GnosisDAO has approved the transition of the Gnosis chain from a standalone layer-1 network to a ZK-verified Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) rollup.
GIP-153 received 123,158 GNOs in support, 54 voters against 115 and 151 abstentions, Gnosis Chain reported in an X post. Voting reached 123,425 GNOs, exceeding the quorum of 75,000.
under offerThe Gnosis chain’s validator set will be retired and the network will settle transactions on Ethereum, making the 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 necessary EEZ technology being ready.
The update will enable Gnosis chain-native smart contracts to call Ethereum and use the same transaction results, giving it access to Ethereum mainnet assets and liquidity in an “optimized” environment for consumers, a capability that the proposal says is not currently available in existing L2s.
Gnosis Chain will become the first production EEZ instance
EEZ is a framework for creating Ethereum-aligned rollups, developed by Gnosis and ZisK, funded by the Ethereum Foundation.
The initiative aims to unify Ethereum’s fragmented L2 ecosystem by enabling smart contracts across different rollups to run synchronously without relying on bridges. This 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.
The Gnosis chain will become the first deployed instance of this while retaining its existing application, Balance, and the xDAI gas token.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin previously raised concerns about 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 on Feb. 3 X post.
According to data from L2Beat, there are currently 22 Ethereum rollups safe $27.82 billion. Including Validium, Optimium and other scaling networks, the platform tracks a total of $34.88 billion in secured value.
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EEZ can reduce dependence on vulnerable infrastructure: Standard Chartered
According to Geoffrey Kendrick, Global Head of Digital Asset Research at Standard Chartered, EEZ can reduce reliance on blockchain bridges and increase activity within the Ethereum ecosystem.
“EEZs will have the advantage of reducing the need for bridges (where hacks are prone) and increasing resource utilization in the EVM chain,” he wrote in a report shared with Cointelegraph on May 28.
“Both of these could 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.
magazine: Ethereum’s EEZ can pull other blockchains into its orbit
