Episode 149: July 08, 2021

--- tags: G&R --- # Episode 149: July 08, 2021 ## Agenda - [00:00](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y): Introduction - [02:02](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=122): GovAlpha CU update - [04:04](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=244): Governance Update - [04:52](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=292): Forum at a Glance - [08:39](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=519): Protocol Engineering Team Update - [19:54](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=1194): Oracles Team Update - [28:00](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=1680): Risk Team Update - [31:53](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=1913): Real World Finance Update - [39:08](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=2348): Growth CU Update - [49:15](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=2955): Content Production CU Update - [46:20](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=2780): Sustainable Ecosystem Scaling Update - [53:37](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=3217): MIPs Update - [01:01:33](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=3693): Open Discussion ## Video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bib1FCwHf1Y> ## Introduction ### Agenda and Preamble #### Payton Rose [00:00](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y) - Hello everyone, and welcome to the MakerDAO Scientific Governance and Risk meeting number 149, taking place on Thursday, July 8th at 17:00 UTC. My name is Payton; I go by @prose11 online. I am one of the Governance Facilitators at MakerDAO. - We like people to get involved and ask questions or comments, so please, do not be shy if you have something to say. ## Weekly Updates ### GovAlpha Core Unit update #### Payton Rose [02:02](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=122) [GovAlpha Weekly Update](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/govalpha-weekly-update-2021-07-08/9255) - Onboarding is going well. @LongForWisdom and I are splitting facilitator duties. We also have a bunch of contributors on our weekly CU meetings; some of them are new. We appreciate the increased participation in our CU. - The new version of the [MIPs portal](https://mips.makerdao.com/mips/list?&search=) is live. Check that out! Thanks to dSpot and @blimpa for their work on that. It's easier to navigate and use due to better responsiveness when scrolling down and a collapse feature for sub proposals. - Another major highlight, @LongForWisdom, wrote a [Quarterly Review](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/govalpha-quarterly-review-q2-2021/9228) of how the first quarter of us as a CU went. It concerns our budget, objectives, and what we were able to accomplish. ### Governance [04:04](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=244) - Currently, one poll is live. Do make sure that you vote on the [Community Greenlight Poll - 0xBTC](https://vote.makerdao.com/polling/Qmd5WNP1#poll-detail)! - Last week's [executive](https://vote.makerdao.com/executive/template-executive-vote-rates-changes-july-core-unit-budgets-and-psm-dc-iam-july-2-2021?network=mainnet#proposal-detail) is still up, so I encourage you to vote on it too. Currently, we are sitting at about 37 thousand MKR, and we need much more for it to pass. ### Forum at a Glance #### Sebix [04:52](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=292) [Forum at a Glance for July 2nd - 8th](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/forum-at-a-glance-july-2-8/9251) #### Three-Point Summary - [Rates Changes, July Core Unit Budgets, and PSM DC-IAM](https://vote.makerdao.com/executive/template-executive-vote-rates-changes-july-core-unit-budgets-and-psm-dc-iam-july-2-2021?network=mainnet#proposal-detail) - There's an ongoing executive vote to decide: - CU budgets distributions (totalling 2,510,503 DAI) - Stability Fee decreases - The activation of the PSM DC-IAM for USDC - [Response to ChainLinkGod Accusations](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/response-to-chainlinkgod-accusations/9112/1) - A viral tweet posted by a member of the Chainlink community suggested MakerDAO is doing filthy business with Oracles. @nikkunkel sets the record straight. - Peg's looking really good. ![](https://i.imgur.com/zKQRWpk.png) #### ICYMI - Announcements - [Maker Governance Review for June](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/maker-governance-review-june-2021/9211) - @artem_gordon et al. present the Maker Governance Review for June. - [Financial Report for June](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/financial-report-2021-06/9099) - @Aes creates the RWF financial report for June. - [GovAlpha Quarterly Review Q2 2021](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/govalpha-quarterly-review-q2-2021/9228) - @LongForWisdom publishes GovAlpha Quarterly Review for the second quarter. #### Discussions - [Alternative MKR Compensation Guidelines](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/alternative-mkr-compensation-guidelines/9049) - Propose an alternative, domain-tiered approach to MKR vesting. 'Update': [MIP56](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/mip56-alternative-mkr-compensation-guidelines/9230) was created. - [MakerDAO Hiring Proposal](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/makerdao-hiring-proposal/9151) - @mikkkk's opinion on how MakerDAO should handle job compensations sparked off a richly ramified discussion. - [Suggestions For Deciding Which Charities To Fund?](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/suggestions-for-deciding-which-charities-to-fund/9100) @PaperImperium wonders aloud how we should decide which charities to fund and elicit diverse responses from the community. #### Signal Requests - [Aave D3M Target Borrow Rate](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/signal-request-aave-d3m-target-borrow-rate/9142) - In preparation for the launch of the Aave Direct Deposit Dai Module, @hexonaut goes through the pros and cons of different possible spreads between the D3M and Maker's own rates. - [Increase Debt Ceiling of RWA-02 (NS-DROP) from 5M to 20M](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/signal-request-increase-debt-ceiling-of-rwa-02-ns-drop-from-5m-to-20m/9077) - New Silver is asking to increase the DC to 20M from the current 5M, which is close to being reached. #### Ongoing Initiatives - [Collateral Calls - Calling all Projects!](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/collateral-calls-calling-all-projects/3715) - @juanjuan sets up a signup thread for projects wishing to present on the bi-weekly collateral call. Know any potential collateral partners that you 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 that have been discussed recently? Check out this post to find out the status and current position of each within the onboarding process. - [Weekly MIPs Updates](https://forum.makerdao.com/tag/mips-update) - @Davidutro, @charlesstlouis, and @blimpa bring the latest updates in the world of MIPs. Thanks for that. - [MakerDAO Standard Governance Processes](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/makerdao-standard-governance-processes/4298) - @LongForWisdom writes a brief overview of the currently operating governance processes in the Maker community. Confused between Signals, Declarations, and MIPs? Look no further. - [The Official Welcome Thread](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/the-official-welcome-thread/771/4) - A welcome and introductions thread. Not strictly speaking governance, but if anyone new or old wants to introduce themselves, now is your chance! ### Protocol Engineering Team Update #### Christopher Mooney [08:39](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=519) ##### Collateral Types - Regarding the Collateral Types, we did the [MATIC Technical Evaluation](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/matic-erc20-token-smart-contract-technical-assessment/9140). Sam had found an EOA address that still had access there. When Chris posted it, the MATIC team removed the address within 15 minutes. - We're in the process of reviewing stETH, expecting information from the Oracles Team. I encourage the DAO to pay attention to this evaluation when it's up, as it's very detailed. As for now, we're sitting at high risk for this one. - Sam is working on [GUNI-DAI-USDC](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/guni-dai-usdc-erc20-token-smart-contract-technical-assessment/9139). It's the equivalent token for UniV3 of an LP token which is on V2. It takes a fixed spread and allows to provide fungible liquidity in that range. ##### Contract Work - We added DssFlash and DssVest to Dss-interfaces. A new tool that we're using, *Certora*, found a bug in the ssSVest code, which has already been tidied up. A shout out to the tool paying for itself. - Having fixed all the bugs in it, we finished the Keeper implementation of the UniV2 LP tokens. For those who want to run the Keeper, it's 'auction-demo-keeper.' You need a little ETH for gas. Give it a private key without ETH, and it will backstop auctions based on the parameters you set in the config. It seems to be working well. One of the LP tokens had an auction this morning. The Keeper went off and serviced it. - We got enhancements to support the UI functionality for CropJoin, as it requires changes. - Regarding the auction keeper work for SushiJoin, we have been doing background work on the `ClipperCallee` implementation. Once the SushiJoin token is added, we will already have the code needed to service those auctions. ##### In Review - We are reviewing the L2 Dai *Certora* formal verification on the L2 Dai contract. There's lots of discussion on institutional/permission halts and the types of parameters we can set in the mandated actor's calls. - I've been evaluating testnets that we might use and getting stakeholders' opinions on those. We are strongly leaning towards Goerli at this point. I'm waiting for any objections from the PE Team. I'm also raising it now to speak up if you have any objections to us using it as a testnet in the future. Finally, There's a forum post on the [ESM bug postmortem](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/esm-governance-permission-revocation-bug-postmortem/9205). Check that out. #### Kris Kaczor - Optimism Dai Bridge was deployed on Mainnet yesterday. This means Dai users can move their Dai to Optimism, an L2 solution, and enjoy cheap secure transactions. This release will be governed by the Maker Governance. With us cutting all the admin access that we have today, it will be fully decentralized. We have a cool vanity address starting with "0xDA1" and ending in the same way. Today or tomorrow, there'll be an official Optimism gateway UI supporting Dai. Right now, you can only interact with it by writing a script. The official announcement from our side will occur today or tomorrow as well. - Regarding Arbitrum, there's progress. We got a basic version of a bridge. Still, there's a lot of work ahead on that, including even rewriting the current implementation. We used Arbitrum's pre-made classes, but the code style is not the easiest to maintain. #### Comments - Christopher Mooney: We were trying to find an address "da1000" (as in DAI) on each side, using many of my mining rigs. As it might take up to six months, we decided on the vanity address, which I find pretty sweet. - SamM: Vote delegation is available on Kovan and Mainnet. - Lucas Vogelsang: Could you say more about how the next couple of executive spells look like? I'm asking because all of the Centrifuge collateral types are going through the legal updates, as discussed in the forum. They are on Kovan ready. When would be a good time to fit them into the executive schedule? - Christopher Mooney: Regarding the Centrifuge RWA, your team is working on an executive I'll review. We will deploy it this Friday on Kovan. For Mainnet, we could go next week. It's all about congestion now. We completely cleared DSSVest and Vox. The latter could go up, but our team wanted one more shot at reviewing it. Kurt Barry: Being optimistic, I could say that there'll be slots where the new Centrifuge assets could go out in the next one to three weeks. It's a little unpredictable as it depends on when other things will be unblocked, e.g., we've been blocked on SushiLP tokens for a while. - Lucas Vogelsang: Thanks, that's good enough. We'll work on Kovan and start getting ready for Mainnet. ### Oracles Team Update #### Nik Kunkel [19:54](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=1194) - On Friday, we had some accusations flying on Twitter. It said we sold prioritized access to price data. That is completely untrue. Usually, we ignore that kind of stuff. Due to the claims' great amount of traction and aggressiveness, we [addressed](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/response-to-chainlinkgod-accusations/9112) this particular one. It's one thing to say our network was closed and another to say we were intentionally profiting off of this kind of scenario. - This week, we have started to ship the *LibP2P* integration to the production oracle network. It's a culmination of many months of work, as we started to theorize about it over a year ago. You probably heard me talk about *Scuttlebutt* previously. It's a P2P network to which the oracle feeds push their price messages and from which the relayers pick up the messages. Here, even despite being serverless, the network is the centralized point of failure. It's exposed to hacker attacks and bugs. Now, we have *Scuttlebutt* and *LibP2P* in parallel. Feeds will push their price messages to both *Scuttlebutt*, and *LibP2P*, and the relayers can pull their price messages from both. So now, from the oracle's point of view, if one of the networks goes down, nothing changes. I'm really proud of the team for this shipping. It was complex, as *LibP2P* is not easy to work with. We were able to ship this big milestone at the end of our tenure at the Foundation. Once the production rollout is complete in about two weeks, we will make an announcement. - On the non-tech side, we have been reviewing the oracle assessments for MATIC, SolarX, stETH tokens, and the D3M module. We will get at least some of them out by tomorrow to go into polling votes next week. - Regarding the Oracles CU, we are about to finalize the relationship with our payroll processor. We have been setting up the entities and structures for the CU. We are in a hiring process, filtering through candidates and deciding which positions to prioritize. I'll be even more excited when the executive vote passes! We intend to spin out of the Foundation by the end of the month and fully operate as a CU. - LongForWisdom: Since the oracles now have two networks, *Scuttlebutt* and *LibP2P*, working side by side, how do the relayers determine precedence between them? How do the relayers decide which one is the right source if one is broken or publishes something wrong? - Nik Kunkel: In conflict, you can prioritize one over another. One strategy for the default setting is pulling information from both, and the relayers look at the timestamp. This prevents the relayers from being opinionated on what message is good and bad. ### Risk Team Update #### Primoz Kordez [28:00](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=1680) - Most of our team is currently focused on D3M risk assessment. We're just about to finish it. The assessment with proposed parameters is in internal review now. The D3M DC is still under discussion in our group. We'll propose a smaller DC at launch to test the module. In the midterm, we'll suggest limiting our exposure to Aave in relation to either the share of DAI deposits with Aave or unutilized Dai borrow market. - Regarding target borrow rate, Sam has already made a [post](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/signal-request-aave-d3m-target-borrow-rate/9142) on this topic. We want to gather feedback in the Signal Request to see how much we want Aave to be competitive versus Maker on the competitive risk angle. On the credit risk angle, in terms of how much Maker wants to be compensated for the risks taken when being directly exposed to Aave. We'll have all of this described in our extensive risk assessment report. - Regarding institutional vaults and their implementation, we are preparing a post with PE and Growth. I personally like the idea of an origination fee. This might be an interesting product because it ensures that larger borrowers would likely have this credit line with Maker open for a longer time. This is because the origination fee is paid in advance rather than accrued over time. One of the other positive benefits is the surplus buffer, which would accumulate this fee instantly; the other is on the USDC peg because longer-term borrowers are less likely to farm with borrowed assets and more likely to sell on the market. In some way, it may attract more organic borrowers. - We continue to improve the risk dashboard and are making plans regarding future collateral risk assessments. There's a large backlog of assets from SushiLPs, to MATIC and stETH. ### Real-World Finance Team Update #### Sébastien Derivaux [31:53](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=1913) [Real World Finance CU Report](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/real-world-finance-core-unit-report-2021-06/9074) - For this week, we have made our [monthly audit](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/real-world-assets-report-2021-05/8672) on NewSilver. They delayed the RWAs report because we have to wait on the icon thing on the NewSilver side. I'm not seeing there to be much to disclose after tomorrow. NewSilver asked for our DC to be increased to 20 million DAI, which was approved by a community [poll](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/signal-request-increase-debt-ceiling-of-rwa-02-ns-drop-from-5m-to-20m/9077) and will be on the Governance board next week if everything goes well and Protocol Engineering is happy. - All the DCs and the new Centrifuge assets may be on next Friday's executive. - Regarding SolarX, @christiancdpetersen [posted](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/solar-x-preliminary-risk-assessment-disbursement-and-loan-terms/9110) a preliminary risk assessment to discuss where all the trenching of the debt is done. The main quality of the asset must be the PPA arrangement, which portrays a price arrangement of 20 years between the solar farm project and the buyer. That is done only in the fourth month. Before that, we have negotiated with the buyer to get the land and the courtyard. You can look at more stuff on the posts. - On the SolarX front, the Foundation, the Cayman Foundation Incorporation, is the other work that we are doing. We have gotten questions about having a foundation and trust. The Foundation is more flexible in Cayman. You can see a big difference between trusts: you can achieve almost everything you want with a foundation, but not as much with just trust. You can more or less set up the Foundation to be just like trust. One has trust in the name, which seems better. Other than that, the Foundation is quite similar. It will give us more flexibility to have professional people on board to look at what MakerDAO asks on the blockchain and relay this information to the governance of the Foundation, which can be more difficult if you are using a trust. - Currently, we are on the prospect list. We have two big publically quoted companies. That means that there is a lot of interest from big corporations to finance themselves using Maker. Obviously, it's not because we are a cheaper source of capital or are easier. It's mainly a PR play for them as well as to drive innovation forward. It's interesting to see there is a lot of demand for RWA loans from established companies. - I published a [post](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/prudential-treatment-of-cryptoasset-exposures/9258/3) just before the call on Basel Bank Regulation. Bank of International Settlements (BIS) issues a Basel Regulation. There was a point about what capital banks should have compared to other assets in their balance sheet. It's super important because if a bank owned some USDC, then it amassed no capital; It's free for them, just like cash. But if they own Dai, it's a riskier asset for them. It's three times more costly to own Dai than to own MKR shares, Netflix shares, or other big company shares. It's two times riskier having equities from a startup. The same goes for the MKR token, Ethereum, and Bitcoin. - It's not good for us because if we are at least 12 times more costly than USDC for banks, then we will probably not likely be using Dai going forward. We should find a way to put some commands into the BIS and see what can be done in this area. I don't know which CU will need to do that, so please respond to the post if you have any idea. #### Questions - Planet_X: I have a question about the RWA legal structure That was posted. Does this have a preliminary timeline, or is it just completely on the conceptual level for now? - Sébastien: We want to have this legal structure for the SolarX investment. It should be done quickly. As I mentioned, SolarX was delayed because we negotiated to have more safety in the pre-project phase before they had the PPA agreement. We will have to get this structure in the next few months or earlier. - Planet_X: All right. Thank you. - Sébastien: The good thing with the Foundation is that we need to have the ability to upgrade, such as an agreement of the Foundation by vote on the blockchain using MKR token. If we can get that, we can always improve the structure. ### Growth Core Unit Update #### Nadia Alvarez [39:08](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=2348) [Growth CU Weekly Updates](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/growth-cu-weekly-update-july-2-july-8/9256) - Hey, everyone. We have been talking with Thorchain, and they want to include Dai in their pools, which is amazing because that will give us access to have a market between Dai and Bitcoin in its own chain. - It's a very, very interesting project, and we will love to be there, but we are facing a challenge. How can we inject liquidity into Thorchain pools? Usually, we did this in the past through the Foundation. The Foundation was helping to bootstrap Dai liquidity in other protocols. Still, now that we don't have a foundation in the back, we have to find solutions. There are different solutions that we have thought about. - Also, I wrote about this in the updates, but we are planning on writing up detailed posts in the coming days explaining the options we have. For example, we could find a company that offers Market Maker services, but we have to pay a fee for them to do that. - There's also another strategy to set up a treasury for MakerDAO and use the treasury for these kinds of initiatives. Others will be finding a lending protocol to have a loan, but that also goes with a fee. The problem with providing liquidity is that it could be beneficial for us from an economic point of view because usually, these pools generate fees. In the beginning, they also have these liquidity mining opportunities. - It could be a profitable opportunity for Maker in the case that we provide liquidity directly from a MakerDAO treasury, but this also comes with risks associated with the impermanent loss because if the pair is with another token that is not a stablecoin, we have the risk of impermanent loss in there. Also, there's a risk associated with the protocol itself. It's something that I want to discuss with the community because right now, we have this opportunity with Thorchain. Still, I know we will have future opportunities with other networks. - We are seeing all these new L2s on different networks growing the ecosystem. We will continue to see this in the future, and it will be great if we can think about a framework to solve this. - By the way, we are now part of the [Enterprise Ethereum Alliance](https://entethalliance.org/) (EEC). This one is an organization that is looking for companies and enterprises to adopt Ethereum in any way. They work directly with big companies, for example, IBM, which is part of the EEC. - They are researching companies that are not in the blockchain space and what they are looking for. We now can also have access to all other members. We could also use this channel to communicate about MakerDAO. - Next week, [Marble cards](https://blog.meme.com/2021/07/02/the-2021-marbled-summer-event-with-makerdao/) is going to launch the Maker Arena. You will be able to convert your favorite post, vote, executive poll into an NFT and play with it. Everything that the MakerDAO domain has will be part of this arena. - The tweet of the week in the MakerDAO Growth Twitter: ![](https://i.imgur.com/KIe5YkJ.png) - Also, because we started a new month, we posted our PnL of the last month, June, in our weekly update. We want transparency with our expenses with the community. #### Questions - LongForWisdom: Regarding PSMs and the other stablecoin issues, there hasn't been any progress with them or anything. I understand you can't talk about it too much necessarily, but are there any updates? - Nadia: Yes, but a slow one. We have a call with Paxos on Friday. We will be posting an update about what is happening with Paxos, Binance, and Gemini. Sorry about the delay in our responses, but we depend on the answer from the counterparty, which is not as quick as we would like to. - LongForWisdom: I was just curious how it's going. Thank you. ### Sustainable Ecosystem Scaling Update #### Juan Guillén [46:20](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=2780) ![](https://i.imgur.com/ijF43te.png) - Hello, I'll give you a brief update on what we've been up to. First off, almost the whole team is all together in Portugal. We're doing an offsite speaking out strategy, OKRs, branding, roadmap stuff, and whatnot. ![](https://i.imgur.com/egQl4ml.png) - We've been working a lot on looking forward to making a lot of the things public that we've been cooking up. I'm quite impressed by the quality. The next item is that we actually decided to postpone the [potential budget modification](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/mip40c3-sp10-modify-core-unit-budget-ses-001/7369). We will postpone it until the next Governance cycle. - Last week, we had Lenkla presenting [project X-Ray](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wCDVNnFF9KSEB_9nUGQZ3k3tRrOzGBagqTMBazbQlv4/edit). If you're interested, the [video] is in the SES public drive. Tomorrow, July 9th, we'll be presenting takeaways from the offsite at 2:30 UTC. Join us. ![](https://i.imgur.com/Ve5fiY4.png) - In other news, we're looking forward to collaborating with the Growth CU for the [EthCC event](https://ethcc.io/) in Paris. We will be speaking at the [DAOist](https://ethccweek.fr/events/The-DAOist/) on the 23rd of July. We're looking forward to that. Also, we have been helping the DAI Foundation with MIPs that have been published yesterday evening. Check them out. - We're looking forward to starting the discussion on managing the assets from the DAI Foundation and having someone protecting all these assets. Regarding the Incubees, there's not a lot of news, but we'll have a new announcement soon, so stay tuned. We scheduled a Know Your MIP session for B.Protocol on November 8th. ### Content Production Update #### Seth Goldfarb [49:15](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=2955) [Content Production Biweekly Updates](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/content-production-bi-weekly-update-june-25-july-7-2021/9257) - The [Mascot Art Contest](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/art-contest-dragon-vs-capybara-a-mascot-for-makerdao/9059) is live. Details are in the forum and on social media channels. Please make your art to help MakerDAO decide between the dragon and capybara as a mascot. You also get to win some Dai and swag for participating. Send your submissions to mascot@makerdao.com. This will be running until the end of July. - We're really excited to welcome Kat Obermeyer to the team and back to MakerDAO. Most of you are probably familiar with her work. Kat was involved in doing a lot of the original design work for MakerDAO and was responsible for helping to set up MakerChat. She'll be helping us out with design community management. Really excited! - Unfortunately, the writer that we had slated to join the team this week had a personal issue come up and will not join the team, so we are looking for another writer again. There were a few candidates that we spoke with before, and we'll be circling back to them. If anyone knows any good writers they would like to see working in the DAO, please feel free to send them our way. - Our next [budget](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/mip40c3-sp21-modify-core-unit-budget-mkt-001/8427) should be moved to formal submission. Our initial budget ran funds through July, covering the team in August, September, and October. That also includes a month's buffer for the team just in case there's ever a hiccup in the budget distribution. I believe the [vote](https://vote.makerdao.com/polling/QmbLa1Wm?network=mainnet#poll-detail) for that will be going up in the next few days. - Other than that, the team's focus for the last couple of weeks has been on video production. We've done an informal audit of the video work that top projects are doing. While there's a lot of basic content, the production quality is relatively low compared to what we're planning on putting out. We see this as a good opportunity to set ourselves apart; Putting out videos with a higher level of quality gives us a significant advantage concerning search algorithms. YouTube is popularly recognized in marketing as the world's second-largest search engine. So we see this as a really good opportunity to create content that will steer people who are generally interested in crypto to be a little more interested in MakerDAO. Our focus there, for the time being, is on governance and tech-related content. We've started reaching out to some of the CUs to sync on that, and we'll continue to reach out in the next couple of weeks on that. - Tomorrow, we've got an [AMA with Robert Jordan](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/ama-collateral-engineering-with-robert-jordan-monkey-irish/8967) to talk about the proposed Collateral Engineering CU. As I understand it, Robert was involved in creating the original collateral onboarding process. If you're interested in learning more about collateral onboarding or that proposal, please bring your questions. - Next Friday, we'll have an [AMA with David Utrobin](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/ama-governance-communications-with-david-utrobin/9280/3) to talk about updated plans for the Governance Communications CU, which I believe is now informal submission to [vote](https://vote.makerdao.com/polling/QmcZSQnc?network=mainnet#poll-detail) on as well. That's all the updates I have for this week. Happy to take questions if anybody has them or pass them back to Payton. ### MIPs Update #### David Utrobin [53:37](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=3217) [Weekly MIPs Update #43](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/weekly-mips-update-43/9190) - To innovate our update, we are combining it with the monthly Submission Review by GovAlpha Facilitators. ![](https://i.imgur.com/o4i3nAc.png) - As a reminder, there's a new monthly cycle process. There used to be Inclusion Polls, bundled Governance Polls, and Executive Votes. Now, we have each MIP sub-proposal go through an individual two-week Ratification Poll. As of July 8th, we have just concluded formal submissions for this month. #### Payton Rose ![](https://i.imgur.com/Oa1IoaK.png) ![](https://i.imgur.com/6OQDvnF.png) - There's an [AMA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTWc0q46lXs) on Collateral Engineering Services this Friday. - To learn more about AmaZix Marketing, check out their [Launch Pod Session](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HjiMs2F5SM). ![](https://i.imgur.com/l2WkxkF.png) - Governance Communications will have their Launch Pod Session next Friday. - Strategic MarComms gave an [update](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLQkfr8RlZI) on their proposal for a CU. ![](https://i.imgur.com/n8vk4fE.png) - Presented MIPs and sub proposals will be voted on this Monday. - @amyjung is the author of MIP55. - MIP52 was put together by @g_dip. The MIP details a process for settling disputes within the organization. A standard process utilizes the monthly cycle. Additionally, there's an urgent process where some MKR is burnt to get a resolution sooner. - Take a look at [SP19: GRO-001](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/mip40c3-sp19-growth-core-unit-budget-gro-001/8643) and [SP21: MKT-001](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/mip40c3-sp21-modify-core-unit-budget-mkt-001/8427) in the forum. #### David Utrobin ![](https://i.imgur.com/SoGmqkE.png) ![](https://i.imgur.com/8fOWvrn.png) - There's a lot of good discussion on the new Maker Portfolio CU in the forum threads. ![](https://i.imgur.com/iNa0rLd.png) - [MIP56: Alternative MKR Compensation Guidelines](https://forum.makerdao.com/t/mip56-alternative-mkr-compensation-guidelines/9230) was posted @Aes, a member of the working group that worked on MKR compensation packages. @Planet_X had once posted a MIP and then withdrew it. This is another attempt by members of that group to put up a similar proposal. Make sure to check it out! ## Presentations and Other Discussions ### General Open Discussion and Updates [01:01:33](https://youtu.be/Bib1FCwHf1Y?t=3693) - Payton: Does anybody have anything, in particular, they want to discuss? I will give it few moments for thought. If not, there are one or two things I can poke at and maybe get some discussion going. - LongForWisdom: We've got like 20 minutes left for discussion. Greg asked earlier about delegation. I can give a very vague and brief update on how that's going; As I'm aware, the UI is still sort of on track. We'll try and announce a target launch date in the next week or so. I want to make sure everyone can confirm before saying anything definitively. We're still working with the potential delegates. If anybody hasn't spoken to me yet wants to be a delegate, please let me know. We can start dealing with some of that. So far, it's been good to see a couple of the delegate's position statements. It's looking really cool. I'm hoping that Maker does well in terms of community and governance. I want us to have the best delegation that feels great once we launch. I guess we'll see. - Christopher Mooney: Kris, do we have the link to the DAI Bridge? Anyone wants to play with it? - Kris Kaczor: Or UI? - Christopher Mooney: Yeah. - Kris Kaczor: Not yet. I mean, they asked me not to share this staging URL. - David Utrobin: Come on. It's only to your closest friends of 40 people. - Payton: And the YouTube audience. I do have a question on the bridge: Are there any functionalities that can generate revenue for us from it, or is it just a pure bridge at this point? - Kris Kaczor: At this point, there are no special features. It's just a plain bridge. It doesn't have all surface withdrawals. It's just to ensure that DAI is famous, and Optimism is one of the first tokens to launch there. Later, once we deploy this first withdrawal version, we can then have a revenue stream connected to the fact that we mint DAI for the future to promise future withdrawal. Also, we can think about moving some parts of the system, like DssCore, to roll up later and access all the collateral available there. It's a bit more of a long-term game. - Payton: Awesome. Definitely looking forward to seeing that UI when it drops. - LongForWisdom: If I recall correctly, are the bridges gradable? You guys were going to sort of transfer Control to the DAO or to the DSS polls, I guess? - Kris Kaczor: Exactly. Control is already in the hands of the DAO. We still have an admin key, but we can get rid of that in like 20 minutes. The thing is that the DAi address won't change, so we have this awesome vanity address, which will stay the same. In the future, we'll deploy upgraded versions of the bridges that are opt-in. - LongForWisdom: Cool. Thanks. - Payton: Okay, I'm going to go ahead and stop the recording. Thanks for joining us. [Suggestion Box](https://app.suggestionox.com/r/GovCallQs) ## Common Abbreviated Terms `CR`: Collateralization Ratio `DC`: Debt Ceiling `ES`: Emergency Shutdown `SF`: Stability Fee `DSR`: Dai Savings Rate `MIP`: Maker Improvement Proposal `OSM`: Oracle Security Module `LR`: Liquidation Ratio `RWA`: Real-World Asset `RWF`: Real-World Finance `SC`: Smart Contracts `Liq`: Liquidations `CU`: Core Unit ## Credits - Artem Gordon produced this summary. - David Utrobin produced this summary. - Queensphine Ntinyari produced this summary. - Sonya Olechnowicz produced this summary. - Everyone who spoke and presented on the call, listed in the headers.