404 Gov is a leading delegate across the Ethereum ecosystem. We actively contribute to many top protocols, including Uniswap, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Wormhole. Our team is dedicated to promoting sustainable governance practices, growth, and decentralization.
Our experience includes active participation in various working groups and councils/committees, including Arbitrum LTIPP, Optimism ACC, Arbitrum Onboarding Lead, and Arbitrum MSS.
Our Team:
404 Gov is led by Cole Schendl and Rika Goldberg. Other governance team members include 0xManny, 0xTraub, Kaleb Rasmussen, and Ryan Demattia. Our team possesses a diverse range of technical and non-technical skills, from analytics and business development to cybersecurity and MEV. You can learn more about our team here.
Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest:
404 Gov is an active delegate in Arbitrum, Optimism, Uniswap, Scroll, Morpho, NEAR, Rootstock and Wormhole. When necessary, we will disclose conflicts of interest and abstain from voting.
Reasoning: We voted FOR TPP-001 to fund the Ignite Program. We support initiatives that drive liquidity and asset growth on ZKsync and have confidence in the team and their approach.
Allocating 300M ZK tokens over nine months is a strategic and reasonable investment to attract liquidity and strengthen the Era chain’s market presence. The program’s design focuses on foundational infrastructure by targeting essential trading pairs and key asset pools, ensuring long-term sustainability.
Moreover, the Ignite Program incorporates critical elements often overlooked in incentive structures, including a dedicated marketing agency and built-in iteration cycles to refine strategies over time. We are excited to see Ignite play a pivotal role in kickstarting ecosystem incentives for ZKsync.
Reasoning: We voted FOR on ZIP-001, Protocol Defense, to implement a set of code quality improvements and optimizations for ZKsync Era. We support quality of life improvements that optimize security and are aligned with best practices in the Ethereum ecosystem.
[ZIP-002] Reduce the execution delay from 21 hours to 3 hours
Reasoning: We voted FOR on ZIP-002, to reduce the execution delay from 21 hours to 3 hours. Given the Security Council’s ability to initiate a soft freeze for 12 hours along with all council members under time-based SLA to address any potential issues leads us to support the execution delay decrease to 3 hours.
Reasoning: We voted FOR on ZIP-003, Resubmission of Protocol Defense. We understand that this resubmission of ZIP-001 was requested by the Security Council due to an error in the upgrade message sent from ZKsync Era to the L1.
[GAP-1] ZKsync Token Program Priorities 2025 Endorsement
Reasoning: We voted FOR on GAP-1 to endorse the Token Assembly’s 2025 ZK token allocation priorities. Establishing clear strategic priorities for evaluating Token Program Proposals is essential for the Token Assembly to allocate funds effectively and drive informed decision-making. We support the focus on accelerating ZKsync development, establishing a network of ZK chains, and positioning ZKsync as the home for elastic applications.
[ZIP-4] Reduce the execution delay from 21 hours to 3 hours
Reasoning: We voted FOR on ZIP-004, Reduce the execution delay from 21 hours to 3 hours. We understand that similar to the resubmission of ZIP-003, this resubmission of ZIP-004 was requested by the Security Council due to an error in the upgrade message sent from ZKsync Era to the L1.
Reasoning: We voted FOR this proposal. We support initiatives that enhance protocol security and protect user funds. Specifically, this proposal covers possible fund recovery during active exploits, a critical area not covered in ZKsync’s Bug Bounty Program.
Reasoning: We voted FOR this proposal to establish a new capped minter, ensuring that Aave users on ZKsync can claim their allotted airdrop tokens. Given the technical complexities involved in the original claims process, an extension is both necessary and justified. Furthermore, we support this extension because of Aave DAO’s commitment to utilizing the claimed tokens for user incentives on ZKsync, as well as to foster cross-protocol collaborations, strengthening Aave’s presence in the ZKsync ecosystem.
Reasoning: We voted FOR this proposal to upgrade governance contracts. Decreasing the initial voting delay from 7 to 3 days and quorum extension from 7 to 2 days will increase execution and implementation timelines for the DAO. Overall, we support initiatives that enhance governance systems, specifically those that streamline governance activities.
Reasoning: We voted FOR this proposal to prepare the ZKsync protocol for the upcoming ZK Gateway upgrade. We understand this proposal will support development customizations specifically around Elastic network chain support.
Reasoning: We voted FOR this proposal to include Lens Chain on the Elastic Network. As a thriving protocol, we are excited that Lens chose to migrate from Polygon to ZKSync. We appreciate the team’s commitment to a seamless transition while preserving users’ existing Lens profiles and their inclusion of block 0 specifications.
Reasoning: We voted FOR this proposal to update the chain creation parameters for new chains. This is an important upgrade that will unblock the creation of new chains after the ZIP-6 upgrade.
Reasoning: We voted FOR this proposal to enable the direct deployment and execution of EVM contracts on ZKsync without recompilation. This is an important upgrade that will improve the developer experience and improve security.
Reasoning: 4. We voted FOR this proposal to authorize the ZKsync Security Council to convert ETH, recovered from the April 2025 exploit of unclaimed airdrop tokens, back into ZK tokens. We support the Security Council executing its authority to convert the recovered ETH into ZK tokens.
Reasoning: We voted FOR this proposal to to reimburse security audit costs for successfully executed ZKsync Improvement Proposals (ZIPs) in 2025. We support proposals that enhance security and providing reimbursements for audits, a costly expense for projects, is a prudent use of the DAO’s funds.
[TPP-4] Deactivate Capped Minters for TPP-1 Ignite Program
Reasoning: We voted FOR this proposal to whitelist ZK Gateway chain as a settlement layer for the Elastic Network. We understand that this proposal will optimize pricing for ZK Chains by enabling them to receive more stable batch settling pricing, while allowing prices that are much cheaper than L1.
Reasoning: We voted FOR this proposal to implement key Ethereum precompiles directly in ZkVM. We support proposals that improve performance and reduce gas costs.
Reasoning: We voted FOR this proposal to fund the operations of the ZKsync Security Council for June and July. The Security Council plays a pivotal role in the DAO and after deliberation, we think it makes sense to approve this funding given the SC’s current SLA structure.
Reasoning: We voted FOR this proposal to fund 12 months of ZKsync Security Council operations. This proposal is an improvement over the previous structure and we support the 53% budget reduction.
We voted FOR this proposal to to fund the compensation of ZKsync Guardians for 2 years from the governance launch in September 2024 through to September 2026. After deliberation, we decided to support this proposal as it provides the necessary retro compensation for Guardians and includes runway.
We voted FOR this proposal to to fund three existing community initiatives and a Community RFP Pilot. We support using Treasury funds to support educational initiatives, both existing ones that have already shown traction and success, and new ones by qualified service providers. We are confident in the ZKSync Foundation to oversee strategy and approve funding for these initiatives.
Rationale: We voted FOR the ZKsync Prividium Prize Proposal. The timing of this proposal is opportune and should support Prividium strategy and acquisition efforts. Additionally, we are happy with the design of the eligibility requirements to receive rewards as well as the capped minter limits and structure. We look forward to future updates regarding Institutions adopting Prividium.
[TPP-9] ZKsync Prividium Roadshow
1.Proposal: Link
2.Vote: FOR
3.Rationale: We voted FOR the ZKsync Prividium Roadshow to allocate $25M ZK to secure sponsorships, speaker opportunities, and institutional networking. We are supportive of Prividium and understand the need to allocate funds to activities that will enhance its traction and adoption amongst enterprises.
[ZIP-12] V29 Interop Messaging Upgrade
1.Proposal: Link
2.Vote: FOR
3.Rationale: We voted FOR the V29 Upgrade which introduces interop messaging for ZKchains. We are supportive of this upgrade which paves the way for advanced interoperability features.
[ZIP-13] Adding a ZKsync OS CTM
1.Proposal: Link
2.Vote: FOR
3.Rationale: We voted FOR adding a ZKsync OS–based ChainTypeManager (CTM). This is an exciting upgrade towards adoption of ZKSync OS which will enable chains to have full EVM equivalence.
[TPP-11] ZKsync Governance System Infrastructure Funding
1.Proposal: Link
2.Vote: FOR
3.Rationale: We voted FOR this proposal to fund the ZKsync Association with 33M ZK in services to maintain and evolve the governance infrastructure. We understand this funding is critical for executing protocol upgrades, token programs, and network coordination through December 2026.
[TPP-12] ZKnomics Token Staking
1.Proposal: Link
2.Vote: FOR
3.Rationale: We voted FOR this proposal to activate a capped minter with 37.5M ZK (~$1.9M USD at $0.05/ZK) to trial ZK token staking rewards. We are supportive of staking as it aligns the interests of governance stakeholders and enhances security.
[TPP-13] Assign Minter Role to Gov Infra Capped Minter
1.Proposal: Link
2.Vote: FOR
3.Rationale: We voted FOR this proposal to assign the minter role from the Rate Limiter Mod to the Zk_Governance_Operations_2025 child capped minter, as outlined in TPP-11. This will enable tokens to be minted from the Zk_Governance_Operations_2025 capped minter, enabling activation of TPP-11.
[ZIP-14] Upgrade ZK Token with Permissionless Burn Function
Rationale: We voted FOR this proposal to upgrade the ZK Token contract to ZKTokenV3. This will enable token supply side management through token burn mechanics and is the next step in the ZKnomics roadmap after permissionless staking.
Rationale: We voted FOR this proposal to reduces the vote delay and vote extension periods for Token Program Proposals (TPPs). This change will improve the efficiency of the ZKSync governance process.
Rationale: We voted FOR this proposal to reduce the vote delay and vote extension periods for Governance Advisory Proposals (GAPs). This change will improve the efficiency of the ZKSync governance process.
An important update regarding the future of 404 DAO’s governance operations.
Since entering the governance space in 2022, 404 Gov has been an active voice and participant in some of the industry’s largest DAOs. What started as a small team of Georgia Tech students focusing on contributing to the Optimism DAO, quickly grew to becoming a trusted delegate in 10 ecosystems.
As the governance team evolved and members ventured into new opportunities, we began to evaluate what was the best path forward for our governance vertical. We determined that our delegated voting power deserves a dedicated steward who can commit the time and focus it requires.
So while 404 Gov is taking a step back from governance, the mission and work will continue with one of our team members, Rika, under her new entity, Axia Network, which has taken over the voting wallets and governance operations. Going forward, Axia Network is responsible for the voting activity of 0xE93D59CC0bcECFD4ac204827eF67c5266079E2b5. Their work and delegation rationale can be found at the following account: Axia Network
Rika has been a core part of our team’s operations for many years now and deeply understands the responsibility involved with being a delegate. We are confident that the delegations will continue to be handled with professionalism under her stewardship. However, those that wish to remove their delegations may do so on Tally.
This transition applies only to governance-related wallets and profiles. Our partnership with Blockchain at Georgia Tech and educational work in Atlanta remains active.
Thank you to those who entrusted us with their voting power for so many years and thank you to the DAOs and contributors we’ve collaborated with in zkSync. It has been a privilege to take part in this ecosystem.