MakerDAO's Founder Proposes Solana Fork
MakerDAO plans to fork Solana for its upcoming NewChain, a clean-slate blockchain that will serve as the backbone of the Maker Protocol and its SubDAOs.
MakerDAO, initially rooted in the Ethereum network, has announced plans to fork Solana for its upcoming NewChain.
MakerDAO's CEO and co-founder, Rune Christensen, recently announced that the organization is considering Solana's codebase as the foundation for NewChain. This decision is part of MakerDAO's long-term strategic initiative known as Endgame. NewChain is expected to serve as the backbone of the Maker Protocol and its SubDAOs, enhancing both system security and operational efficiency.
The last phase of Endgame is the launch of a native blockchain for Maker with the codename NewChain
It will make the ecosystem more secure and efficient
After some research, I believe the Solana codebase should be considered as the basis for NewChainhttps://t.co/KyGxBBGlVH — Rune (@RuneKek) September 1, 2023
Unlike older blockchains that have layers of patches and updates, NewChain will start with a clean slate, allowing it to recover gracefully from governance attacks or technical mishaps through hard forks. The goal is to eliminate the technical debt that has been haunting the Maker Protocol for eight years.
Why Solana?
Solana's codebase was chosen for three major reasons:
- High Efficiency and Focus: Solana's codebase is designed for the high efficiency and singular focus that NewChain requires. It has the advantage of being designed long after the challenges and bottlenecks of earlier blockchains were well understood.
- Resilience and Community: Despite past challenges, Solana has displayed remarkable resilience, emerging stronger with a thriving developer community. This lowers the costs for development and maintenance while ensuring a stable pool of high-quality talent.
- Proven Adaptability: Solana's adaptability for specialized needs has already been proven through projects like Pyth, which operates its backend on a modified version of Solana.
Christensen envisions a future where Maker and Solana cultivate a symbiotic relationship. By forking Solana, Maker can access an expansive pool of developer talent, enriching the ecosystem while benefiting from it simultaneously. Furthermore, Christensen advocates the establishment of a "Two-Stage Gravity Bridge" between NewChain, Solana, and Ethereum. This bridge would extend Solana's native DeFi features and capital, strengthening the security and network effect across the entire multichain economy.
Co-founder @RuneKek of @MakerDAO, a DeFi protocol, proposes leveraging the Solana codebase for NewChain following extensive research.
He cites Solana’s technical quality, strong developer ecosystem, and resilience as primary reasons and suggests potential mutual benefits to the… https://t.co/p5w7pGf47h — Solana (@solana) September 1, 2023
The final phase of the Endgame project, which includes the launch of NewChain, is expected to take around three years to complete. During this period, the Maker protocol will be fully re-implemented into this new stand-alone blockchain. NewChain will serve as a backend for the project's SubDAO tokenomics and governance security. On the other side, its governance token Maker (MKR) and stablecoin Dai (DAI) will continue functioning as usual on Ethereum.
While Solana aligns well with their criteria, Christensen has previously noted that Cosmos could be another viable choice. However, Cosmos lacks a centralized governing body and doesn't focus on operational efficiency, potentially leading to increased maintenance costs. Ethereum was also considered, but its core computing engine, known as the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), doesn't meet MakerDAO's specialized backend needs.
