TL;DR
- GnosisDAO approved the migration of Gnosis Chain to an Ethereum Economic Zone rollup with ZK proofs, with 123,158 GNO in favor.
- Proposal GIP-153 surpassed the 75,000 GNO quorum and plans to retire the network’s own validator set to settle on Ethereum.
- The initial launch is scheduled for late 2026 or early 2027, subject to EEZ technology being ready by then.
The GnosisDAO community approved the transition of Gnosis Chain from an independent layer 1 network toward an Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) rollup with zero-knowledge proofs.
Proposal GIP-153 received 123,158 GNO in favor, 115 against and 151 abstentions among 54 voters, with a total participation of 123,425 GNO that surpassed the required quorum of 75,000 GNO, as confirmed by Gnosis Chain in a post on X.
Under this framework, the network will retire its validator set and begin settling transactions directly on Ethereum, becoming a layer 2 network that relies on Ethereum’s validators for final settlement. The initial launch is projected for late 2026 or early 2027, contingent on the maturity of EEZ technology.
GnosisDAO has approved Gnosis Chain's transition from a standalone Layer 1 into a ZK-proven Ethereum Economic Zone rollup.
GIP-153 results: 123,158 for, 115 against, 151 abstaining, from 54 voters. Turnout was 123,425 against a quorum of 75,000. https://t.co/Pi18HOuE9G
— Gnosis (@gnosis_) August 19, 2026
Gnosis Chain: The First Production Network in the EEZ Ecosystem
The EEZ framework was developed by Gnosis and ZisK with funding from the Ethereum Foundation and aims to unify Ethereum’s layer 2 network ecosystem. Its central objective is to allow smart contracts across different rollups to execute transactions synchronously without relying on cross-chain bridges, one of the main bottlenecks of the current scaling model. Gnosis Chain would become the first instance deployed in production within this framework, preserving its current applications, balances and the xDAI gas token.
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, had raised concerns about centralized sequencers and trusted bridge mechanisms as weak points in the design of some L2 networks. “The original vision of L2s and their role in Ethereum no longer makes sense, and we need a new path,” Buterin wrote in a post on X.
Greater Security and Composability
From Standard Chartered, Geoffrey Kendrick, global head of digital asset research, highlighted the potential of the EEZ. “The EEZ will have the benefit of reducing the need for bridges —where hacks tend to occur— and increasing asset usability across EVM chains,” he wrote.
According to Kendrick, the initiative could also generate greater composability between assets, allowing smart contracts across different participating networks to interact within a single transaction. Data from L2Beat shows that 22 Ethereum rollups currently secure $27.82 billion, a figure that rises to $34.88 billion when validiums, optimiums and other scaling networks are included.
