DAI IS NOW LIVE!
On 18 December 2017, MakerDAO launched Dai on the Ethereum mainnet. The original Single-Collateral Dai system made a dollar-targeting cryptocurrency available to use, with Ether providing the backing. Its launch announcement supplied the simple headline on this card: Dai is now live!
Creating Dai began with collateral. Ether was pooled into PETH, which could be deposited in a Collateralized Debt Position, or CDP. Generating Dai created a corresponding debt and locked the collateral. A user needed to repay the debt and the applicable stability fee before recovering all the collateral.
The system required collateral worth more than the debt it supported. That buffer mattered because Ether's price could move sharply. Risk parameters and liquidation mechanisms were part of the design. Dai's one-dollar target was a soft peg, maintained through the system's incentives and controls rather than an unconditional guarantee.
For people using Ethereum, the launch offered a different kind of asset to send, spend or build applications around. The unit aimed to stay near a familiar dollar value even while the collateral beneath it fluctuated. This card marks the first production system, before the later expansion to multiple collateral types.
HISTROVE imagines that engineering challenge as a glass experiment. A professor pours violet and gold into connected vessels; a locked valve and a dollar-target dial sit between them. The larger violet column suggests a collateral buffer. The character, liquids and apparatus are symbolic, not a portrait or a literal diagram of how Dai was created.
Sources & the artist’s interpretation
Sources: MakerDAO: Dai is now live, 18 December 2017 ; MakerDAO: original Dai Stablecoin System whitepaper . The professor and glass experiment are artistic interpretations. Liquid mixing is not Dai's technical mechanism. The $1 figure is a soft-peg target, not a guarantee. The phrase reproduces the launch headline in capitals.
