March 2021 reporting for Real-World Finance Core Unit .
Review
MIP22/New-silver onboarding progress
We have a weekly 2-hours slot with Smart Contract team and Centrifuge to move forward on MIP22. Thanks to the work done by everyone, New Silver is now on Kovan. MIP22 was transformed to use MIP21. We have a final due diligence meeting with New Silver next Tuesday. They have already $3M of assets and are financing 10 loans.
More information will be shared next week.
No need to say how exciting it is. The first RWA investment by MakerDAO can happen in April.
Others collaterals
There is still a lot of action on other collaterals. Here is just a sample of some.
Consol Freight might follow soon New Silver (after checking that everything works and a bit of Lindy effect).
Harbor Trade Credit risk assessment should be published in April.
We had some calls with SolarX and some back-and-forth with them. It follows the trust model and we hope to onboard this one in June. Many parties are involved (landowners, equity investors, utilities) which might require strong coordination on this one.
Discussions with Peopleâs Company are in progress to find the best way to structure the deal.
Finally, good progress on FortunaFi which is a great opportunity to diversify.
Here is the full list of what is worked on and public.
We will work on a timeline for RWA onboarding. Internally first, then see how it could be incorporated by others teams and the Collateral Onboarding Sheet.
Legal
We have found a law firm that will be able to help us analyze legal structures. Their knowledge will be helpful when we will analyze the trust model legal documents.
Additionally, for the SPV models, we had a discussion with an SPV manager that can provide independent directors services to harden security while staying cost-effective. This increases the bankruptcy remoteness of the SPV. The independent manager will also search for a backup service should the original asset originator default. This will be mandatory for any sizable investment (meaning above a few million DAI).
Research - Crypto banking 101
This paper presents our findings on how the banking framework applies to crypto.
More precisely, it draws a link between our solvency (surplus buffer) and the deposit interest rate we might need to have (DSR).
Budget dashboard
There is now a budget dashboard so you can see the link between core unit expenses, the impact on the Surplus Buffer, and MKR dilution. The MKR framework working group will provide input to have something more precise but while waiting you can make simulations.
@Aes stepped up to continue working on this topic. Exciting to see that we have experts in all fields in the community.
Data infrastructure
Coming from a data science background (and setting up data infrastructures) I put high importance on having a good data environment. For instance, in the current financials presentation I make use of Dune Analytics, but maintaining queries are painful, not scalable, and limited (itâs a great tool, but not ideal to be the data warehouse of a $3B market cap organization). It takes me hours of error-prone copy-pasting for something that should be one refresh click on Excel.
On another topic, one important question is how many DAI withdrawals can we get if farming activities are stopping. How much of the DAI usage is non-speculative?
We spent the month discussing with a lot of possible providers. There are actually way more solutions than I was expecting but the space is still super early. There is also plenty of question on what do we want to achieve. For instance, we might want to have ownership to not depend on third parties that can break your work or disappear.
Obviously, if we want something good, there will be a cost.
In summary, super early, but very good discussions. If this is an area that interests you, or if you plan to submit a Data Core Unit, feel free to reach out. My goal is to have something to show for the end of the year.
Public work
- MakerDAO Finance presentation for March 2021.
- Crypto banking 101. This research paper tries to show how the banking framework applies to MakerDAO.
- Risk answer regarding the Surplus Buffer
Team composition
@SebVentures - Facilitator
@williamr - Full-time contributor
@Philinje - Part-time contributor
@jameskmccall - Community member/expert for farmlands
@christiancdpetersen - Community member/expert for energy-related project finance