Maker

Maker (MKR) is the governance token of the MakerDAO and Maker Protocol, which are a decentralized organization and software platform respectively, both built on the Ethereum blockchain. The primary function of the Maker ecosystem is to allow users to issue and manage the DAI stablecoin. Conceived in 2015 and fully launched in 2017, Maker is one of the earliest projects in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, which aims to build decentralized financial products on top of smart contract-enabled blockchains like Ethereum. MKR tokens act as a form of voting shares for the organization that oversees the DAI stablecoin. While MKR holders do not receive dividends, they do have voting rights over the development and changes to the Maker Protocol. This voting power is expected to increase the value of MKR tokens as the DAI stablecoin gains more adoption and success. Some of the key aspects that MKR holders can vote on include adding new collateral asset types for minting DAI, amending the risk parameters of existing collateral types, changing the DAI Savings Rate, choosing the oracles that provide off-chain data to the Maker ecosystem, and approving upgrades to the Maker platform. This level of governance participation is a unique proposition of the Maker ecosystem.