An honest conversation with the team. Looking for a roadmap to the company’s profitability

General
2

Thanks for taking the time to write this. I’ll keep this reply concrete and skip the fluff.

1. ZK is not “shares of the company”

First, just to be precise: The ZK token is not equity and does not represent “shares of the company.” It’s a governance token for the ZKsync protocol. It does not give ownership of Matter Labs, claims on cashflows, or guaranteed profit. Frustration with price action is understandable, but it’s crucial not to conflate a decentralized governance token with corporate stock.

2. What ZKnomics actually does

ZKnomics is a framework to tie protocol usage → protocol revenue → token mechanics via:

  • Fees from sequencer & interop activity on ZKsync Chains + offchain licensing fees from Prividiums.
  • Those fees are then used to buy ZK & turn on Programmatic distribution of those fees into:
    • Staking rewards
    • Token burning
    • Ecosystem initiatives
  • All parameters are controlled by onchain governance (fee levels, splits, staking rules, etc.).

It’s not meant to be hype; it’s an economic framework the DAO controls.

3. Where we are on the roadmap

The roadmap has four clear steps:

1. Permissionless staking (TPP)

  • The Token Participation Program / permissionless staking frameworks are already in motion.
  • This is how token holders will be able to help secure the protocol and earn rewards.

2. Token upgrade with burn + max supply (ZKTokenV3)

  • The proposed upgrade to ZKTokenV3 adds:
    • burn(amount) so any holder can permanently burn their own tokens.
    • burnFrom(account, amount) gated by a BURNER_ROLE, whose admin is the ZKsync Protocol Governor Timelock (Token Assembly + Security Council).
    • An onchain maxSupply = 21,000,000,000 ZK, enforced for all future minting.
  • This is the mechanical prerequisite for any future protocol-level fee burn.

3. Sequencer & Interop fee switches Once staking and ZKTokenV3 are in place, governance can enable:

  • Sequencer fees.
  • Interop fees across ZKsync / Prividiums.
  • Those fees can then be routed into contracts that buy ZK, burn a portion, and route a portion to staking rewards / ecosystem initiatives.

4. Programmatic allocation rules via governance Governance will decide the actual splits (e.g., X% burn, Y% staking, Z% treasury) and encode them in onchain rules. These parameters can evolve based on real usage data.

So the honest answer to “when utility?” is: It comes online step-by-step as these four stages go live: staking → token upgrade → fee switches → allocation rules. There is no specific “utility day,” there is a sequence of protocol upgrades and governance decisions.

4. “When profit / which quarter?”

No one can honestly tell you: “profit starts in QX and price does Y.” Protocol revenues will depend on:

  • How much volume actually flows through ZKsync Chains & Prividiums.
  • How many licenses for Prividiums are sold and built.
  • How much traffic uses Gateway / shared bridges.
  • How governance sets fee levels and splits.

What is realistic to commit to is:

  • Transparent mechanisms (staking, fee routing, burn) onchain.
  • Clear reporting & dashboards once those flows are live.
  • Governance control over the main levers.

If someone gives guaranteed profit timelines, that’s exactly what you should be skeptical of.

5. Funding, team, and “exit on retail”

Yes, the company raised funds from 2019-2022 (Seed → Series C). That’s normal for multi-year infrastructure R&D. Salaries and runway come from that VC funding, not from selling tokens to the community. We cannot publish individual employee wallets for obvious security, privacy, and legal reasons. What we can align on instead is:

  • Onchain visibility into treasury and protocol-level flows (burns, staking rewards, etc.) once ZKnomics is fully live.

If you have concrete suggestions for aggregated transparency (e.g., standardized fee/burn/staking dashboards, periodic reports), let us know.

6. Big picture

If the plan was truly “3 years of noise then bankruptcy,” we wouldn’t be shipping upgrades that hard-code a supply cap and burn mechanism. And we wouldn’t be shipping tech upgrade such as Atlas, Airbender, Interop & Prividiums which push the entire ZK space forward.

The actual work is:

  • Shipping the interoperable elastic network (Gateway, Prividium, Interop, etc.).
  • Implementing ZKnomics in the published sequence.
  • Making the economic model legible, programmable, and governable so token value aligns with network usage, not just marketing.

It’s valid to demand real mechanics over pretty words. That is exactly what this staking + ZKTokenV3 + fee-switch + governance roadmap is doing.

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