- Maker morphed into Sky with two new tokens a month ago.
- Community members 'love and trust' the Maker brand.
- Founder Rune Christensen is weighing options on potential changes.
Only a month after Maker rebranded itself Sky, its community is having second thoughts about the new name.
Longtime Maker devotees appear to be concerned about letting go of one of the most storied brands in DeFi.
“The strength of Maker and DAI brands must be leveraged,” a user named mind0 said on the protocol’s forum. “It’s not an easy feat to be the oldest protocol in Defi, trusted by whales for almost a decade, and Sky would start from 0 in that department.”
Rune Christensen, the founder of the project formerly called Maker, acknowledged on Monday there may have been too many changes too soon.
He’s even suggested returning to the original Maker brand, undoing weeks of effort.
“It is also now more clear than ever just how much the DeFi community loves and trusts the Maker brand,” he wrote. “There was a lot of affinity for the brand and what it stands for — stability, security and DeFi scale.”
The change included the launch of two new tokens, SKY and USDS, a new landing page, and new tokenomics. At the same time, the protocol’s original tokens, DAI and MKR, are to remain intact during the reshuffle.
DeFi powerhouse
As one of the first DeFi protocols to hit the market in 2017, Maker and its dollar-pegged stablecoin DAI have become synonymous with the $90 billion decentralised finance niche.
Alongside heavyweights like Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT, DAI stood apart.
Instead of a centralised company issuing the token, users could mint the token and use other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum as collateral.
The conditions for which cryptocurrencies could be used and how much collateral was needed is decided by its decentralised autonomous organisation.
But at $5.8 billion, the protocol’s stablecoin is worth a fraction of USDC and USDT.
The rebrand to Sky, as part of Christensen’s so-called Endgame Plan, is an attempt to boost DAI’s growth and make it more competitive in the cryptosphere.
Upon launch, users were invited to upgrade their DAI stablecoin for the new USDS stablecoin; likewise, they could swap one MKR governance token for 24,000 SKY tokens.
USDS hit $500 million in five days, growth fueled by other Sky protocol incentives, such as earning 6% on the stablecoin.
What’s next for Sky?
Despite the quick growth, the rebrand casts aside the protocol’s greatest asset, say some.
Christensen provided three options to address the confusion.
The first is to continue as such and “embrace the momentum” of the rebrand. The second is to return to Maker and its original brand and remove the new SKY governance token.
The final option is to keep the Maker brand and modify the new tokens and protocol’s new DAOs.
There will be a community call on Friday to include additional feedback and included in a revised proposal.
If approved, the community could vote as early as November 4 on which option they prefer.
Liam Kelly is a DeFi Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at liam@dlnews.com.
