GnosisDAO Approves Gnosis Chain Transition to ZK-Proven Ethereum Economic Zone Rollup

GnosisDAO approved Gnosis Chain’s transition from a standalone layer-1 network to a ZK-proven Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) rollup.

GIP-153 received 123,158 GNO in support, 115 against and 151 abstaining across 54 voters, Gnosis Chain said in an X post. Turnout reached 123,425 GNO, exceeding the 75,000 quorum.

Under the proposal, Gnosis Chain’s validator set would be retired and the network would settle transactions on Ethereum, making Gnosis Chain a layer-2 (L2) that relies on Ethereum’s validators for settlement.

An initial launch is targeted for late 2026 or early 2027, subject to the required EEZ technology being ready.

The update would enable Gnosis Chain-native smart contracts to call Ethereum and use the result in the same transaction, giving it access to Ethereum mainnet assets and liquidity in an environment “optimized” for consumers, a capability the proposal says is not currently available on existing L2s.

Gnosis Chain to become first production EEZ instance

The EEZ is a framework for building Ethereum-aligned rollups, developed by Gnosis and ZisK, with funding from the Ethereum Foundation.

The initiative aims to unify Ethereum’s fragmented L2 ecosystem by enabling smart contracts across different rollups to execute synchronously without relying on bridges. It targets one of Ethereum’s main scaling trade-offs: improved throughput from dozens of L2 networks, which separate liquidity, infrastructure, and user activity across separate blockchains.

Gnosis Chain would become its first deployed instance while retaining its existing applications, balances and xDAI gas token.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin previously raised concerns about the centralized sequencers and trusted bridging mechanisms as potential weak points in the design of some L2 networks. “The original vision of L2s and their role in Ethereum no longer makes sense, and we need a new path,” Buterin wrote in a Feb. 3 X post.

According to data from L2Beat, 22 Ethereum rollups currently secure $27.82 billion. Including validiums, optimiums and other scaling networks, the platform tracks $34.88 billion in total value secured.

EEZ could reduce reliance on vulnerable infrastructure: Standard Chartered

EEZ could reduce reliance on blockchain bridges and increase activity within the Ethereum ecosystem, according to Geoffrey Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered.

“The EEZ will have the benefit of reducing the need for bridges (where hacks tend to occur) and increasing the usability of assets in EVM chains,” he wrote in a May 28 report shared with Cointelegraph.

“Both of these are likely to lead to greater activity in the Ethereum ecosystem.”

Kendrick said the EEZ could create greater composability between assets, allowing smart contracts on different participating networks to interact within the same transaction.