MakerDAO co-founder floats using Solana’s code to build new chain

Rune Christensen’s latest MakerDAO proposal explores a Solana fork to launch a new blockchain

article-image

dRender/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Rune Christensen, MakerDAO’s co-founder, suggested that a forthcoming appchain dedicated to the DeFi lending protocol could be built using the codebase of Solana.

That new appchain is part of the so-called Endgame plan, as previously reported by Blockworks. The plan is intended to improve MakerDAO governance and ensure that the protocol itself becomes more self-sustainable. It’s been in the works since May 2022, with the “Maker Constitution” receiving approval earlier this year. 

Endgame itself is split into five phases. The final phase — Phase 5 — will deploy a new chain, now known as NewChain, as a hub for the backend tools supporting MakerDAO. 

Read more: Takeaways From MakerDAO’s 5-phase Endgame Update

“The most important reason for why NewChain is needed, is that it will allow the ecosystem to use hard forks to gracefully recover from the most severe form of governance attacks or technical failures,” Christensen wrote in an ecosystem discussion post on Friday

“After having researched all the different options available to act as the foundation for NewChain, I believe that the Solana stack is the most promising codebase to explore further,” Christensen went on to write. 

He argued that the code is “engineered well and benefits from being designed long after the bottlenecks and challenges of blockchains were already well understood.”

If the MakerDAO community voted in favor of the proposal, Christensen suggested that a “symbiotic relationship” be formed between MakerDAO and the existing Solana community. 

This could be achieved through maintaining an independent client or providing funding to the Solana ecosystem, he said.

“It would be strategically beneficial to ensure there is a Two-Stage Gravity Bridge from NewChain to Solana alongside the bridge from NewChain to Ethereum,” he wrote. “It would also provide a useful boost to the network effect of the entire multichain economy.” 

Aside from a Solana fork, Christensen argued that the only other contender for launching Maker’s new app chain would be the Cosmos SDK.

The downside, he said, is that the Cosmos ecosystem is not as efficient as Solana, which may make it more expensive to maintain over time. 

“Cosmos also doesn’t have a strong central foundation organization like Solana has, which could be either a good or bad thing,” Christensen wrote.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Featured.png

Research

Helium stands at a pivotal moment in its evolution as a decentralized wireless network, balancing rapid growth, economic restructuring, and global expansion. With accelerated growth in domestic DAUs and Hotspots supporting its network, Helium is leveraging strategic partnerships and innovative proposals to scale internationally. The recent implementation of HIP 138, “Return to HNT,” has unified its token economy under HNT, simplifying participation and strengthening liquidity, while HIP 139’s phase-out of CBRS refocuses efforts on scalable Wi-Fi offload. Meanwhile, governance shifts under HIP 141 raise questions about centralization as Nova Labs consolidates control over the roadmap.

article-image

The asset surged over the past seven days to reach its highest-ever weekly close on the SOL/ETH pair

article-image

Industry watchers note that SOL ETFs have attracted a fraction of the demand for bitcoin and ether ETFs

article-image

Tariff swings impact stock market and company outlooks, with Apple and NVidia likely to be affected by China tariffs

article-image

The team says an attacker minted unclaimed tokens from ZKsync’s 2024 airdrop

article-image

The MIT research-based protocol is live in private testnet — laying the foundation for decentralized RAM

article-image

The Balkan micronation went from Bitcoin economy to blockchain buzzwords in 10 years