Rune Christensen, the co-founder of MakerDAO, proposed a significant shift in the project’s technological foundation. Christensen suggested that MakerDAO’s upcoming native chain, known as “NewChain,” should be developed using a fork of Solana’s codebase rather than the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This proposal comes despite MakerDAO’s long-standing association with Ethereum.
The rationale behind the proposal
In a post on Friday, Christensen outlined three primary reasons for considering Solana’s codebase as the foundation for NewChain. First, he emphasized the technical quality of Solana, describing it as “highly optimized” for operating a singular, efficient blockchain. Second, he pointed out that the Solana ecosystem has demonstrated resilience by overcoming several challenges, including the FTX blowup.
According to Christensen, this resilience ensures a long-term, high-quality pool of talent that MakerDAO could tap into. Lastly, Christensen noted that Solana’s codebase has already been successfully forked and adapted for other projects, making it a viable option for NewChain’s development.
NewChain is part of MakerDAO’s “Endgame” upgrade, a five-phase plan aimed at improving governance and making the protocol more self-sustainable. The final phase, which includes the development of NewChain, is expected to take approximately three years to complete. NewChain will serve as a hub for backend tools supporting MakerDAO and will allow the ecosystem to recover gracefully from severe forms of governance attacks or technical failures.
According to Christensen, there is potential for a mutually beneficial relationship between MakerDAO and the Solana community. This could be achieved by either maintaining an independent client or providing funding to the Solana ecosystem. In addition, he has proposed a Two-Stage Gravity Bridge from NewChain to Solana, along with a bridge from NewChain to Ethereum, to enhance the network effect of the entire multichain economy.
While the proposal is still subject to community approval, it marks a potential turning point for MakerDAO, which has been closely tied to Ethereum since its inception. If approved, this would not only signify a strategic shift for MakerDAO but could also significantly impact the DeFi space, given MakerDAO’s prominence.
Christensen also mentioned that the only other contender for launching MakerDAO’s new app chain would be the Cosmos SDK. Still, he argued that it is less efficient than Solana and lacks a strong central foundation organization, making it potentially more expensive to maintain over time.
