Gnosis, Zisk and the Ethereum Foundation have jointly proposed a framework to unify Ethereum's fragmented layer-2 ecosystem. The initiative, announced at the EthCC conference in Cannes, is called the Ethereum Economic Zone, or EEZ. It would allow different layer-2 networks to interact with each other and with the Ethereum mainnet within a single transaction, without requiring bridges.

Friederike Ernst, co-founder of Gnosis, framed the problem the framework targets. "Ethereum doesn't have a scaling problem. It has a fragmentation problem. Every new L2 is a silo that makes it harder to seamlessly extend and drive value back to the Ethereum mainnet," she said in a statement shared with CoinDesk.

Why does fragmentation matter?

Ethereum has relied on layer-2 networks to expand transaction capacity for several years. Those networks reduced congestion on mainnet, but they also split liquidity, user activity and developer infrastructure across separate environments. Moving assets between them requires bridges, which can be slow, expensive and carry security risks. Developers often rebuild the same tools independently on each network.

Data from L2BEAT shows more than 20 active layer-2 networks currently securing nearly $40 billion in total value. That capital is spread across networks including Arbitrum, Base and Optimism. Rather than concentrating activity, Ethereum's scaling model has produced parallel but disconnected environments.

How would the EEZ framework work?

Under the proposal, smart contracts on different rollups would execute synchronously across networks. Applications would share infrastructure across chains while settling back to Ethereum. The system would continue to use ETH as the primary token for fees, with no new token introduced.

The proposal also establishes an EEZ Alliance, a group of ecosystem participants tasked with coordinating standards and supporting adoption. The project is being developed with input from Ethereum researchers, infrastructure providers and DeFi protocols.

Gnosis is a longtime Ethereum infrastructure developer. Zisk is a zero-knowledge proving project led by Jordi Baylina, who also created Polygon zkEVM. Technical details and performance benchmarks are expected in the coming weeks.

What does this mean for the rollup roadmap debate?

The announcement follows renewed debate within the Ethereum community over its rollup-centric roadmap. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wrote in a Feb. 3 post on X that "the original vision of L2s and their role in Ethereum no longer makes sense, and we need a new path."

His comments drew split responses from layer-2 developers. Karl Floersch, co-founder of Optimism, said L2s need to evolve beyond their current form. Steven Goldfeder, co-founder of Offchain Labs, the developer behind Arbitrum, argued that scaling remains a core function because rollups continue to handle higher transaction volumes than the Ethereum mainnet itself.

The operational stakes are concrete. If synchronous cross-rollup execution becomes viable, applications could share liquidity and infrastructure rather than fragmenting it, and bridge-related security risk — a recurring vector for multi-million-dollar exploits across the L2 sector — would be reduced for transiting assets. The absence of a new token also signals the proposal is positioned as infrastructure, not a product launch.

Whether the EEZ Alliance can align competing rollup operators on shared standards remains the open question. Technical documentation and performance benchmarks expected in the coming weeks will determine whether the framework moves from concept to implementable specification.