There has been some discussion in the past around the protocol minting dai and buying up assets on the open market like usdc and eth. Both of these asset types have disadvantages. Ethereum still is incredibly volatile and so is not a secure reserve currency. Usdc is stable, but is under regulatory and custodial jurisdiction. Neither of these tokens produce any yield.
We have also had some discussions about increasing dai reserves held by the protocol to allow us to sell dai on the market later when the peg breaks up, or to mute losses during market crashes without selling mkr on the market at a low price. However, holding dai in reserve reduces the total dai supply in circulation, and makes us more likely to break peg on the upside. There are also weird game theoretic issues during ES.
I propose we look into the MakerDAO providing liquidity to uniswap and holding uniswap tokens in reserve. This would mitigate many of the issues with the previously proposed solutions. Uniswap tokens are fully decentralized tokens, with relatively low volatility compared to ethereum and other base cryptocurrencies (volatility is square root of the underlying tokens), and provide a long term yield through trade fees. We also can hold twice as much reserve with the same liquidity impact as if we were to just hold dai through the dai-eth uniswap token.
Providing liquidity through uniswap in exchange for tokens would mean that any dai we print would not be unbacked. However, newly printed dai would not be overcollateralized, and since uniswap tokens are still somewhat volatile, the newly printed could become undercollateralized by the purchased assets. I believe this is a reasonable risk to take, since the yield over the long term should cause the assets purchased to accrue value relative to the dai minted. The best metaphor I can think of is that uniswap tokens are essentially cryptocurrency bonds.
An added bonus of all of this is that we support uniswap, and improve their liquidity, improving market efficiency. This also can improve the efficiency of our auctions since keepers will be able to recycle collateral more easily. Our auctions being more efficient means we are less likely to accrue losses during dramatic market events in the first place.