Founder's Handwritten Note: After Maker transforms into Sky, what is the next step?

Original Title: 《 Now that Maker has become Sky, what's next?》

Author: Rune Christensen, Founder of Sky (formerly Maker)

Compiled by: Odaily Planet Daily

Sky was officially launched 8 days ago, and it feels like we have entered a new era.

On September 18, Sky launched USDS and SKY tokens, activating features such as the "USDS Savings Rate" and "USDS Token Rewards," allowing people to experience the Sky ecosystem for the first time. Many different front-end operators are providing related services, including sky.money, summer.fi, and defisaver.com.

In these 8 days, the new tokens have seen significant adoption. The supply of USDS has exceeded 570 million, with a net inflow of 200 million dollars.

USDS and SKY have been widely integrated into major front-ends, wallets, and applications within the Ethereum ecosystem, and the upgrade has received broad support from the community and media.

However, this is just the beginning. In the coming months, we will continuously release new features and significant integrations. The decentralized Sky ecosystem has been nurturing projects for the past two years, and everything that is ready will soon be released in succession.

Here are some new initiatives that have already received Sky governance approval or are proposed, arranged in the expected order of launch.

Sky Partners with Aave

Sky and Aave, two DeFi giants, will join forces to drive the revival of DeFi— the two protocols will integrate and deploy a USDS market on Aave, which will overlay all possible reward mechanisms from both protocols.

By integrating USDS and the "USDS Savings Rate" feature, Aave's USDS market will permanently overlay the USDS Savings Rate and the regular Aave market rate. Additionally, both protocols will provide unique launch rewards to the pool, with SPK being airdropped to users who deposit USDS on Aave (this market is the only place outside of Spark Lend where users can earn SPK airdrops), and Aave will also provide additional incentives.

In simple terms, for users looking to earn higher stablecoin yields through DeFi, the USDS market on Aave will be a straightforward and secure choice, with both DeFi giants jointly maintaining the market.

After the launch of the Aave USDS market, Sky will begin to allocate USDS collateral to the Aave Lido market through collateral distribution channels (with the help of Spark Star), thereby increasing liquidity and reducing borrowing costs for borrowers in the Aave Lido market.

Expanding to Solana

The next move is the highly anticipated Solana expansion plan, which has been welcomed by the Solana community, as the Solana DeFi ecosystem currently lacks a decentralized stablecoin with built-in rewards.

USDS and SKY will be bridged using Wormhole, and liquidity providers will be attracted through targeted SKY incentives, allowing Solana users to achieve nearly 1:1 USDS/USDC liquidity. Up to 2 million SKY tokens will be directed weekly for DeFi reward programs on Solana.

This will enable DeFi protocols on Solana to execute the same functions as the Aave USDS market, making USDS the best asset for earning DeFi rewards on Solana.

This will provide early preparation for the launch of Solana SkyLink, at which point all native Sky features will be available on Solana.

SKY Early Bird Airdrop

Users who registered on Sky.money before the official launch of Sky can currently receive double SKY rewards through the Early Bird program via USDS. These additional double rewards will be distributed through airdrops.

If you registered for the "Early Bird Program" and meet the criteria, you can still receive double rewards before October 16.

SKY "Seal" Module

The SKY "Seal" module is the first major core feature set to launch after Sky's launch, allowing eligible SKY and MKR holders to "seal" their tokens, locking these assets with a 5% "exit fee" in return for:

• USDS rewards;

• Generating USDS using SKY and MKR as collateral;

• The option to receive other rewards in the future, such as SPK;

The "Seal" module may not be available in certain countries/regions.

High rewards combined with the additional restriction of the "exit fee" will incentivize users to participate in Sky ecosystem governance for a longer term. The "exit fee" is initially set at 5% and will increase by 1% every 6 months. The growth of the "exit fee" applies to all users, including those who have already chosen to "seal." After 5 years of the module's launch, the "exit fee" will permanently stabilize at 15% and will no longer be modified. The initial lower "exit fee" is designed to ease the burden on early users who may want to change their minds, reducing the early risk of the module.

Once Spark launches, users of the "Seal" module will also have the option to receive SPK (users must choose to receive either USDS or SPK).

The reward distribution available to "Seal" module users will be 25% of the total net income of the Sky protocol and 15% of the total SPK emissions.

SkyLink on Layer 2

SkyLink will launch on multiple Layer 2s, making Sky a native multi-chain protocol. SkyLink is a custom bridging protocol that will natively deploy most of Sky's functionalities to the target chains that need to be connected. These functionalities include:

• Native USDS, SKY, sUSDS tokens;

• Access to native 1:1 liquidity between USDS and USDC;

• Access to native features for USDS Savings Rate and conversion between USDS and sUSDS;

• Native USDS token rewards, including SKY, Chronicle Points, and SPK;

• Native "activation" rewards (explained below).

The pinnacle of the Sky Launch is the full launch of the Spark protocol, which is also the first independent Sky Star (sub DAO).

From the start, Spark will launch simultaneously on Ethereum and Layer 2 through SkyLink, with SPK token rewards on USDS also launching at the same time.

After the launch of Spark, it will begin to generate its own income from the difference between the base rate (the rate paid by Spark to generate USDS) and the earnings from allocated collateral.

The allocation system will also go live, providing better flexibility for allocating collateral for the Spark ecosystem across new opportunities on Ethereum, Layer 2, and more.

These features will transfer a significant amount of net surplus income currently earned entirely by the Sky protocol to Spark, creating conditions for Spark to explore all dynamic opportunities for the revival of DeFi and flexibly enhance its ability to create value.

The net income earned by the Spark protocol will be used to accumulate SPK/SKY liquidity, similar to a smart destruction engine that accumulates SKY/USDS liquidity for Sky.

SKY and SPK "Activation" Feature

With the full launch of Spark, both SKY and SPK tokens will gain an "activation" feature that will be available on multiple chains from the day of release.

SKY "activation" allows SKY holders to earn SPK rewards without "exit fees" or other forms of locking restrictions. SKY "activation" users will be allocated 15% of all SPK emissions.

Conversely, SPK "activation" allows SPK holders to earn SKY rewards. SPK "activation" users will receive an allocation of 80 million SKY tokens per year.

SkyLink for Solana and Other Ecosystems

After the launch of Spark, the complete SkyLink multi-chain system will expand to Solana and other major Ethereum Layer 2s. This will also include the "allocation system" linked to major DeFi lending pools and protocols on each chain, significantly enhancing DeFi liquidity, enabling Spark to generate more surplus income, and allowing Sky to charge higher base rates, providing better savings rates for USDS holders.

2025 and Beyond

The above initiatives are the main content that Sky has announced so far, but we certainly will not stop here.

The key to Sky's continued expansion lies in the inherent ecological parallelization strategy of its Star Model, so Sky will continue to launch more innovative features, while Spark will begin to formulate its own long-term roadmap, including new features, new applications, and new adoption strategies.

Ultimately, the next Star (sub DAO) after Spark will also launch, building its own innovative solutions and adoption roadmap, creating another parallel path for new growth.

After that, Sky will continue to incubate and launch more Stars while also building core technologies to improve the efficiency, speed, and security of each Star through AI governance and data tools, and expand to more new blockchains through continuous optimization of SkyLink.