Gnosis and Zisk have put forward a framework called the Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) to align infrastructure across Ethereum‘s ecosystem. The proposal, announced on Sunday, describes a shared environment designed to address the fragmentation and limitations associated with layer-2 scaling networks. Gnosis co-founder Freisderike Ernst and Zisk co-founder Jordi Baylina are backing shared infrastructure as a potential remedy to the growing concern that layer-2 networks are siloing user activity.
Under the EEZ, layer-2 networks would operate within a common environment rather than functioning as isolated systems. This approach is intended to eliminate duplicative work among projects while improving the overall experience for users. By default, users would rely on ETH to pay for transactions across the zone, according to the two companies.
Transactions within the EEZ are set to be executed across multiple layer-2 networks as well as Ethereum’s mainnet, creating what the founders describe as a unified execution environment. Ernst stated that each new layer-2 network currently acts as a silo that makes it harder to extend value back to the Ethereum mainnet, and that the EEZ is designed to work in the opposite direction. Gnosis and Zisk argue that shared infrastructure reduces technical friction and associated risk for participants.
The initiative is receiving co-funding from the Ethereum Foundation, signaling the nonprofit’s interest in reshaping the relationship between Ethereum’s mainnet and its layer-2 alternatives. The broader context includes years of Ethereum’s community prioritizing layer-2 networks such as Base and Arbitrum to increase transaction capacity and reduce costs. However, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin called for a shift last month, arguing that projects compromising on decentralization do not represent true extensions of the ecosystem.
A recurring criticism within Ethereum’s community concerns centralized sequencers, which are used by many layer-2 networks. Under this design, a single party batches and processes transactions off-chain before submitting them to Ethereum’s mainnet. Critics contend that centralized sequencers create gatekeepers and capture fee revenue in ways that do not benefit the underlying network, though some projects view them as necessary for compliance.
The EEZ also addresses the practice of layer-2 networks issuing their own tokens as the sole means of paying transaction fees. Despite borrowing security from Ethereum’s mainnet, some layer-2 networks have pursued this route, and the EEZ framework would require participating networks to forgo it. The zone’s name is intended to be pronounced as the word “easy,” according to the announcement.
Gnosis and Zisk have not disclosed the full funding scope of the EEZ but plan to release technical specifications in the coming weeks. They also unveiled an EEZ Alliance that includes decentralized finance participants such as Aave and share tokenization specialist XStocks. Baylina noted that the EEZ will employ zero-knowledge proofs, a form of cryptography considered central to broader institutional adoption. Gnosis, established in 2015, has been contributing to Ethereum’s ecosystem since zero-knowledge proofs were still largely conceptual.
The announcement aligns with a broader shift at the Ethereum Foundation, which signaled last year that it would increase targeted funding for decentralized finance and privacy on Ethereum. At that time, the foundation noted that incumbent systems often apply subtle pressures that limit the design space available to developers. The EEZ represents one of the more concrete proposals to emerge from that evolving strategic direction.
Originally reported by Decrypt.
