ZKsync Foundation Proposals Priorities

General
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What should ZKsync focus on initially?

Building on the momentum from ETHDenver discussions and the shared vision outlined in our recent post, the ZKsync Foundation is sharpening its focus on governance for the months ahead.

The workstreams below outline our immediate priorities, each advancing in parallel but adaptable to ZKsync’s evolving needs:

  1. Sustainable and Secure Protocol Development – Strengthening the Foundation of ZKsync through security-first innovation.
  2. 10x Growth via ZK Chain Acceleration – Accelerating ZK Chain deployment and adoption.
  3. Tokenomics, Token Utility, and Governance Innovation – Improving the token and governance to drive long-term alignment and experimentation.

Additionally, we’re actively supporting governance bodies such as the Security Council and Guardians, alongside key ecosystem enablers like the ZKsync Association. Ensuring these entities have the resources and autonomy they need to succeed is a priority for the next two years.

Proposals are, ultimately, products—each should begin with the right questions. Below are the key areas of exploration for each priority.

Priority 1: Sustainable and Secure Protocol Development

After conversations across stakeholders, the following questions surfaced as a top priority to support the short-term and long-term success of ZKsync. We will be working closely with the ZKsync Security Council and protocol development organizations to answer:

  • How do we ensure maximal security in the protocol development, including high quality audits for protocol upgrades and bug bounties?
  • How should the Token Assembly support ongoing protocol R&D and the companies which are working on its development?

Priority 2: 10x Growth via ZK Chain Acceleration

In parallel, there is an opportunity to help accelerate the growth of the ecosystem and address the following questions:

  • How do we remove barriers, such as basic onchain infrastructure, to bring ZK Chains to life?
  • How can we incentivise and reward ZK Chains that contribute the most to the ecosystem?
  • How do we intentionally cultivate network effects and mindshare for the Elastic Network?

Priority 3: Token Utility & Governance Innovation

Finally ZKsync needs to enhance the ZK Token, its tokenomics and utility as well as experimentation and innovation in governance:

  • What’s the best Tokenomics for the ZK token? How does it enhance and complement core protocol features like interoperability and decentralized sequencing?
  • What governance experiments—such as prize-based funding, futarchy, or conditional markets—should we explore?

Shared Services v1.0

The ZKsync Foundation will also be looking to mobilize shared services across the proposals addressing these challenges. The services focus will include:

  1. Shared Oversight Committee
  2. Coordinated Project Management
  3. Unified Branding, Marketing and Social Media
  4. Unified Analytics and Performance Tracking
  5. Coordinated Technical Operations and Security Support

Working Together

We’re looking for long-term governance partners to address these challenges. If you’re interested, introduce yourself in TPP Builders. The ZKsync Foundation will reach out directly to Builders in this list when it requires support or has outsourcing requirements.

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Thanks for the update @Be1garat. These looks like very sensible targets for this phase of the network. Very interested in both Priorities 2 and 3 and particularly happy to see a focus on governance innovation, which I think ZKsync is particularly well placed to do and I think is very timely given the current state of DAOs across the industry.

I have done more thinking about futarchy thank most. I built one of the first futarchy oriented platforms nearly 5 years ago now. I think it’s potentially revolutionary, but it’s not something that should be uncritically jumped into as a panacea for solving governance issues by market action. It has a number of fundamental issues in its current paradigm and the quality of its output is a function of it’s breadth of participation (like pretty much any decentralised governance system). Nevertheless, governance experimentation is precisely the right framing for it and it will be exciting to see what can be achieved there.

I look forward to participating in the ecosystem going forward and would love to have a conversation with the Foundation about where we might be able to support on those priorities.

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I am a Zksync user. Homever, I am also a Op, arbitrum, berachain, name it- user. Most of us are. Rewarding TVL as it is done with the ignite program won’t attract long lasting TVL/activity. I will be honest. I am the mercenary capital you guys are trying to avoid. The thing is that must of us are. People are not interested in another vanilla L1/L2. That is the truth. If you want the Elastic network to expend, you need to make it attractive for long lasting interactions. The carrot needs to be big enough for me to come back on the daily and keep clicking. Make it interactive or gamify it if needed. You guys need to be different to be succesful. Doing the same as what are doing Optimism/Arbitrum won’t be enough. Innovation is needed.

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Hi everyone,

After publishing the above post on the forum, I wanted to provide an update on the work the Foundation has been doing and on our proposal pipeline plan.

Foundation work so far

The ZKsync Foundation spearheaded ecosystem growth since TGE with key strategic & institutional partnerships:

RWA
RWA1510×950 186 KB

The Foundation has also supported the ZKsync Association in bootstraping the governance system and deploying essential tooling in its first year. As the Governance Team mentioned in February, the validation phase of governance is complete. Some tooling examples include:

  • The Capped Minter V2 and the Minter Modifier standards (work-in-progress).
  • The GovAuth tool, used by Security Council, Guardians, and the Emergency Response Board.

Finally, the Foundation supported the work on the recently-announced ZKsync Prividium, which is going to be a game changer for Enterprise and Financial Institution adoption of Crypto as it allows to safely comply with rules while maintaining credible neutrality and full interoperability with the broader Ethereum Ecosystem.

Re: Sustainable & Secure Protocol Development

Ensuring sustainable and secure protocol upgrades has been the main focus for the ZKsync Foundation and the Token Assembly has also placed this item at the top of the priorities list (see GAP-1). [TPP-3] ZKsync Audit Reimbursement Program (ZARP) was submitted as a proposal draft on the forum on April 8th and passed on chain as of May 23rd. This program increases security standards across the ZKsync protocol by reimbursing the costs associated with third-party audits of successful ZIPs. This program will ensure that ZIP developers strive for the exceptional security audit standards, resulting in secure and robust contributions to the ZKsync protocol, and lowers the barrier to for DevCos to contribute to proposal development.

It was essential to prioritize this proposal because of all the major protocol upgrades that are expected to ship this year. In 2025 alone, these protocol upgrades include the upgrades like EVM Equivalence, Gateway/interop, SSO, ZKOS, real time proving, performance improvements to costs and TPS, etc. This program helps ensure these proposals are able to receive the highest-quality audits, and establishes mechanics supporting long-term, sustainable protocol development from capable dev teams.

Matter Labs, for example, recently posted a Q1 2025 deliverables report, outlining all critical protocol work that it is working on this year. And with the removal of the Audit costs burden, we hope to see other DevCos making similar roadmap proposals of their own soon.

Re: Ecosystem Growth

With the EVM Interpreter now implemented by ZIP-9, and Gateway activation on the horizon via ZIP-10, new opportunities for ecosystem proposals are opening up. The removal of key infrastructure barriers lays a strong foundation for program development that can foster meaningful network effects across the Elastic Network by incentivizing ZK Chain growth & participation.

RWAs have also become a strong source of Network Effects; ZKsync is already winning in the space and there is ample margins to solidify this strong position and leap forward with proposals aimed at growing this important part of the Ecosystem.

The Governance Team has also made headway on laying the ground-work for more dynamic token mechanics for these programs with continued experimentation with the Capped Minter V2 and development of Minter Mods that enable more modularity and security for capped minters.

Over the past months, the key areas of inspiration for ecosystem proposal development have been:

  • ZKsync Chain adoption and Elastic Network growth
  • ZKsync Prividiums and Enterprise adoption
  • RWA dominance on ZKsync

These three areas have positive feedback loop with the technically superior zk-based interoperability that will come with Gateway, with the Network Effect that is being built around RWA and with Prividium which, at the moment, is the only solution in the market for Enterprises and Financial Institutions that is both technically feasible and available in mainnet.

We have been working on various proposals for these three areas of growth and we will start to discuss them with the broader community soon.

Role of Delegates on Foundation proposals:

We continue to ask Delegates for their input and feedback on ZKsync Foundation-driven proposals that are posted on the forum. Community feedback and suggestions are highly valued and will help us to refine these proposals.

As ecosystem proposals progress from ideation to development, the Foundataion will share program needs and seek support from TPP Builders who have expressed an interest in providing services to TPPs.

The upcoming Delegate calls will be good opportunities to discuss more about these topics and gather feedback, suggestions and comments from the Delegates. Looking forward to the continued discussion!