MakerDAO Founder Seeks $14 Million in MKR to Fight Climate Change
Rune Christensen, a longtime climate activist, wants public good codified as a “central purpose and value of MakerDAO.”
In the latest draft of the Pregame Maker Constitution — Rune Christensen, the founder of MakerDAO — requests 20,000 MKR tokens ($14 million) to be dedicated to a Scientific Sustainability Fund.
The Pregame Maker Constitution is a work-in-progress document that will shape Maker Governance prior to the launch of SubDAOs. The constitution will be a living document and be subject to updates and modifications.
In the document, Christensen notes that “MakerDAO will always share financial success with the world through charity that is distributed broadly and with thoughtful and genuine consideration of its impact.”
This practice would be implemented through a Purpose System, to be established by the Constitution and designed to allocate tokens to charities that will have a meaningful and verifiable impact.
Among the many charitable causes, Christensen highlights the importance of Scientific Sustainability — which he describes as a “core principle of the Maker Constitution that recognizes the unique, critical relationship between financial infrastructure and the global environmental risks of climate change.”
Stressing the catastrophic disasters that could result from climate change, Christensen empathizes that “immediate action is required,” and therefore asks DAO members to fund awareness campaigns and educational programs on energy solutions over decades.
“The Scientific Sustainability Fund is a temporary measure and will wind down and be fully replaced by the Purpose System in 2040,” he said.
Despite Christensen’s good intentions, MakerDAO Governance participant LongForWisdom responded in the proposal’s forum discussion that the Constitution should not contain reasoning and only contain rules.
Though noting that explanations could be used in speeches or to convince someone to approve a proposal, he said, “it creates ambiguity that weakens the document as what is essentially part of a legal code.”
On Twitter, the proposal has also drawn critiques. Eden Au, a research director at The Block, tweeted that, “Rune has gone full Effective Altruism.” With many other Twitter users noting that Christensen should “use his own money instead of the MKR treasury,” to achieve objectives that are arguably personal and political.
Christensen’s passion for climate activism is well known. He previously published documents on MakerDAO’s governance forum on “The case for Clean Money,” and has participated in earlier conversations, stating that the Maker Endgame plan is not only the last chance for the DeFi protocol — it could be the last chance for humanity, too.
Christensen did not immediately respond to Blockworks’ request for comment.
