After ten years, the brand has changed! MakerDAO has officially rebranded to SKY and launched the USDS stablecoin
Maker has changed his title to Tian Ge. Will Sky become a bigger and better brand in the bull market of DeFi?The greetings from a ten-year friend are still so gentle, but there is no longer a reason to embrace, because Zhao Dezhuz said that after ten years of wandering in the rivers and lakes, both the gang and finances are declining. After a meeting to discuss, it was concluded that the problem lies in the name, and we need to change it!
On August 27, after a decade-long journey in DeFi, the decentralized autonomous organization MakerDAO officially announced its name change to Sky, aiming to promote DeFi decentralization and enhance user experience.
As part of the upgrade, Sky will launch a new stablecoin USDS and governance token SKY on September 18. The existing DAI stablecoin and MKR governance token will continue to exist, and users can voluntarily upgrade their tokens.
According to the rules, DAI can be exchanged for USDS at a 1:1 ratio, while each MKR token can be exchanged for 24,000 SKY tokens; every year, the governance token SKY will be distributed to USDS holders at a rate of 600 million SKY tokens; additionally, the SKY token will have a double "early bird" reward program. Until September 18, users can earn double rewards by providing USDS to the Sky Token reward module on the new platform Sky.money.
At the same time, MakerDAO has also launched a new DeFi application and website Sky.money (maintained by the independent entity Skybase, which is related to the company owned by MakerDAO co-founder Rune), providing key features of the Sky protocol, and has introduced a multi-chain solution Skylink to support the migration of Sky ecosystem tokens like USDS and SKY to major L2s.
Furthermore, MakerDAO's SubDAO has been renamed to Sky Stars, with the first being the Sky-based lending platform Spark, focusing on providing high-quality and user-friendly DeFi products. MakerDAO co-founder Rune Christensen stated that Stars has the ability to attract real users and generate value, which can truly foster innovation and creativity.
This name change is to welcome the next evolution of DeFi; its core essence will not change, but will make the protocol more decentralized. The official website shows that only 1,550 users have converted their tokens through Sky's migration tool. Moreover, according to CoinGecko data, Maker's price has dropped by 7.6% in the past 24 hours, although it is also affected by the overall market decline, the major update has not boosted the price.
However, the community's evaluation of MakerDAO's upgrade is mixed. On one hand, due to MakerDAO's high profile in the DeFi community, this name change is seen as damaging to brand value. Additionally, the official has not properly handled the original X account, leading to registration by other accounts or phishing risks.
On the other hand, according to Sam MacPherson, CEO of Phoenix Labs and Spark Protocol (who has since deleted the related message), the upgraded DAI will introduce freezing features similar to centralized stablecoins USDT and USDC.
At the same time, the upgraded Sky official website seems to block some regions on the front end and prohibits VPN logins. Compared to the previous anti-censorship nature of DAI, this change is viewed by the community as a betrayal of the original decentralized intention of DeFi, and the gates of decentralized stablecoins have already been "breached."
In response to this issue, Rune explained in a tweet that USDS will not have freezing features at launch, and how to implement similar freezing functions will be decided in future governance based on all data, while finding a way to mitigate as many risk factors as possible. Furthermore, the upgrade is optional; DAI can still be used, and only USDS will have the freezing feature. In other words, DAI and USDC will coexist.
In fact, according to CoinGecko data, DAI has been declining since reaching a peak of $9.87 billion in February 2022, having fallen over 45.5% now. Although DAI ranks third in market capitalization, it only accounts for 4.5% of the first-ranked USDT and 15.5% of the second-ranked USDC. Moreover, in terms of growth rate, as of August 28, DAI's market cap has decreased by about 2.1% since the beginning of this year, while USDT's market cap has been continuously expanding, increasing by 28.7% this year, and USDC's scale has also expanded by nearly 40.3% during the same period.
In fact, not only DAI but the entire decentralized stablecoin sector is facing growth challenges, mainly due to compliance issues that prevent mainstream institutions from using them, limiting application scenarios. In contrast, the market size of centralized stablecoins has seen significant growth and rapid expansion. According to DeFiLlama data, as of August 28, the two centralized stablecoins USDT and USDC alone have captured over 89.7% of the market share.
With the upgrade of DAI, it means that USDS will begin to compete with centralized stablecoins in the future. For MakerDAO, this innovation is also expected, especially in a bear market, where considerable growth has been achieved through rising U.S. Treasury rates during the interest rate hike cycle. However, now, with the onset of the interest rate cut wave, MakerDAO may face revenue challenges.
