MakerDAO releases multi-chain strategy and roadmap, laying out plans for multi-chain environment and scalability solutions.

The largest stablecoin lending protocol on the Ethereum network, MakerDAO, has released a strategic roadmap, revealing its expansion strategy towards a multi-chain environment in the future. In addition to interacting with the broader community and collecting feedback, MakerDAO's primary focus is on exploring opportunities within the Ethereum L2 ecosystem.

Core developer Derek Flossman announced the multi-chain strategy and future roadmap on the MakerDAO governance forum on 5/27. He believes that gathering feedback not only allows for a closer focus on L2 progress but also helps strike a balance between scalability and security to safeguard the integrity of DAI as a multi-chain stablecoin.

The Current Multi-Chain Environment

Flossman pointed out that due to the rapid development of various DeFi ecosystems, liquidity in the future cannot be centralized on a single chain or Layer2. Users are often attracted by high-yield protocols, so MakerDAO needs to capture value in the multi-chain environment and ensure the secure flow of DAI across chains.

However, Flossman emphasized:

DAI is built on the most decentralized smart contract platform today, Ethereum. In the long term, efforts will be made to achieve scalability and security without sacrificing decentralization.

Cross-Chain Bridge Types

Most users prefer to transfer DAI across chains. A better analogy is like depositing DAI into a centralized exchange, where DAI disappears from the user's wallet and appears in the exchange account balance.

Flossman also mentioned issues with deploying multiple chains, such as the left-side example where only two versions of DAI exist on a single cross-chain bridge. In the right-side example, a user's wallet may contain many different versions of NFT DAI, leading to confusion.

Maker Opportunities and Challenges

The evolving multi-chain ecosystem presents opportunities and challenges for the Maker protocol. Flossman believes MakerDAO has unique advantages and can continue to develop the ecosystem in the following ways:

• Deploying Rollups and side chains to address high Gas fees on Ethereum
• Allowing direct collateralization and minting of DAI on multiple chains and L2 to facilitate total supply growth
• Building cross-chain bridges and multi-chain channels
• Using native tokens on multiple chains as collateral, such as FTM, SOL, AVAX, etc., without the need for cross-chain bridges or wrapping

Challenges and risks faced include:

• Multiple versions of DAI may cause confusion in the community, especially for retail users
• The minting mechanism outside of the Ethereum base layer may encounter serious attack vectors, such as infinite minting and withdrawal to the Ethereum chain
• Cross-chain bridges may expose DAI to theft or loss, whether due to user error or bugs in the bridges
• The development of multiple chains may affect the total amount of L1 collateral
• The complexity of the overall liquidation mechanism will significantly increase

Flossman concluded that as collateral moves across multiple chains, Ethereum may eventually become the multi-chain settlement layer. However, as most transactions occur on L2, Maker must also manage risks and maintain DAI settlement in the multi-chain domain.