Request AMA with Amy Jung, Head of Community Dev at Maker Foundation

Read the full transcript of the AMA with the Maker Foundation below where we discussed about the purpose of MakerDao, their stable coin (the Dai), their transition to be more decentralized as an organization, and more.

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👋 Request enthusiasts,

For this AMA on Telegram was with the Maker Foundation where we invited Amy Jung, Head of Community of Development at Maker, to share with us a deep insight on their recent and upcoming developments at the Maker Foundation. Leading the AMA session was our Head of Strategic Partnership at Request, Christophe Fonteneau. As you know, the Maker Foundation has been a partner and client of Request for a while now and we couldn’t be happier to have them share some exciting news to our community.

———— AMA session begins ————

Q1: Can you introduce yourself to the community and how you got into crypto/blockchain?

Amy:
Hi everyone! My name is Amy Jung from Maker.

My story starts in 2017, when I ran a Design x Blockchain event series for Raw Haus, a creative-tech organization I co-founded in New York. (Fun fact: Zac from BlockFi was a speaker!) I fell in love with Ethereum because the crypto community was quite small, but everyone was super willing to share their insights.

I got very curious about blockchain UX and how future organizations could be community owned (hello DAOs!). This curiosity and event series led me to enter crypto through designers — which led to an opportunity to lead Design Operations at Consensys.

I ended up at Maker by contributing as a PM to the Community Development team under Rich Brown, the Head of Community Development at Maker Foundation. When he left last year, I took over his role. As I spent more time interfacing between Maker Foundation and the wider community of MakerDAO, I ended up adding another role, proposing a team called Operational Support on the DAO side.

Christophe:
That’s quite a journey, Amy. What makes this industry so special is really all about the community! To that point, you have an important role especially for DAOs i.e. organizations governed and powered by the community.

Q2: While I’m sure many of us here already know and heard about Maker, we have the privilege today to hear it from you. Can you tell us more about MakerDAO and its mission?

Amy:
MakerDAO is a decentralized organization dedicated to bringing financial stability and transparency to the world economy. Its purpose is to create an inclusive platform for economic empowerment and unlock access to the global financial marketplace for all.

When I explain Maker, I like to describe the harmonious relationship between the three ‘P’s: the Protocol (Maker), Product (Dai), and People (Maker Foundation and MakerDAO):

MakerDAO governs the Maker Protocol and enables the generation of Dai, the world’s first decentralized, collateral-backed stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain. Dai mitigates volatility through an autonomous system of smart contracts called the Maker Protocol, and through decentralized community governance by MakerDAO.

MakerDAO is the Distributed Autonomous Organization that governs the Maker Protocol. The MakerDAO Community encompasses the several groups actively participating in or using Maker. Group like Contributors, Integration Partners, Maker Foundation Employees, and stakeholders in Maker Governance (MKR Holders, Keepers, Market Makers, Vault Owners, Teams voted in by Governance).

The Maker Foundation is a member of the Maker Community. The Foundation is composed of team members who have dedicated themselves to the task of bootstrapping MakerDAO to fuel growth and drive the organization toward complete decentralization.

The original concept for Dai, called “eDollars”, was introduced by the founders via Reddit in 2015 and was one of the first projects to launch on Ethereum. Today, Maker Protocol is one of Ethereum’s most successful DeFi applications, with nearly 800 apps or services integrated with Dai or the Protocol! If you want to hear more, the “One Billion Dai” celebratory blog post from the Maker Foundation Marcomms team tells the story wonderfully. https://blog.makerdao.com/zero-to-one-billion-dai-five-years-of-growth-for-makerdao/

Christophe:
Wow, I love this explanation with the 3Ps and how you elaborated on the MakerDAO community and the role of the foundation. Thanks for sharing the link, Maker is definitely a leader in crypto and the DeFi movement since its inception. On top of being Ethereum native, we actually share the same DNA: having a foundation with the ambition to become a DAO in the future.

Q3: You were talking about the Dai and its original concept called “eDollars”, can you explain to us what you guys are trying to solve and particularly with the Dai?

Amy:
MakerDAO was built to provide anyone, anywhere with a better, unbiased, transparent way to participate in the global financial system.

Since its inception, I’ve heard such a diverse range of stories on how people use Dai and the Maker Protocol. Dai lives completely on the blockchain, making it borderless and available to anyone, anywhere. Dai extends the power of traditional currency with the benefits of the blockchain: it can be freely sent to others, used as payments for goods and services, or locked in a smart contract to earn savings. Someone from one part of the world might leverage the Maker Protocol to collateralize real world assets: https://forum.makerdao.com/t/mip13c3-sp4-declaration-of-intent-commercial-points-off-chain-asset-backed-lender-to-onboard-real-world-assets-as-collateral-for-a-dai-loan/3914 while someone in another country may use Dai to buy art and coffee.

Recently, I met a high school student, Reva, who was really excited about Maker. She told me she educated her economics teacher on Dai and how it maintains stability. Her eyes went wide as she talked about MakerDAO leveling the economic playing field for underserved communities. What’s exciting to me is that everyone, like Reva, sees a different purpose and value Maker brings for them and their communities.

Christophe:
A story like that puts forward an optimistic future with the younger generation learning earlier about the importance of blockchain and decentralized networks.

Q4: Talking about the future, what’s next for MakerDAO? Can you tell us a bit about upcoming projects in your roadmap?

Amy:
At this point, the community drives most developments. I can go on about some really exciting community driven initiatives that are in the works, such as the further diversification of collateral through Real World Assets, updates to governance (MKR delegation!), and the development of the DAO organization structure through proposed teams called core units.

Anyone can join and participate in the development of MakerDAO. If you’re curious on how to participate or learn about what’s coming next, hop into one of our weekly Thursday Governance and Risk calls to get updates in real time. https://forum.makerdao.com/c/governance/gnr/8.

From the Maker Foundation point of view, we’re primarily focused on the last phase of our decentralization journey, handing over Protocol responsibilities to the community as we approach the intended dissolution.

Christophe:
I’m still amazed by this last stage of decentralization you’re describing, from a foundation to a set of decentralized core units. We’re super glad to partner with you guys .

Q5: Can you share with us a bit about your experience with Request?

Amy:
Maker Foundation has worked with Request for a while. We’ve done hundreds of invoices through you all. I love our story on the Request site! https://www.request.finance/use-cases/makerdao

Fast forward, as the Foundation winds down, Request has the opportunity to provide services to any of the teams in the DAO. Excited to have you presenting to our DAO teams tomorrow! https://forum.makerdao.com/t/core-unit-tools-06-through-request-april-23rd-16-00-utc/7453

Christophe:
I’m looking forward to presenting Request to the different core units! (Watch the full presentation).

We’re here to serve crypto first companies, DeFis and DAOs, powering ecosystem transactions.

Building a suite of financial dApps dedicated to DeFis and DAOs, we’re always eager to build products together with our partners in order to add value to the DeFi ecosystem and the future of finance.

The best example was the development of Request invoicing App, our first product which was developed with Maker as a sparring partner .

Q6: Before we open the session to the public for questions, can you tell us what’s the best way to stay in the know-how with MakerDAO?

Amy:
Anyone can join and participate in the development of MakerDAO.

Our forum is incredibly active, and a great source to follow everything that’s happening. If you prefer summaries, we also have a community contributor resource, Maker Relay (also available in Spanish)which summarizes weekly MakerDAO activity.

If you’re curious on how to participate or learn about what’s coming next, hop into one of our weekly *Thursday* Governance and Risk calls to get updates in real time. https://forum.makerdao.com/c/governance/gnr/8.

And of course, we have our Rocketchat.

Christophe:
Thanks a lot Amy for all these info!

Q7: We’re Dai-ing to ask: are there any legal challenges that could come up for stablecoins like Dai in the future?

Amy:
Great pun 😉 we actually had some conversations about this recently here.

Of course it really depends on the jurisdiction and I’m definitely not a lawyer so I don’t have the exact answer, but as you can see we have some smart lawyers in our community. We have someone who has been interested in building a legal core unit – as a network of lawyers that the DAO can connect to.

Q8: Besides for invoicing purposes – can you provide an idea how the core units could leverage the Request Network?

Amy:
Yes, each core unit has their own operational setup. They have their own entities or businesses. So actually, each core unit can leverage Request Network and its products. Some would use it to pay their employees while some may use it to track their expenses.

Christophe:
This can be either invoicing or future products like expense management, payroll, accounting, etc.

Q9: Is there a feature for Request Invoicing which you would consider a real game changer for invoicing and could be added in the future? Especially regarding the fragmentation with the core units.

Christophe:
We’ve been asked by contractors and organizations if there were an escrow feature to lock funds and implementing decentralized conflict resolution using Kleros or Aragon court. So yes, there are definitely game changer features. We’re working on the ideal set up for crypto-first companies using Gnosis multisig and Request for their financial operations.

Amy:
From Maker Foundation’s experience with Request Network, it’s the notifications. It seems so simple, but for crypto / on-chain requests and payments, it’s awesome and saved us so much time. For the future, it would be multi managers having easy access for different people to approve and payout transactions. We currently use Request Network and Gnosis and it’s been a smooth experience; crypto future all the way!

Q10: Are there use cases other than invoicing that both organisations could team up for?

Christophe:
Request serves crypto-first businesses with its invoicing solution. Naturally, businesses prefer stable coins for their daily operations, and Dai is the number one currency transacted on Request.

Q11: Will we see more products from Request in the near future? Or are there third parties interested in building on the network?

Christophe:
We’re the ones building on the network now, and of course developing new features. These features can be found in our roadmap.

Q12: Is there any government that reached out to Maker or the other way around?

Amy:
That’s probably a question best suited for others at Maker Foundation, but we’re all certainly aware of various government developments around crypto.

For example, we gave a grant to Koletivo/CuraDAO, which is developing a stable digital currency for the country of Curacao. That team is talking to the Central Bank of Curaçao. They’ve asked Maker to potentially join those conversations.

———— AMA session ends ————

That’s the end of our AMA session with the Maker Foundation. Stay tuned for more to come!

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About the Maker Foundation

The Maker Foundation is tasked with bootstrapping MakerDAO to fuel growth and drive the organization toward complete decentralization. While the Foundation provided development support through the launch of Multi-Collateral Dai (MCD), it is currently spearheading efforts to decentralize development. The Foundation is a part of the Maker Community, MakerDAO consists of the whole Maker Community, plus the Maker Protocol (ie. smart contracts, Dai, oracles, governance).

About Request Network

Request (REQ) is an open network for transaction and payment requests built on Ethereum. It’s first product, Request Invoicing, allows anyone from freelancers to small businesses and organizations to create, store and access invoices and receipts in a universal, decentralized network. Users can easily send professional, secured, compliant invoices and receive payments in traditional currencies like USD and EUR — or digital currencies such as USDC, DAI and USDT among many others in the list.