From theblock by Daniel Kuhn

MakerDAO has voted to maintain its recent rebrand following backlash that the decentralized autonomous organization behind the oldest and largest Ethereum-based algorithmic stablecoin  DAI +0.071% was squandering its industry-wide recognition. 

Nearly 80% of the vote share went toward keeping the “Sky brand as the backend protocol brand.” Though only four entities — out of roughly 20 total who cast a vote — accounted for almost all of that vote share, according to Sky’s polling metrics. Each took roughly 20% of the vote, while only one large entity went against the proposal. 

The protocol formerly known as Maker  MKR +5.03%, launched in 2014, voted to revamp its brandin September as part of founder Rune Christensen’s long-term “Endgame” plan to remake the protocol as it is now known. 

Despite a landslide victory to rename the protocol to Sky in September, there has been some angst among community members about the direction of the veteran project. Christensen has acknowledged the reservations around vastly expanding Maker’s scope, including launching a suite of new stablecoins and an alternative governance token, SKY, as well as pursuing a subDAO strategy where semi-independent units will operate like corporations to build their own crypto-native apps.

Christensen proposed Endgame in late 2022 as a bid to reinvigorate what he saw as a lagging DeFi project. Although the specifics have changed over time, the core idea is to make Maker more competitive and resilient. 

As part of the initial Sky rebrand, DAO members voted to give DAI holders the option to trade their tokens for the new stablecoin named Sky Dollar (USDS) at a 1:1 ratio and MakerDAO’s governance token MKR for SKY token at a 1:24,000 ratio. There are no current plans to permanently depricate DAI and MKR tokens, which are still active.

USDS is now the third-largest stablecoin — replacing DAI, which held that position for years — with a market capitalization of over $5.6 million. DAI is the fourth-largest stablecoin with a market cap of over $3 million. 

“It's helpful to understand that SKY really has not had a chance to properly launch yet," Framework Ventures founder Vance Spencer said in an email. "It is not supported on any major exchanges, places like Coingecko did not transition MKR market cap to SKY, and the rebrand timing was coincident with one large fund selling their MKR and a general market pullback.” 

Spencer supported the rebrand, highlighting the project's ambitious goals. Sky plans to launch new stablecoins, including puredai, which is decentralized and censorship-resistant, and NewStable, which is regulatory-compliant and aimed at the mass market.

Sky also intends to launch versions on Solana and Ethereum Layer 2 Base. It plans to integrate with Aave for stacked USDS rewards, introduce a staking protocol using SKY and MKR, and build a custom bridge called SkyLink for EVM chains. The project will also shift focus toward asset tokenization, among other initiatives.

“Endgame has an absolute ton of product that is shipping in the next month and beyond. Product and growth are all that ultimately matter,” said Spencer. 

“Now the question is - do people hate the SKY brand or the price action? Even as a crypto OG, I understand that MKR probably has (some) brand equity - but after really thinking about it I view it as somewhat minimal outside of the [Crypto Twitter] bubble,” he said. “If anything, DAI has more brand equity, and that is staying in place.”