MAKER is paired with different coin, DAI which is pegged to the usd with a 1:1 value. Maker is the governance token for the plattform allowing holders to vote for changes made to the ecosystem and the smart contracts affecting the Dai token.
The ideas and foundation for the coin pair was first founded in 2015, the coin launced fairly recently in 2018 (late December 2017 in fact). The token pair was created by Danish Rune Crhistensen. The stablecoin was able to keep it's value pegged to 1$ for a full year despite ethereum declining sharply during that year. The coin has seen relative popularity despite it being very new, this is highly rare in the crypto scene as most coins reputation is built on trust. The only supported crypto at the launch and first year of MakerDao was ethereum, as of 2019 you can trade a variety of crypto as collateral.
Some noteworthy events in the short history of the coin starts in September 2018 when a venture capital firm by the name of Andreessen Horowitz which invested 15 million worth of funds by buying 6% of all Maker coins in cirrculation, causing a surge in value of the governance token. 2018 was also the year where the Maker Foundation was founded, which focuses on writing new code to help the MakerDAO system adapt. In 2019 there was an internal struggle with the development team as they were considering intergrating with the tradional banking system. The goal was to allow for further assets as colleteral for the Dai token outside the crypto scene, however this event caused the departure of the current CTO. The last noteworthy even was in March 2020 when the onset of coronavrius started, the crypto scene took a hit and alot of coins lost their value, this resulted in the Dai token being worth 1.11$, the token was later restored to it's orignal value.
The two coins work together to form the Maker DAO pair. The function and value of the two coins vary since one is a stablecoin with the other being a govenance token. They're both based on the ethereum blockchain with the value behind DAI's dollar value being a collateral of ethereum (or other supported cryptocurrencies). Whenver DAI is minted, it is done with a 1.5:1 ratio, meaning that 150$ of ethereum gives you 100$ worth of DAI. If the ratio of deposited ether ever exceeds a 1:1 ratio, the Dai will atuomatically be liquidated thanks to the smart contract. This prevents any Dai from being in the market without having atleast a 1:1 value backing it in some form of crypto. This sets the stablecoin apart from Tether as there is tangible value behind the stablecoin that can be proven, unlike Tether which has it's backing kept a secret. Whenever you repay the Dai back to the smart contract, the affected Dai tokens get burned as the collateral is returned.
The maker token is most likely the more important part of the pair as it allows for voting on changes made to the smart contracts and ecosystem. Any holder of at least 1 Maker token can propose and vote on changes to the code and smart contracts. One token counts as one vote, which means that any holder of a significant amount of Maker tokens has their voice count for more. Maker tokens also functions as an invesment into the MakerDAO system for any holders. Whenever a loan of Dai is paid back along with any interest, Maker tokens are automatically bought and burned. Thanks to this automatic function, Maker tokens are deflationary and increases in value over time, hence the high price for Maker tokens despite them being relatively new.
The use case for the stablecoin is fairly straight forward, it's a stable coin which allows for the storage of value without having to worry about volatility as it's pegged to the USD, this has a more stable value than all crypto and most stocks. You can buy and move crypto easily with this. Also it works as a loan system with crypto as colleteral, the money you are getting are as close to a USD without getting actual money.
The Maker works as an investment into the ecosystem with how the smart contracts are set up. Any changes that also takes place are also controlled by simply holding any Maker token and voting with it.
Maker and Dai are growing more popular by the day. It is a respected coin amongst all the unclear stablecoins on the crypto scene. Make ris also a token with a high value thanks to how it's token burn is set up. The tokens are moving towards being a stable foundation for the crypto scene, helping investors move around the crypto scene with relative ease.
