Ethereum scaling solution co-creator ZKsync has proposed a major overhaul of its governance token, arguing that “economic utility” should be a priority.
In post on the ZKsync forum on Tuesday, Alex Głuchowski argued that while the ZKsync governance token (ZK) was effective in the early stages of the project when the “architecture and adoption path was still taking shape,” the network has evolved rapidly since then.
He said it currently supports an ecosystem of interconnected zero-knowledge chains and it is vital for the ZKsync token to capture the value of the network and drive further adoption of the ecosystem.
“The goal is to align use with value, ensure that decentralization is economically sustainable, and ensure that the network captures a significant share of the economic benefits it generates.”
Głuchowski, who is also co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs, the company behind ZKsync, stressed that funds must return to the “network economy” as this will enable continuous infrastructure modernization, improved security, financing of public goods and “long-term independence.”
“The goal of the project is to establish a self-reinforcing economic loop where adoption increases the network’s resources, and these resources in turn improve the network for all participants,” he wrote.
Up-to-date revenue-linked tokenomics
Glukhovsky emphasized that the revamped ZK token will derive onchain value from ways such as protocol-native fees generated from “interoperability and other core billing and messaging features,” as well as offchain through licensing agreements for “enterprise software components.”
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In terms of licensing agreements, the ZKsync stack is free to employ because it is open source. However, Gluchowski argued that when immense enterprises adapt “community-built infrastructure” for complicated applications such as treasury integration, there should be arrangements in place to ensure that value is returned to the ecosystem.
“When such opportunities are funded by the ecosystem, it makes sense that their exploitation by enterprise participants returns value to the ecosystem,” he wrote.
From there, all of this extracted value would then flow into a “management-controlled system” that would funnel it into ZK market redemptions, staking rewards, token burning, and ecosystem funding.
“For decentralization to last, it must be economically sustainable. The network needs a sustainable economic model that supports continuous development, security and operation by many independent participants, not by a central sponsor.”
ZKsync has been considering changing its governance token for months. In June, Omar Azhar, head of business development at Matter Labs, sent “ZKnomics Roadmap Vision” on the project forum.
“ZKnomics aims to align ZK with the long-term health and sustainability of the protocol. It proposes a system where network usage drives protocol revenues, and these revenues are programmatically directed to two primary functions: incentivizing protocol participants and managing token supply,” Azhar wrote.
The proposed timeline for this token change is unclear. Glukhovsky also forwarded this proposal to X to encourage more feedback and reviews from the community, adding that more details will be provided “when there is broad support for this direction.”
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