. In total, there are [five publications,](https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1LsMX4lO13V7PF4H5XkdmrU4_T-hfk6EH) [public call transcriptions,](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/governance-and-risk-185-thursday-april-07-17-00-utc/14464/2?u=artem_gordon) [Governance & Risk Call summaries,](https://medium.com/@MkrGovComms/governance-mips-forums-and-solving-governance-challanges-ethamsterdam-58afc21e6440) [media platform management](https://twitter.com/mkrgov) and [metrics collection,](https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/16Q86QfTAWkpBJHjEc21KOhM3Vhb5qE_b) [YouTube video uploads,](https://youtu.be/KukRFWrMOjs) and [contributor team management.](https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1sBwGXZ6uwhN_DRnrLzGXgt7eXBqBufsf)

Below is a flowchart of contributions throughout the perpetual process of GovComms Stakeholder Content production:

![](https://i.imgur.com/c6zjdGG.png)

All five Stakeholder Content publications are presented with Q1 progress and Q2-Q3 OKRs:
    
- Weekly Relay
- State of Dai
- Forum at a Glance
- Monthly Governance Review
- Monthly Core Unit Updates
    
GovComms also owns two media platform accounts, [Twitter](https://twitter.com/mkrgov) and [Medium](https://medium.com/@MkrGovComms), which Artem introduces, reviews, and presents Feb-March metrics to help gauge performance and progress. It is worth noting that GovComms also utilizes the [MakerDAO SubReddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/MakerDAO/) account to share updates and publications.
    
The update concludes with Artem presenting a handful of objectives for the entire Stakeholder Content Program throughout the rest of Q2 2022.

</details><br>

---
![Active Discussions](https://i.imgur.com/TgconmJ.gif)

**[A Balance Sheet approach to executing an Aggressive Growth Strategy - The road to 300M revenues](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/a-balance-sheet-approach-to-executing-an-aggressive-growth-strategy-the-road-to-300m-revenues/14818)**
    
<details><summary>Joining the ongoing forum discussion on developing and executing an aggressive growth strategy, @SubVentures shared his approach based on balance sheet design.</summary><br>
    
In recent weeks, @Subventures also published [ALM framework for MakerDAO](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/alm-framework-for-makerdao/12994) with collaborators and [Towards taking asset risks - A primer](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/towards-taking-asset-risks-a-primer/14265).
        
1. Our current balance sheet is slightly underinvested and leaves about 9-11M DAI in annual revenues on the table.
    -   We explore short-term bonds and ETH investment, as these assets don't depend on external factors.
    -   Both would increase profitability for MKR holders but will be constrained by the Surplus Buffer size
    
![](https://i.imgur.com/AByagUD.png)

As demonstrated, the main exposure we have (62%) is stablecoins, which don’t need capital or bring revenues. The next item is crypto-backed loans, bringing 90% of revenues while only 35% of our exposure and 88% of the needed capital. DeFi Money Markets are far behind, as well as RWA.
    
**Option 1a: Optimize current activity by investing excess capital in short-term bonds.**
    
In short-term bonds, investing excess capital (current Surplus Buffer minus capital at risk of the previous model) would allow a 373M DAI investment. This investment would provide 9M DAI of additional revenues, push the RoE to 122%, and Price to Sales to 5.3%.

![](https://i.imgur.com/9a0JDxZ.png)
    
**Option 1b: Optimize current activity by investing excess capital in ETH.**

Allocating the current excess Surplus Buffer to ETH would only enable an investment of 13M to keep the CaR within the current Surplus Buffer. However, despite the small investment size, it would lead to an 11M Dai increase in annual revenue, though ETH RoA will be quite volatile compared to short-term bonds.

![](https://i.imgur.com/R8UEJec.png)
    
The Strategic Finance Core Unit recommends a mixed allocation of short-term bonds and ETH. The community will determine the final allocation.
    
2. Trying to model the Aggressive Growth Strategy, we learn that a capital raise could be accretive and that scalable asset types are important
    -   **Even with a significant growth plan (+2B crypto-backed loans, +300M RWA, +1B crypto D3M), it is not enough to deploy all our asset base if we can't rely on scalable asset types (e.g., short-term bonds, ETH).**
    -   Assuming full deployment of our asset base (through the expected plan or with only short-term bonds), the capital raise (issuing MKR tokens) is accretive for MKR holders (i.e., it increases their earnings).
    -   Using a debt offering at 10% is accretive as well. The structure of the debt issuance is not discussed but is assumed to be equity-like (which might not be the case).
3. Adopting a diversified and liquid balance sheet approach would increase 300M revenues.
    -   **This would give 304M annual revenues vs. the current 76M**

A [proposal](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/maker-growth-strategy-we-must-act-now/14501) by a team of several different members of different Core Units for raising capital and debt to finance an aggressive growth strategy suggested increasing exposure through the use of three primary levers:
    
-   Institutional Vaults: Tailored crypto vaults (ETH, WBTC) for institutions
-   Real-world assets
-   Multi-chain expansion: This is about deploying Maker MCD on L2 or a different L1 and/or providing D3M-style liquidity to crypto- lending platforms.
    
We investigate a model that satisfies several conditions:

    * Increase of 2B Dai in crypto-backed loans through Institutional Vaults and L2 MCD deployments
    Increase of 1B Dai in DeFi Money Markets with new D3M for Compound, Fuse, and others
    * Increase of 300M Dai in RWA
    * Keeping a 15% buffer in stablecoins
    * The remaining is invested in short-term bonds
    * The gap between the current surplus buffer and the Capital at Risk of this allocation is raised on the market at the current MKR price

![](https://i.imgur.com/m9bMeh5.png)

This increase in exposure will push the required Surplus Buffer to 157M Dai, meaning 87M Dai will be left to be raised.

If we raised it 100% in equity, it would cost the protocol about 48K MKR (assuming the price stays the same), which corresponds to a 5.4% dilution for current MKR holders.

Meeting these targets would increase revenues to 187M DAI annually. This represents a Sales to Price of 11%, whereas previous scenarios only achieved up to 5.4%. The Return over Equity is down to 119% and decreases as we rely less on high-RoE crypto-backed loans.
    
This scenario could also be financed through debt, resulting in a lower RoE but higher Sales to Price.
    
**Option 2a: Extending exposure to short-term bonds is favorable even under a no-growth scenario**
    
![](https://i.imgur.com/nwEIaSZ.png)

Even using a worst-case model, in which we "invest in short term bonds and essentially limit ourselves to investing our excess float for our current debt capacity," we would end up with a 2.8B exposure in short-term bonds, while the newly raised capital would still be fully used. Even in this worst-case scenario, the capital raise would be favorable for current MKR holders, with a Sales to Price of 9.6%.
    
**Option 2b: Adding ETH to the mix is even more favorable**
    
![](https://i.imgur.com/mO5WQrK.png)
    
We use the following conditions in our model for adding ETH to the asset mix:
-   Increase of 2B DAI in crypto-backed loans through Institutional Vaults and L2 MCD deployments
-   Increase of 1B DAI in DeFi Monet Markets with new D3M for Compound, Fuse, and others
-   Increase of 300M DAI in RWA
-   Investing 100M DAI in ETH
-   Keeping a 15% buffer in stablecoins
-   The remaining is invested in short-term bonds.
-   The gap between the current surplus buffer and the Capital at Risk of this allocation is raised on the market at the current MKR price.
    
As demonstrated, adding 100M Dai worth of ETH increases the capital raise by 91M.
    
Impact analysis of three environmental factors:
    
![](https://i.imgur.com/1DCVzEM.png)

Diversifying and building stronger liquidity can further optimizations the balance sheet can also improve outcomes.
    
![](https://i.imgur.com/xsYhv2x.png)

![](https://i.imgur.com/xjvvbO7.png)
    
We conclude that having a high-level model is good to focus the protocol on what kind of balance sheet it wants to target and how:

-   We should focus first on what mix of asset types we are targeting
-   Then, focus on starting with asset items that are scalable so we can allocate the balance sheet quickly in a focused way
-   Then optimize the mix by adding non-scalable assets
    
![](https://i.imgur.com/v0mkNyN.png)

Note: The full post is long and in-depth. Suppose you're interested in a deeper investigation of these ideas, head over to the full post [here](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/a-balance-1).
    
</details><br>

**[Monetalis Evolution](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/monetalis-evolution/14811)**
    
<details><summary>@Allan_Pedersen, CEO of Monetalis, made a post on the evolution and strategy of Monetalis.</summary><br>

The post opens with a brief outline of the Monetalis strategy for DeFi/TradFi integration: "Our approach...is to focus on scaling volumes fast using a solid integration point that requires limited changes to the day-to-day business of both TradFi/DeFi." Furthermore, the Monetalis team believes that the DeFi/TradFi integration market is based on cooperation rather than competition.
    
Three interacting components make up Monetalis' business.
    
**1. Arena: Off-chain/on-chain DeFi/TradFi integration point**
    
While the team believes they have developed a "satisfactory and strong" starting solution, key areas to focus on for improvement include:

1. Reacting to regulatory changes and considering jurisdictions and legal format
2. Working with multiple operational parties (banks, trustees, accounting, auditors) on streamlining and securing operations
3. Evolving the off-chain/on-chain mapping and functionality
4. Evolving governance design
5. Continued risk management oversight across the operational design
    
**2. Clydesdale: Confidence building & escalating solution: Institutional asset manager integration**
    
It's no secret that traditional financial institutions have hesitated to plunge into crypto. If we want to "go through the front door and work with the core of the business," we need a "boil a frog" approach. Monetalis' tasks in managing relationships with these institutions are to:

-   Create confidence and acceptance of integration point
-   Analyse their offerings and match the right offerings up with the right protocol and needs
-   Operationalise connection/relationship between institutions and protocol via integration point
-   Monitor and report satisfactorily for both parties
-   Continually improve and increase the sophistication of solutions and interactions
    
What is MIP65 Clydesdale set to accomplish for Maker?
    
-   Sits directly on an Arena structure
-   Onboards one (or two) large financial institutions and have them provide:
    -   If one, a base strategy of simple, highly liquid, safe bonds via ETF products
    -   If two, then also a base customized, liquid, a long-term bond strategy via segregated account mechanics
-   Allow the community to evaluate the above financial institutions and strategies and make a community choice in terms of chosen strategy and partner.
-   Allows Maker to simply expand the sophistication of strategy with the same institution
-   Sets out a path to onboard other institutions as their relevant strategic strengths become appropriate for Maker's ALM strategy.
-   Develops credibility with institutions as a performing, convenient, professional, and long-term investor.
    
**3. Lusitano: Example & innovation: Asset management team onboarding**
    
Monetalis wants to develop a flexible platform on top of the integration point to streamline taking on and managing new investment teams. Advantages of MIP68 Lusitano include:
    
-   Onboards the first team with proven performance in a specific asset class
-   Safely stages first teams deployment in scalable market meeting investment grade standard, in-market structure, and return - and meets a min long-term net 2%+ yield requirement to Maker and realize the clean money initiative in practice
-   Built on solid, flexible Bond structure interacting with Arena - a structure that can be expanded to include further investment teams with other asset class focus and allows appropriate protocol direct insight and oversight via Arena.

</details><br>

**[My involvement with Monetalis](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/my-involvement-with-monetalis/14789)**
    
MakerDAO founder @rune published a brief post explaining his involvement with Monetalis, citing concerns that his interest in the company has been a "major distraction." Due to this issue, Rune has decided to give away his shares and end any involvement with Monetalis as an insider.
    
The plan for offloading his shares involves creating an independent foundation to take ownership of them, a structure already in use for other companies in the Maker ecosystem.
    
**[New Competitive Idea: Covered Call Option Selling on Vault Collateral](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/new-competitive-idea-covered-call-option-selling-on-vault-collateral/14782)**
    
<details><summary>@Leritu, who has a background in selling options, proposed an idea for a covered call option selling vault collateral.</summary><br>

The short version: "Use an identical interface to ThetaNuts.Finance and allow vault holders to sell covered calls against their collateral."
    
This idea would generate yield for our vault holders on their collateral, possibly more than they can achieve through interest accrued via their loans.
    
@Leritu looks at three different hypothetical scenarios to make their point.
    
**Scenario #1: WBTC is at $40,000, the strike price of the covered call is sold at $50,000, and WBTC does not hit the $50,000 strike price by the time of the option’s expiration.**
    
In this scenario, our vault holder gets awarded the premium for selling that covered call—a win for everyone.
    
**Scenario #2: WBTC is at $40,000, the strike price of the covered call is sold at $50,000, and WBTC moves above the strike price at the time of expiration.**
    
In this scenario, the vault holder can allow the collateral to be called away; the vault holder gets the proceeds of the sale and the premium for selling the covered call minus any outstanding Dai debt. There is no under collateralization risk for the Maker protocol in this scenario.
    
**Scenario #3: WBTC is at $40,000, the strike price of the covered call is sold at $50,000, and WBTC drops to where the vault has to be liquidated.**
    
The covered call’s strike price is further from the current market price in this scenario. To avoid certain risks, the covered call position would either be closed at the time of the vault liquidation (likely at a profit to the vault holder), or the covered call position could be auctioned off to be assumed by a vault keeper for the duration of the option contract.
    
In this scenario, the premium harvested for selling the option is available to pay back outstanding Dai in the event of a liquidation that fails to repay all of it.
    
Summarizing the key points, @Leritu concludes:
    
* We know that options, and their popularity in DeFi, are going to play a larger and larger role in our ecosystem if we can be seen as an early player via a very low risks strategy (covered calls) – that gives us a unique advantage over AAVE and other competitors.
* By offering covered call selling, we allow our vault holders the opportunity to generate an income stream that may entirely offset their interest expense.
* If we choose to “hold” the option selling premium in the vault until the option contract's expiration, we lower the chance of a vault liquidation being insufficient to pay back all outstanding Dai.

</details><br>
    
**[Lending Market Analysis - Cross-Collateralization Market Opportunity](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/lending-market-analysis-cross-collateralization-market-opportunity/14763)**
    
<details><summary>he Strategic Finance Core Unit analyzed the lending market to explore how Maker could quickly increase revenues by about $1.06M.</summary><br>

In summary:
    
-   AAVE v2 has been increasing market share vs. COMP v2 and Maker since 2/24/2022.
-   Most of this growth is in a small number of huge accounts, many of which use WBTC and ETH blended collateral.
-   We estimate conservatively that a WBTC+ETH blended vault could increase revenue by about $1.06M. This revenue estimate can be used to determine the priority of adding blended vault capability.
    
The general stablecoin lending market has not held onto its momentum since late 2021. Recent growth mostly comes from borrows greater than $10M and is almost exclusively driven by AAVE. AAVE V2’s stablecoin lending market share has been significantly increasing since February 24th, 2022.
    
![](https://i.imgur.com/gV00AE9.png)

Looking at "each AAVE v2 stablecoin borrower who has had at least $10M of net stablecoin borrow on any day since February 24th," the post aims to answer the question: "Why are these entities using AAVE instead of Maker?"
    
**Trends**
    
-   Trend: Many were borrowing against blended collateral of primarily WBTC and ETH.
    -   Response: Maker could prioritize the capability to offer vaults with blended collateral and open one with WBTC and ETH
-   Trend: A fair portion was borrowing against just ETH. The relatively high ETH supply APR of 0.43%, most of which comes from ETH borrowers borrowing against stETH, effectively subsidizes the stablecoin borrow APR by about 0.7-2%, depending on LTV.
    -   Response: Maker could prioritize the capability to offer vaults with rebasing tokens as collateral and open one with aETH
-   Trend: Some were borrowing stablecoins against stETH or a mixed bag of stETH and ETH.
    -   Response: Tough to address this without potentially reducing profit from our existing stETH vaults as users were likely receiving better loan/liquidation parameters on AAVE.
    
The first trend regarding blended collateral of primarily WBTC and ETH is the most prominent. Investigating further, the team dug into two specific data points:

1.  25.8% (dollar-weighted) of Maker borrowers of at least $100K are borrowing against multiple types of collateral. This amounts to ~$814M of borrowing. Note: Maker vaults not formed via DS Proxy contracts were excluded from this analysis, as it is impossible to ascertain ownership of those.
2.  37.9% (dollar-weighted) of AAVE v2 stablecoin borrowers of at least $100K are borrowing primarily against WBTC and ETH. Namely, at least 20% of their collateral is in each, and at least 90% of their collateral is in the sum of WBTC and ETH. This amounts to $1.003B of stablecoin borrowing.
    
We can see a significant gap between these two data points.
    
The authors ultimately conclude that attempting to close the gap via implementing a WBTC+ETH blended vault could increase revenue quickly by about $1.06M.

</details><br>

**[Ilk Names versus Display Names for Vault Types](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/ilk-names-versus-display-names-for-vault-types/14759)**
    
Thus far, Maker has tended to use ilk names (e.g., ETH-A, ETH-B, GUNIV3DAIUSDC2-A) to refer to vault types in governance, forum discussions, and user interfaces.
        
<details><summary>In this post, @LongForWisdom presents the GovAlpha team's solution for situations where ilk naming conventions present difficulties.</summary><br>

Ilk names come with their own set of advantages:
    
-   Simplicity and shared terminology for communication and understanding.
-   Direct link between changes in the code of executive spells and the commonly used names.
    
And disadvantages:
    
-   Ilk names cannot be (feasibly) changed.
-   More complex collateral types end up with alphanumeric soup Ilk names: GUNIV3DAIUSDC2-A, CRVV1ETHSTETH-A, etc.
-   Some collateral types have names that are completely disconnected from the collateral: RWA001-A, RWA002-A, etc.
-   Ilk naming conventions are pretty loose, and this can't easily be fixed.
-   This leaves front-ends with the choice of:
    -   Displaying the (often hard to parse) ilk name directly.
    -   Making up a display name (may be inconsistent with other front-ends)

Why is this being brought up now? With the introduction of the wstETH-C vault, there is no good ilk name to rely on. GovAlpha has decided to follow the technical convention for the low-leverage, low-fee wstETH, so the ilk-name will be wstETH-B, not wstETH-C, which has been in use so far.
    
The full solution, involving adding a layer of abstraction to avoid the issue, is a common approach. In summary: "In this case, add a new canonical ‘display-name’ (controllable by Maker Governance) used in front-ends and discussion instead of the ilk-name. This mitigates most disadvantages, imposes relatively lightweight costs, and brings some advantages."
    
To illustrate, here are some ilks with possible display names:

| Ilk | Display Name |
| --- | --- |
| ETH-A | Ethereum Balanced |
| ETH-B | Ethereum High Leverage |
| ETH-C | Ethereum Low Fee |
| PSM-USDC-A | USDC Peg Stability Module |
| RWA001-A | 6s Capital |
| GUNIV3DAIUSDC1-A | UniswapV3 0.01% Fee DAI-USDC Pair (Gelato) |
| CRVV1ETHSTETH-A | stETH-ETH Pair (Curve) |

</details><br>

**[Is Maker Protocol Running Deficit?](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/is-maker-protocol-running-deficit/14741)**
    
Recognized Delegate Doo Nam made a clarification post asking if Makerburn's annual profit estimate, which shows the Maker protocol running at a deficit of nearly 2M Dai, is accurate.
    
![](https://i.imgur.com/DKB65Bh.png)
    
The Risk Core Unit team cleared up the issue, explaining that in 10 days, the expenses listed will rotate out, after which the estimate will once again be positive.
    
![](https://i.imgur.com/78F3YNH.png)

------
![Seeking Consensus](https://i.imgur.com/zvean4D.gif)

‘Yo, do you even signal?’

**[Change `lid` Parameter on the Rate Limiter](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/signal-request-change-lid-parameter-on-the-rate-limiter/14688)**
    
The passing and introduction of the Rate Limiting Flapper have been successful, but it only allows to kick off a new auction if the new auction does not increase the total-DAI-currently-in-auction above a certain threshold - the `lid` unless it's at the same value as the `bump.`

Currently, the value for the lid is set to 150k Dai, which can run five flap auctions at once. However, ultraschuppi believes there is no good reason to burn so much MKR and proposes setting the `lid` to the same value as `bump` - 30,000 Dai. Having a 1:1 'lid' to 'bump' ratio will ensure that there is only one parallel flap auction running at any given time. 
    
What's good about this is that in the case of a huge spike on the System Surplus causing spillage to the Surplus Buffer, the time spread of those resulting auctions will be 5x compared to the current setting thereby producing a more steady burn. However, we will limit the maximum MKR burnt per day from 7.2MM Dai to 1.44MM Dai in sacrifice.

**Vote will run until May 13, 2022.**
    
<details><summary>Here are the current voting results:</summary></br>
    
![](https://i.imgur.com/JVdaWDI.png)

</details></br>

**[Deploy the balance sheet in ETH](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/signal-request-deploy-the-balance-sheet-in-eth/14834)**

As expressed in [Towards taking asset risk](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/towards-taking-asset-risks-a-primer/14265) and [A balance sheet approach to an Aggressive Growth Strategy](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/a-balance-sheet-approach-to-executing-an-aggressive-growth-strategy-the-road-to-300m-revenues/14818), ETH seems like a sound investment for MakerDAO. Sebastian from Strategic Finance moves forward on the Balance Sheet Approach towards an Aggressive Growth Strategy by gauging community sentiment on whether we would like to begin working on allocating some of the MakerDAO balance sheet into ETH and/or ETH derivatives and, if so, how much? He presents the pros and cons of potentially implementing this investment into ETH:

Pros:

- MakerDAO is using Ethereum as its home base and, therefore, linked to the success of ETH.
- ETH is a strategic asset for the operations of the DAO as it pays gas fees for on-chain transactions and oracles.
- Competitors like Celo, TribeDAO, and Angle are holding ETH on their balance sheet, and not holding ETH puts Maker at a distinct competitive disadvantage.
- The upcoming Merge will significantly reduce the issuance of new ETH and create a competitive market for balance sheets with a high degree of exposure to ETH.
- Post-Merge staking fees are currently estimated at 7-11%, doubling current staking yields overnight and making ETH a truly productive asset.

Cons:

- ETH is a volatile asset whose ETH/DAI price can wildly fluctuate and occasionally go down over significant periods of time
- The Merge and L2 impacts can have unexpected long-term impacts on price.

Sebastian also notes that this Signal Request aims to understand whether there is a community desire to work on this topic. No priority is currently being attributed, and a formal implementation for such actions will have to go through the governance processes.

**The vote will run until May 12, 2022** 

<details><summary>Here are the current voting results:</summary></br>
    
![](https://i.imgur.com/oWkIFXM.png)

![](https://i.imgur.com/JiKowi1.png)

</details></br>

-----
![Ongoing Initiatives](https://i.imgur.com/XYQcE5T.gif)

‘Oh my god, this is taking ages; why can’t things be simple?’

<details><summary><i>Click here for a list of current initiatives:</i></summary><br>

[Maker Operational Manual](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/announcing-maker-operational-manual/12553) - @GovAlpha-Core-Unit release the launch of the Maker Operational Manual and invite all members and Core Units to reach out if they wish to provide any help or documentation to add for the Manual.

[Recognised Delegate Requirements](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/recognised-delegate-requirements/9421) - @LongForWisdom writes a detailed overview of the current requirements and application system to become a delegate in the Maker community. Check out this [thread](https://forum.makerdao.com/search?expanded=true&q=%40LongForWisdom%20%23governance%3Adelegates) for more posts related to delegation.

[Where to Find Opportunities at MakerDAO](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/where-to-find-opportunities-at-makerdao/10076/2) and [Open positions at MakerDAO](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/open-positions-at-makerdao/12197) - Looking for job opportunities at MakerDAO? Perfect! @Davidutro and @manomad set up individual threads containing resources to help find available job listings and hiring practices. *If anybody has additional information on unique hiring practices or job listings, please comment on the thread.*

[:mega: Collateral Calls - Calling all Projects!](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/collateral-calls-calling-all-projects/3715) - @juan sets up a signup thread for projects wishing to present on the bi-weekly collateral call. Know any potential collateral partners that want to present? Refer them here.

[Collateral Status Index](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/collateral-status-index/2231) - Confused about the current status of the various collateral types discussed recently? Check out this post to determine the status and current position within the onboarding process.

[Weekly MIPs Updates](https://forum.makerdao.com/tag/mips-update) - @blimpa brings the latest updates in MIPs.

[The Official Welcome Thread](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/the-official-welcome-thread/771/4) - A welcome and introductions thread. Not strictly governance, but if anyone new or old wants to introduce themselves, now is your chance!

</details>

-----
![Help Wanted](https://i.imgur.com/7N0NoUx.gif)

‘Oh %#\$?, we need a doodad, and we need it now.’

We could always use help reviewing [MIPs in the Request for Comment phase](https://forum.makerdao.com/tag/rfc).

---
![Feedback Survey](https://i.imgur.com/EzPp77N.gif)

*Please, check out the [Forum at a Glance feedback survey](https://survey.sogosurvey.com/r/qTb1p7) to help us improve and scale these reviews - It will be fun, I promise.* 

Credit: @nothsa and @Artem_Gordon
