Developers at Gnosis and Zisk, with support from the Ethereum Foundation, have proposed a new framework aimed at unifying Ethereum’s fragmented layer-2 ecosystem by enabling rollups to seamlessly interact with each other and the mainnet in a single transaction.
According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the proposed “Ethereum Economic Zone” (EEZ) would allow smart contracts on different rollups to execute synchronously on the network without relying on bridges.
The initiative targets a key trade-off in Ethereum’s scaling strategy, where dozens of layer-2 networks have improved throughput but fragment liquidity, infrastructure, and user activity across separate environments.
If implemented, the framework will let applications share infrastructure in rollups when falling back on Ethereum, reducing duplication and the need for cross-chain transfers.
The project is being developed in collaboration with Ethereum researchers and industry participants, with early contributors including infrastructure providers and DeFi protocols exploring a shared standard for interoperable rollups.
Technical details and performance benchmarks are expected in the coming weeks as the group begins to outline how the framework will be implemented and adopted across the broader Ethereum ecosystem.
The proposal also introduces an “EEZ Alliance,” a group of ecosystem participants that seeks to coordinate and support the adoption of standards as Ethereum’s scaling architecture continues to evolve.
Gnosis is an early Ethereum infrastructure developer. Zisk is a zero-knowledge proving project led by Polygon zkEVM creator Jordi Bylina.
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Ethereum’s rollup model sparks debate over fragmentation and scaling
The proposal comes amid an ongoing debate within the Ethereum community over the trade-offs of its rollup-focused roadmap. While layer-2 networks have expanded the capacity of the ecosystem, they have also fragmented liquidity and user activity into separate environments.
Data from L2BEAT shows that more than 20 active layer-2 networks secure approximately $40 billion in total value, with liquidity distributed across networks such as Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism. Instead of consolidating activity, Ethereum’s scaling model has created a scenario of parallel execution environments.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has raised concerns about the design of some layer-2 networks, pointing to centralized sequencers and trusted bridging mechanisms as potential weak points.
“The original vision of L2 and its role in Ethereum no longer makes sense and we need a new path forward,” Buterin said in a Feb. 3 post.
Buterin’s comments drew mixed reactions from layer-2 builders, reflecting divisions over the future role of rollups.
Optimism co-founder Carl Floersch acknowledged that L2 must evolve beyond simple scaling, citing existing technical limitations, while Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Offchain Labs, developer of Arbitrum, argued that scaling remains a core task as rollouts continue to handle higher transaction throughput than Ethereum.
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