Overview

The Endgame Plan

The Endgame Plan is a proposal to overhaul and improve the governance and tokenomics of the Maker Ecosystem. Its primary aim is for the ecosystem to reach a self-sustainable equilibrium called the Endgame State. In this state, the ecosystem is resilient, and the scope and complexity of Maker Core will no longer change.
The Endgame Plan was introduced by Rune Christensen, the co-founder of Maker. After a series of initial discussions, Maker Governance accepted the MIP set ratifying this plan on 24 October 2022.
The Endgame Plan remains in active development, led by Rune Christensen. The latest complete and published description of the Endgame Plan is available here. Note that some parts are now out of date.
This documentation describes planned functionality and processes that MakerDAO has not yet implemented. Be aware that parts may be inaccurate or out of date.

Goals

The Endgame Plan has many goals which come together to create the Endgame State. A list of these goals is below:
  • Providing access to an Unbiased World Currency in the form of the decentralized stablecoin Dai.
  • Ensure that Maker has a meaningful charitable impact.
  • Ensure that Maker Core is more resilient to external risks such as regulatory action.
  • Ensure that the Maker Ecosystem can scale in a decentralized manner.
  • Alignment engineering for all participants in the Maker Ecosystem resulting in positive community culture and engagement, known as good meta.
  • Reduce governance overhead for MKR holders and Maker delegates.
  • Cut scope creep in Maker Core.
  • Reduce MKR concentration through revised tokenomics and MKR emissions.

Core Elements

The Endgame Plan consists of the following main components:
The Maker Constitution specifies the core scope of Maker Governance. The Constitution is meant to be as immutable as possible. This simplicity and immutability guarantees long-term transparency about the purpose of MakerDAO.
The Endgame Constitution draft is available here. Note that some parts may be out of date.

SubDAOs

The Endgame Plan is based on reorganizing the existing decentralized workforce ecosystem into new self-sustainable DAOs called SubDAOs. Since each SubDAO is a DAO, it will have its own unique governance token, governance processes, workforce, and interfaces.
SubDAOs are expected to maintain a synergistic relationship with Maker Core through appropriate alignment of incentive structures.
Moving much of the developmental, operational, and governance work to SubDAOs makes Maker Core simpler and more resilient.
Maker Core will consist of twelve Scopes. A Scope is a broad focus area for any work done to operate or improve the protocol.
The goal of introducing Scopes is to limit scope creep and ensure that any work done aligns with Maker Core's goals.
Scope Frameworks define the rules that SubDAOs must adhere to. Scope Frameworks will be refined over time to maximize profit and minimize risk to Maker Core.
Scope Frameworks limit the governance overhead by ensuring that Maker Core only focuses on high-level decisions. They also encourage innovation among SubDAOs without allowing them to take excessive risks that may damage Maker Core.
Constitutional Voter Committees (CVCs) are groups of voters with aligned values and views. CVCs engage in the important high-level questions of Maker Governance. Every CVC must include a Constitutional Conserver, an entity that has pledged to support the Constitution.
The objective of CVCs is to ensure that they represent MKR voters that are aligned with the values of that CVC. Members of CVCs will be compensated for their engagement under certain conditions, thereby incentivizing active governance.
CVCs work together with Delegates as well as Advisory Councils to implement specific governance changes.
The Endgame Plan introduces Elixir and SubElixir, which are liquidity pool tokens representing liquidity pools holding various combinations of MKR, Dai and SubDAO governance tokens. The aim of these tokens is to ensure alignment of interests between Maker Core and SubDAOs.
The Endgame Plan has two major tokenomics updates. First, annual MKR minting will be used to incubate SubDAOs, fund DVCs, and incentivize the workforce. These emissions counteract the MKR burn and reduce the likelihood of MKR becoming concentrated in the hands of large holders.
ETH and staked ETH will play a major role in ensuring the financial resilience of Maker Core. EtherDai is a synthetic Ether token backed by liquid staked Ether tokens and Maker-issued debt.
In the final stages of Endgame, Dai will turn into an Unbiased World Currency. It may not remain pegged to the US dollar and may instead either peg to another reference currency, or become free-floating. In the latter case, incentive mechanisms will determine Dai's target price.
Maker Governance no longer guarantees that the MKR token will function as a backstop in the event that Maker becomes insolvent. Governance may instead choose to adjust the Target Price of Dai which would result in a loss in value for all Dai holders.
Page last reviewed: 2023-01-27 Next review due: 2023-04-27