Token Program Proposal Summary
| Title | ZKsync Guardians Funding 2024-2026 |
|---|---|
| Proposal Type | TPP |
| One Sentence Summary | This proposal allocates 8.5M ZK tokens to fund the compensation of ZKsync Guardians for 2 years, from governance launch in September 2024 through to September 2026. |
| Proposal Author | ZKsync Guardians |
| Proposal Sponsor | TBD |
| Date Created | July 2025 |
| Version | v1.0 |
| Summary of Action | This proposal revokes the current capped minter (V1) of ZKsync Guardians with an unminted supply of 2M ZK and activates a new capped minter (V2) administered by the ZKsync Guardians. The capped minter includes 8.5M ZK. This includes 3.75M ZK as Guardian compensation for the first year (2024-2025), 3.75M ZK for the second year (2025-2026), and 1M ZK minter for other administrative costs. |
| Link to proposal discussion | TBA |
Abstract
This Token Program Proposal (TPP) funds the ZKsync Guardians until August 31st 2026 via a capped minter with access to 8.5M ZK.
The ZKsync Guardians serve as protectors of the values and vision of the ZK Credo, with the power to veto governance proposals misaligned with the foundational cypherpunk values of ZKsync. Guardians also participate as one of the three key bodies of the Emergency Response Board, safeguarding ZKsync in moments requiring urgent action. Compensation is standard for all eligible Guardians who are not active team members of Matter Labs or other ZKsync supporting entities.
Motivation
This proposal requests funding to ensure that ZKsync remains aligned to the values of vision of the ZK Credo through the independent and autonomous participation of ZKsync Guardians. The ZKsync Guardians address an inherent flaw of code-as-law systems:
*Smart contracts excel at codifying and enforcing rules, but with a tradeoff: they can fall short in highlighting and protecting the values and vision that the system is meant to support. It is all too common in crypto that promising decentralized projects face novel attacks that their governance structure cannot prevent, leaving their entire community vulnerable. A purely human-driven governance approach, while capable of prioritizing collective values, risks being captured by adversarial actors. Combining onchain and human-centric decision-making is crucial.
via ZK Nation Blog, “ZKsync Guardians: Upholding the ZK Credo”
Other protocols have also sought to address this challenge, and deployed values-aligned veto councils to help orient their actions and deter adversarial actors from exploiting onchain governance procedures. For example, this can be seen in the form of a large super-delegate (Optimism, ENS) or founder veto power (Nouns).
ZKsync Guardians have two primary responsibilities:
- Proposing and executing a veto on governance proposals that are abusive, malicious, or could otherwise adversely affect ZKsync or its governance system.
- Supporting in emergency actions by evaluating the proposed intervention against the values and vision of the ZK Credo.
The ZKsync Guardians are value-aligned individuals. Together, they create a check against purely token-weighted voting that adversarial actors might be tempted to take advantage of.
Meet the ZKsync Guardians
(1) Juan Benet: Juan Benet is the inventor of IPFS, a protocol revolutionizing the web, and Filecoin, the world’s largest decentralized storage network. As the founder of Protocol Labs, Juan leads innovation in technologies like web3, AI, BCI, and more. A Stanford Computer Science graduate, he’s passionate about improving the internet and building more robust foundations for the digital future.
(2) Alex Gluchowski: Alex is a software architect with over 15 years of experience in engineering and startups. He is the co-inventor of ZKsync and currently serves as the co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs, where he leads a talented team focused on addressing blockchain scalability challenges using zero-knowledge proofs. Alex’s passion lies in using technology to advance personal freedom, self-ownership, and decentralization.
(3) Bartek Kiepuszewski: Bartek is the co-founder of L2Beat, an independent research venture that focuses on deep technical risk analysis of Ethereum scalability solutions. Bartek brings over 20 years of experience in the computer industry (both academic and industrial environments) working on complex IT projects. Prior to L2Beat, Bartek served as an architect at MakerDAO.
(4) pcaversaccio: pcaversaccio is a dedicated open-source engineer, security professional, and entrepreneur deeply immersed in the Ethereum ecosystem. As the leader of SEAL 911, an emergency hotline, he addresses critical incidents with a focus on security. His technical contributions include active development on the Vyper compiler and its associated libraries, with notable achievements such as identifying a bug in the ZKsync Era Vyper compiler. Most significantly, he is the author of “The Ethereum Cypherpunk Manifesto”, a testament to his unwavering commitment to privacy, security, and the principles of censorship resistance.
(5) Gabriel Shapiro: Gabriel is the founder of MetaLeX, a company devoted to cybernetic law solutions co-developed by devs and lawyers to fuse autonomous software with legal systems. Inspired and empowered by Bitcoin and Ethereum, he is pioneering the development of autonomous legal systems that operate independently of nation-states. Previously, Gabriel served as the general counsel at Delphi Labs and co-founder and head of legal engineering at ZeroLaw.
(6) Awa Sun Yin: Awa develops privacy infrastructure and is co-founder of both Anoma and Namada. At Anoma, Awa has worked to rethink decentralized application and infrastructure from first principles and introduces a new category of intent-centric protocols. In her work with Namada, Awa has brought cypherpunk values to the forefront by developing multi-chain privacy solutions and asset-agnostic data protection.
(7) Aleksandr Vlasov: Alexandr is a co-founder and the head of R&D of Matter Labs. A nuclear physicist with a master’s degree in high-energy physics and a doctorate in electrical engineering, he has extensive experience working with blockchain scaling solutions.
(8) Eric Wall: Eric Wall is a co-founder of Taproot Wizards and an engaged member of the Bitcoin and Ethereum communities. As a startup founder, engineer, investor and blogger, he has been an early proponent of rollup technology, ZK, and modularity. Eric also serves on the board of the Starknet Foundation.
In the last year, the ZKsync Guardians have supported governance system design feedback, participated in emergency action and governance system rehearsals, reviewed the 20 proposals submitted onchain to date, and supported 3 emergency action signature requirements. In addition, ZKsync Guardians have served as a source of wisdom and guidance to the governance team, key partners, ZKsync engineering leaders, and the ZKsync Foundation.
An initial capped minter V1 was provided to the Guardians for 2M ZK at the initial moment of the ZK token launch on June 18th 2025 to cover the compensation for the first year. However, this is now known to be insufficient to cover the compensation for Guardians based on the ZK token conversion rate to date. As a result, this proposal revokes the minting rights of the original capped minter V1, and activates two new aligned capped minter V2 with sufficient ZK tokens necessary to compensate Guardians for the 24-month period of September 2024 to September 2026.
For more information on ZKsync Guardians, please visit the launch announcement and the ZK Nation docs outlining the ZKsync Governance Procedures.
Specification
Compensation Design
This proposal includes a request for ZK tokens to compensate ZKsync Guardians for their participation since September 2024 and through to August 2026.
Year 1 Compensation:
- 625K ZK Tokens, vesting monthly.
- Vesting start date: September 1st 2024
- Vesting end date: August 31st 2025
- Unlock date: September 1st 2025
Year 2 Compensation:
- 625K ZK Tokens, vesting monthly.
- Vesting start date: September 1st 2025
- Vesting end date: August 31st 2026
- Tokens are vested and unlocked on a month by month basis.
Compensation Eligibility:
- ZKsync Guardians are not offered compensation if they are team members of Matter Labs or other ZKsync supporting entities such as ZKsync Foundation and the ZKsync Association.
Operational Budget:
- A total of 1M ZK tokens are included in this proposal to cover security and token distribution tooling, as well as legal costs related to entity maintenance.
Capped Minter Structure
| Name | Description | Action | Admin Role | Minter Role | Pauser Role | Requested ZK Token Cap | USD Equivalent (@$0.05/ZK) | Onchain Address (ZKsync Era) | Minting Start | Minting End |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GuardiansV1_2024_2025 | Initial 2024-2025 ZKsync Guardian Minter, uses Capped Minter V1.0 Design. | Deactivate | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | 0x21b27952f8621f54f3cb652630e122ec81dd2dc1 | n/a | n/a | |
GuardiansV2_Master_2024_2026 (Parent Capped Minter) |
2024-2026 ZKsync Guardians Allocation | Activate | Token Assembly | GuardiansV2_Comp_2024_2025, GuardiansV2_Comp_2025_2026, GuardiansV2_Ops_2024_2026 | Security Council | 8,500,000 ZK | ~$425,000 | Pending | August 1, 2025 | October 31, 2026 |
GuardiansV2_Comp_2024_2025 (Assumes 6 compensated Guardians) |
2024-2025 ZKsync Guardian Compensation | Activate | Guardians 5/8 Multisig | Guardians 5/8 Multisig | Security Council | 3,750,000 ZK | ~$2,600 per month per Guardian | Pending | August 1, 2025 | October 31, 2025 |
GuardiansV2_Comp_2025_2026 (Assumes 6 compensated Guardians) |
2025-2026 ZKsync Guardian Compensation | Activate | Guardians 5/8 Multisig | Guardians 5/8 Multisig | Security Council | 3,750,000 ZK | ~$2,600 per month per Guardian | Pending | August 1, 2025 | October 31, 2026 |
GuardiansV2_Ops_2024_2026 |
2025-2026 Tooling, legal, and any other operational costs | Activate | Guardians 5/8 Multisig | Guardians 5/8 Multisig | Security Council | 1,000,000 ZK | ~$50,000 | Pending | August 1, 2025 | October 31, 2026 |
- Tokens will be minted at the discretion of the ZKsync Guardians within the minting window, in alignment to legally contracted compensation terms. Minted tokens will be deposited into onchain-enforced vesting contracts.
- The Token Assembly may submit a governance proposal to revoke minter rights as per the standard TPP guidelines.
Additional Onchain Actions
- This proposal revokes the minter role of the current Capped Minter V1 contract with 2M ZK, initially allocated at TGE.
Accountability
- Governance Oversight:
- The Token Assembly may cancel any minter, revoking further disbursements.
- The Security Council may pause any active capped minters in case of security risks.
- Excess Tokens: Any excess tokens not used for the budget should remain unminted. If excess tokens are minted, they will be returned to the control of the Token Assembly.
Participants
- ZKsync Guardians: Administers funding and contracts for Guardian Members
- Token Assembly: Oversees minting and retains final authority to halt program
- ZKsync Security Council: May pause active capped minters in case of active security risks.