Gnosis, Zisk & EF Launch 'EEZ' to Unify Ethereum L2s

• Gnosis and Zisk have launched the Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) at the EthCC conference in Cannes, a framework designed to enable synchronous composability across rollups.
• The initiative is co-funded by the Ethereum Foundation, signaling a strategic focus on unifying the ecosystem and solving Layer 2 fragmentation.
• The EEZ uses ETH as its native gas token and relies on real-time ZK proving technology to allow transactions to span multiple chains simultaneously.

Unifying a Fragmented Ecosystem

The Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) aims to transform how Layer 2 networks interact with the mainnet and each other. According to Gnosis co-founder Friederike Ernst, the platform addresses a "fragmentation problem" rather than a scaling one. Each new Layer 2 typically creates an isolated "walled garden" with its own liquidity pool and bridge, leading to a splintered user experience. The EEZ framework allows smart contracts on connected rollups to call contracts on the Ethereum mainnet with the same security guarantees as native deployments.

Technical Breakthroughs in Interoperability

Central to the EEZ is a ZKVM capable of proving Ethereum blocks in real time. Jordi Baylina, the founder of Zisk and creator of Circom, noted that his team spent two years developing the proving stack required to make synchronous composability a reality. This technical foundation eliminates the need for additional bridging infrastructure. The project’s origins trace back to GnosisDAO governance discussions in February 2026, where the community explored converting the Gnosis Chain into a natively integrated Layer 2.

Strategic Alliances and Governance

The project is supported by the EEZ Alliance, an informal collective featuring prominent industry players:

• Aave (DeFi lending)
• Titan and Beaver Build (Block builders)
• Centrifuge (Real-world assets)
• xStocks (Tokenized equities)

The Ethereum Foundation’s involvement is particularly notable. After pausing its open grants program in mid-2025 to reduce its burn rate to 5% annually, the Foundation has prioritized projects that improve interoperability. The EEZ will be structured as a Swiss non-profit, with all software released as open-source. The long-term goal for the framework is governance minimization and eventual non-upgradability.