Welcome to (anon), where flaccid, ginger rage is channeled harmlessly into mediocre weekly crypto “analysis.”

A top secret meeting of the DAOlimunati occurred last week in the highly secluded location of Denver, Colorado.

The fact that they chose such a strange and off-the-beaten path locale suggests to this journalist that they’re up to no good.

What could possibly necessitate so much secrecy that it would make you feel like going to… Colorado? A place so lacking in culture that its basketball team’s mascot is a “Nugget”.

Nonetheless, I mustered my last remaining fucks and hitchhiked across the continental United States to infiltrate and expose the shadowy event known only as MCON.

Founded by its namesake, a venture DAO called MetaCartel, MCON is an annual event where acclaimed DAO minds gather to discuss the art of collaboration. I made my way through the cruel streets of Denver, armed with only a fresh pair of heelies (to facilitate my escape if cornered by DAO fanatics)and a can of Mace (in case the heelies didn’t work.)

Sadly, the whole affair was… wholesome. A conference sommelier, should such a wretched job exist, might describe the tone as “pragmatic with a splash of optimism.” Speakers and panelists were transparent about the barriers they face and the bigger problems confronting DAO’s.

When DAOs first started forming, for example, they mostly consisted of small “high-trust” groups where everyone knew each other. As the industry expands, it’s becoming harder and harder to know who to talk to, and how to work together.

Apparently, scaling coordination amongst strangers (the main goal of DAOs) is hard.

Worse, the riveting world of DAO legal structures is also gray. A group of suits labeled as “legal experts” debated for an hour or so about the best legal wrappers to safely cloak your DAOs. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really a clear conclusion.

If I had to summarize my takeaways from MCON’s speakers in one sentence, it would be, “This is harder than we expected but we’re figuring it out”.

“You might have thought that the OG DAO lords had everything figured out. Jokes on you. The process is product.” - Ameen Soleimani, MCON Closing Speech

The guest list was highly curated, mostly DAO contributors and founders. Those that I suffered to encounter were optimistic, kind, and genuinely (maybe?) curious about what I was “working on” (infiltration complete).

Most crypto conferences I’ve suffered through often felt like watching presenters shill larger-than-life ponzis.

By comparison, MCON’s presenters were glaringly transparent. The sentiment at MCON was that DAOs (and the industry as a whole) have come far—but still have a long way to go if they are going to make a dent in the universe.

Aave has been aactive leading up to the merge. (Has anyone ever mentioned the lending protocol really should have researched its name before appropriating it? Discuss.)

Eh, but back to its pre-merge maneuver: In a feat of dexterity uncommon among DAOs, on September 6, Aave passed a proposal to pause ETH borrowing. The proposal intended to “mitigate the risk of high utilization” as the merge approached.

Now that the merge is complete, there’s another proposal awaiting a final vote: to re-enable ETH borrowing.

The whole gambit was a risk mitigation success!

It’s genuinely impressive to see a DAO act with agility.

These proposals also conveniently sandwich another proposal, “V3 Retroactive Funding,” which, if passed, would award the Aave development team $15 Million USD for its past 12 months of work. The payment will be split amongst working groups that make up “The Aave Pod”. The proposal highlights that 60% of the funds will go to engineers and 40% to the aptly-named “non-engineers”.

Look, I’m not saying Aave devs haven’t done a good job– but if you can just ask for $15 Million USD for work you’ve already done after you did it, is Aave hiring?

MakerDAO recently passed a vote to raise the debt ceiling on its wstETH-B pool to $200 million USD, double its original ceiling of $100 million.

https://twitter.com/MakerDAO/status/1569400518639771648

OK, so wTF does that mean and why do we care? Well, let’s start with the whole TornadoCash mishegas and the interrelationship between DAI, which is the stablecoin issued by MakerDAO, and fellow stablecoin USDC.

Stablecoins are a crucial cog in the crypto machine, and DAI had been the semi-decentralized champion—until its sanctity was brought into question by Tornado. After the TornadoCash sanctions, USDC which had interacted with the Tornado mixer was frozen by its issuer, Circle.

You: But that’s USDC! I thought we were talking about Maker? I am so confused rn😭

Me: Well, MakerDAO maintains its peg by requiring you to put down collateral when you mint DAI. At the moment, around 40% of its collateral is USDC, d00d.

You: Aha!💡

So suddenly having DAI backed by that much USDC is a little worrisome. Thanks Circle.

Raising the debt ceiling on the wstETH vault is an effort to lower DAI’s reliance on USDC, making it more durable and less prone to failure. Even if the USDC it uses as collateral for DAI is never frozen, it casts an ominous cloud over the protocol in the form of a big looming “what if?” By replacing some of the centralized collateral (USDC) with decentralized collateral (wstETH) MakerDAO is hoping to get out from underneath this cloud.

The pool has a 0% stability fee, and is being marketed as a way to “mint DAI for free”. The stability fee is a fee charged by the protocol for the “inherent risk of maintaining stability”.

Is this a… silver lining?

Welcome to (anon), where flaccid, ginger rage is channeled harmlessly into mediocre weekly crypto “analysis.”

A top secret meeting of the DAOlimunati occurred last week in the highly secluded location of Denver, Colorado.

The fact that they chose such a strange and off-the-beaten path locale suggests to this journalist that they’re up to no good.

What could possibly necessitate so much secrecy that it would make you feel like going to… Colorado? A place so lacking in culture that its basketball team’s mascot is a “Nugget”.

Nonetheless, I mustered my last remaining fucks and hitchhiked across the continental United States to infiltrate and expose the shadowy event known only as MCON.

Founded by its namesake, a venture DAO called MetaCartel, MCON is an annual event where acclaimed DAO minds gather to discuss the art of collaboration. I made my way through the cruel streets of Denver, armed with only a fresh pair of heelies (to facilitate my escape if cornered by DAO fanatics)and a can of Mace (in case the heelies didn’t work.)

Sadly, the whole affair was… wholesome. A conference sommelier, should such a wretched job exist, might describe the tone as “pragmatic with a splash of optimism.” Speakers and panelists were transparent about the barriers they face and the bigger problems confronting DAO’s.

When DAOs first started forming, for example, they mostly consisted of small “high-trust” groups where everyone knew each other. As the industry expands, it’s becoming harder and harder to know who to talk to, and how to work together.

Apparently, scaling coordination amongst strangers (the main goal of DAOs) is hard.

Worse, the riveting world of DAO legal structures is also gray. A group of suits labeled as “legal experts” debated for an hour or so about the best legal wrappers to safely cloak your DAOs. Unfortunately, there wasn’t really a clear conclusion.

If I had to summarize my takeaways from MCON’s speakers in one sentence, it would be, “This is harder than we expected but we’re figuring it out”.

“You might have thought that the OG DAO lords had everything figured out. Jokes on you. The process is product.” - Ameen Soleimani, MCON Closing Speech

The guest list was highly curated, mostly DAO contributors and founders. Those that I suffered to encounter were optimistic, kind, and genuinely (maybe?) curious about what I was “working on” (infiltration complete).

Most crypto conferences I’ve suffered through often felt like watching presenters shill larger-than-life ponzis.

By comparison, MCON’s presenters were glaringly transparent. The sentiment at MCON was that DAOs (and the industry as a whole) have come far—but still have a long way to go if they are going to make a dent in the universe.

Aave has been aactive leading up to the merge. (Has anyone ever mentioned the lending protocol really should have researched its name before appropriating it? Discuss.)

Eh, but back to its pre-merge maneuver: In a feat of dexterity uncommon among DAOs, on September 6, Aave passed a proposal to pause ETH borrowing. The proposal intended to “mitigate the risk of high utilization” as the merge approached.

Now that the merge is complete, there’s another proposal awaiting a final vote: to re-enable ETH borrowing.

The whole gambit was a risk mitigation success!

It’s genuinely impressive to see a DAO act with agility.

These proposals also conveniently sandwich another proposal, “V3 Retroactive Funding,” which, if passed, would award the Aave development team $15 Million USD for its past 12 months of work. The payment will be split amongst working groups that make up “The Aave Pod”. The proposal highlights that 60% of the funds will go to engineers and 40% to the aptly-named “non-engineers”.

Look, I’m not saying Aave devs haven’t done a good job– but if you can just ask for $15 Million USD for work you’ve already done after you did it, is Aave hiring?

MakerDAO recently passed a vote to raise the debt ceiling on its wstETH-B pool to $200 million USD, double its original ceiling of $100 million.

https://twitter.com/MakerDAO/status/1569400518639771648

OK, so wTF does that mean and why do we care? Well, let’s start with the whole TornadoCash mishegas and the interrelationship between DAI, which is the stablecoin issued by MakerDAO, and fellow stablecoin USDC.

Stablecoins are a crucial cog in the crypto machine, and DAI had been the semi-decentralized champion—until its sanctity was brought into question by Tornado. After the TornadoCash sanctions, USDC which had interacted with the Tornado mixer was frozen by its issuer, Circle.

You: But that’s USDC! I thought we were talking about Maker? I am so confused rn😭

Me: Well, MakerDAO maintains its peg by requiring you to put down collateral when you mint DAI. At the moment, around 40% of its collateral is USDC, d00d.

You: Aha!💡

So suddenly having DAI backed by that much USDC is a little worrisome. Thanks Circle.

Raising the debt ceiling on the wstETH vault is an effort to lower DAI’s reliance on USDC, making it more durable and less prone to failure. Even if the USDC it uses as collateral for DAI is never frozen, it casts an ominous cloud over the protocol in the form of a big looming “what if?” By replacing some of the centralized collateral (USDC) with decentralized collateral (wstETH) MakerDAO is hoping to get out from underneath this cloud.

The pool has a 0% stability fee, and is being marketed as a way to “mint DAI for free”. The stability fee is a fee charged by the protocol for the “inherent risk of maintaining stability”.

Is this a… silver lining?