Developers from Gnosis and Zisk, supported by the Ethereum Foundation, have put forward a new framework called the Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) designed to unify Ethereum’s fragmented layer-2 landscape. The proposal would allow smart contracts operating on different rollups to execute synchronously across networks within a single transaction. Crucially, the system would not depend on bridges to facilitate these cross-network interactions. The announcement was shared with Cointelegraph.
The initiative directly addresses a central tension in Ethereum’s scaling strategy. While dozens of layer-2 networks have significantly increased transaction throughput, they have simultaneously divided liquidity, infrastructure, and user activity across isolated environments. The EEZ framework aims to let applications share infrastructure across rollups while still settling back to the Ethereum mainnet, reducing duplication and the reliance on cross-chain transfers.
An accompanying body called the EEZ Alliance has also been proposed to coordinate standards and encourage adoption across the broader ecosystem. The project is being developed alongside Ethereum researchers and industry participants, with early contributors including infrastructure providers and DeFi protocols. Technical details and performance benchmarks are expected to be released in the coming weeks as the group begins outlining implementation and adoption pathways.
Gnosis is a long-standing Ethereum infrastructure developer, while Zisk is a zero-knowledge proving project led by Jordi Baylina, the creator of Polygon zkEVM. The proposal arrives at a moment of active debate within the Ethereum community about the direction of its rollup-centric roadmap. Data from L2BEAT shows more than 20 active layer-2 networks collectively securing nearly $40 billion in total value, with liquidity spread across networks including Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has previously raised concerns about the design of certain layer-2 networks, pointing to centralized sequencers and trusted bridging mechanisms as potential vulnerabilities. In a February 3 post on X, Buterin stated that the original vision for layer-2 networks and their role in Ethereum no longer holds, calling for a new path forward. His remarks suggested the ecosystem may need to fundamentally reconsider how rollups contribute to Ethereum’s scaling model.
Buterin’s comments drew a range of responses from layer-2 developers, highlighting a divide over the future role of rollups. Karl Floersch, co-founder of Optimism, acknowledged that layer-2 networks must evolve beyond simple scaling and pointed to ongoing technical limitations. Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Offchain Labs, the developer behind Arbitrum, countered that scaling remains a core function, noting that rollups continue to handle higher transaction throughput than Ethereum itself. The differing views reflect broader uncertainty about how Ethereum’s multi-layer architecture should develop going forward.
Originally reported by CoinTelegraph.
