MakerDAO Onboarded Another Protocol to Its Keeper Network

DeFi lending protocol MakerDAO has onboarded crypto oracle Chainlink to its Keeper Network on the heels of a vote by the DAO’s native token holders.

The Keeper Network is an interface used by MakerDAO to interact with third-party protocols to maintain Maker’s DAI — including oracles and liquidating vaults.

“If a failure occurs in one of these systems, it could cause the end of DAI,” the company said in a post on its website.

Existing protocols in the Keeper Network include TechOps, Keep3r Network and Gelato Network.

Now, with the addition of Chainlink’s oracle framework to Maker’s tech stack, DAI is set to have an added layer of security as it participates in the networks’ verification and maintenance process.

Nadia Álvarez of MakerDAO’s Growth Core Unit said the Market Network is underpinned by “sophisticated technology and tools that quietly but constantly run in the background to ensure DAI’s stability.”

“This network of automated bots perform essential tasks to maintain the Maker protocol and will be greatly expanded through the integration with Chainlink’s renowned, hyper-reliable automation platform,” Álvarez said in a statement.

The chainlink automation on Maker’s protocol will manage price updates, liquidity balancing and debt ceiling upgrades, according to the company.

Johann Eid, a vice president at Chainlink Labs, said that “as more and more traditional financial institutions partner with MakerDAO and assess the applicability of DeFi, the required underlying infrastructure becomes increasingly complex.”

Added Eid: “Integrating Chainlink with MakerDAO demonstrates the necessity for highly performant automation infrastructure and indicates a prosperous future for decentralized financial services.”

Maker eyeing crypto credit liquidity boost

MakerDAO participants are also in the process of looking into creating Spark Protocol — a new liquidity market for lending and borrowing DAI.

This new protocol’s first product — Spark Lend (SL)— would allow anyone to borrow DAI at the Dai Savings Rate (DSR) of 1%.

Collateral accepted by the SL will be highly liquid, according to a Maker proposal. This is so that the product will not compete with markets that offer “tail assets.”

Accepted collateral at launch would include, at least, DAI, ETH and Lido’s wsETH, as well as WTBC and DRC-locked DAI, with plans to include fixed-term crypto yield products and Maker’s synthetic liquid staking derivative (LSD), EtherDAI.

“By focusing on highly liquid, decentralized assets with large market caps, SL will aim to be the most secure platform in all of DeFi,” the proposal said.

Spark would utilize Aave v3’s smart contract — and if given the green light by the Maker community, will be giving 10% of its protocol earnings to Aave for two years.

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