There is tension between MakerDAO and the broader Ethereum community due to MakerDAO's founder opting to fork Solana for an upcoming appchain transition. Consequently, MKR, MakerDAO's governance token, dropped by 5.6% following Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin selling 500 MKR for 353 ETH, or $580,000, in response to the news.

Buterin then engaged in Reflexer's Discord server to contribute to building RAI, an ETH-backed competitor to MakerDAO's DAI stablecoin. He proposed Reflexer accept minority liquid staking tokens (LSTs) to bolster its presence in Ethereum's stablecoin domain amidst Maker's departure from the network.

According to Buterin, RAI should have an active role in governance and support secondary forms of staked ETH, with Lido currently dominating almost three-quarters of the liquid staking landscape.

MakerDAO Co-Founder Rune Christensen recently presented his thesis advocating for MakerDAO's forthcoming appchain deployment on a fork of the Solana codebase. He emphasized Solana's upgradability, safety through multiple clients, and projects' adherence to specific appchain rules. Christensen favors Solana over Cosmos for this purpose.

Christensen had previously outlined his plan for appchain transition as the final stage of Maker's ongoing Endgame overhaul. This process involves launching a new network tailored for organizing MakerDAO, restructuring MKR and DAI tokens into specialized subDAOs, and revising governance procedures.

NewChain facilitates handling eight years of protocol technical debt, allowing all protocol segments to fulfill their roles in the permanent Endgame technical design. Christensen anticipates appchain deployment within the next three years.

This shift comes amidst growing interest in appchains as a solution for applications requiring fast, cost-effective transactions and high throughput. Notably, dYdX's community recently proposed transitioning from Ethereum to a Cosmos-oriented Layer 1, while Aave's Lens protocol utilizes Momoka, a Layer 3 appchain controlled by Ethereum, for decentralized social media.