MakerDAO publishes 5-phase roadmap featuring funding for open-source AI projects

MakerDAO, the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) behind the Dai stablecoin and its related Maker governance token, recently announced a slew of planned updates to its ecosystem, including a heavy focus on artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and the planned development of a new blockchain.

Beginning with an upgrade to unify the organization’s brand, the new roadmap details a five-phase project called “Endgame.”

5 phases of Endgame.

Endgame has been defined as an update that employs AI tools and open processes to enhance efficiency, resilience, and participation.

A new publication on the Maker Forum outlines its roadmap, which includes the introduction of 5 major launch phases. pic.twitter.com/8GOkIfFADi

— Maker (@MakerDAO) May 12, 2023

Per an official forum post written by MakerDAO co-founder Rune Christensen, the first phase of Endgame will involve a “full rebrand” to unify the Dai (DAI) and Maker (MKR) brands.

“Crucially,” writes Christensen, “Dai and MKR will not be altered.” MakerDAO intends to preserve both tokens in their current form. However, the organization does intend to add two new tokens with updated features which are being temporarily referred to as “NewStable” and “NewGovToken.”

Christensen elaborated on this in a reply to a comment on the post:

“Dai will remain and will be the undisturbed OG stablecoin with no flashy features, and its liquidity will always be bootstrapped by the unlimited 1:1 conversion to NewStable.”

Going forward, the “key product launch of Endgame” will include the eventual launch of six “Maker SubDAOs” and accompanying NewStable token farms.

The subDAOs will be split between facilitator and allocator DAOs and, per Christensen, their purpose will be to streamline the “workload and complexity that Maker Governance needs to manage.”

Phase three of the roadmap is all about AI. MakerDAO intends to launch several internal AI tools to optimize governance tasks such as monitoring and data siloing.

Alongside the planned launch of the AI tools, MakerDAO intends to enter the open-source AI development space with a project entitled “The Purpose Fund.”

Chistensen wrote that this initiative will promote and fund “free, open source AI models and free AI tools to help socially impactful industries and projects tap into the efficiency gains of AI and use it to achieve more self-sustainable impact.”

The fourth phase of Endgame involves the development of an incentive program for ecosystem denizens called the “Governance Participation Incentive.” The program will involve gamification and rewards to incentivize interactions on the MakerDAO platform.

Finally, the organization intends to create a proprietary blockchain currently referred to as “NewChain.” Rather than replacing the Ethereum blockchain currently underpinning the MakerDAO platform, NewChain will be bridged.

According to Christensen, “This means that on Ethereum, NewStable and NewGovToken, as well as Dai and MKR, will continue to function as normal, and the only change will be that they will be protected by a governance backend that operates through a secure, state of the art bridge.”

Listed as the key feature driving the implementation of the new blockchain is the ability to use hard forks as a governance mechanism in the event of power attacks or abuse by majority holders.