Sky Community Weighs Another Rebrand: Should They Return to Maker?

• Sky co-founder Rune Christensen has proposed that the community either recenter the Maker brand or maintain the momentum of the Sky brand. 
• Since the rebranding was done, MKR has declined by 45% and plunged to its lowest level since September 2023. 

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) lending platform SKY is seriously considering reverting to its original brand name, Maker, following backlashes and negative reactions from its community.

How it All Happened

A few months ago, Maker Protocol announced that it is upgrading its stablecoin and native governance token to make its DeFi products accessible to the masses. As part of this initiative, Maker rebranded its decentralized stablecoin Dai into USDS. On top of that, the Maker token was rebranded to Sky (SKY) at a rate of 1:24,000, with the Maker SubDAOs changed to Sky Stars.

The protocol has been built with a […] focus on simplicity and ease of use. It allows users to benefit from innovations such as Sky Token Rewards (STRs) and the Sky Savings Rate (SSR), provided they are in an eligible jurisdiction.

Explaining the technicalities of this initiative, the co-founder, Rune Christensen, pointed out that each Sky Star subDAO was meant to release a governance token autonomously, manage its treasure and community, and implement DAO-specific decisions independently.

Sky Stars will be able to innovate, experiment, and take more risks, while the Sky Protocol itself can remain purely focused on maintaining the value and security of the USDS stablecoin. Core Sky Governance will protect against risks in the tail end, while Stars specialize in doing business in the trenches.

Three Proposals to Address the Sky Rebrand Concerns

Following this development, Gnosis Chain users raised concerns about the centralization characteristics of the USDS. As we earlier reported, the capacity of the USDS to freeze wallet addresses triggered a debate about the alignment of this token to the primary goals of Gnosis.

Months after this significant move, Christensen has officially proposed three interesting approaches to reach a common ground with all stakeholders to address the growing concerns.

Firstly, the co-founder proposed that the community embrace the momentum built with the Sky brand to capitalize on its recent success and growing adoption. The second proposal is to reintroduce the Maker brand as a central focus and reinstate MKR as its only governance token. Finally, Christensen proposes that they recenter the Maker brand with a refreshed brand identity that keeps a classic look. This implies that the old brand would be subjected to a marginal modification to align with USDS and StarDAOs.

According to him, the strong affinity and resistance generated within the community underscores the love and trust for the previous identity.

It is also now more clear than ever just how much the DeFi community loves and trusts the Maker brand. There was a lot of affinity for the brand and what it stands for – stability, security, and DeFi scale. And there is a lot of commitment to holding the MKR token versus upgrading to SKY.

For now, the team will gather feedback through a community call on October 25 and hold a governance poll on November 4 to decide on the direction of the Maker brand and its tokenomics.

Since the rebrand, the former governance token MKR has plummeted by 45% to trade at $1,170. According to market data, this is its lowest level since September 2023.