Maker's core accounting design records collateral and debt inside the Vat contract. A vault is a position with locked collateral and normalized debt, while each collateral type has parameters such as a debt ceiling, minimum debt, and a price adjusted for its safety margin. Borrowing changes both the user's position and the system's accounting. This differs from transferring a pre-existing bank deposit: the stablecoin liability is created within a collateral and debt mechanism whose rules constrain the amount that can be issued.

A collateral type's debt-scaling factor converts normalized debt into the amount owed after accrued fees. If a vault becomes insufficiently collateralized, the liquidation system transfers its collateral and debt into the protocol's liquidation process. The documented Liquidation 2.0 design uses Dutch auctions: the offered price changes over time, and a buyer can settle a purchase immediately at the applicable price. Auction liquidity, oracle inputs, and governance parameters matter because recording collateral is different from realizing enough proceeds to cover a debt during market stress.

Sky's documentation describes the evolution from MakerDAO and the move from MKR-based governance to SKY-based governance. Dai and USDS remain distinct token contracts connected by a documented one-for-one conversion route. Describing Dai as simply renamed can therefore mislead someone checking an address or an old transaction: the contract and conversion path still matter. The Maker name remains useful for understanding historical vault mechanics, while current token rights, governance contracts, and migration conditions should be checked in the applicable Sky documentation.