A group of Ethereum projects has announced a new effort aimed at solving a growing problem in Ethereum: its ecosystem is becoming too fragmented.
Unveiled at the EthCC conference in Cannes, the project – called the “Ethereum Economic Zone” (EEZ) – is designed to make Ethereum’s many add-on networks (known as layer 2s or L2s) work together more seamlessly.
The framework is developed by Gnosis, Zisk and the Ethereum Foundation. Gnosis is a long-time Ethereum infrastructure developer, while Zisk focuses on zero-knowledge proof technology.
It comes as Ethereum for years relied on L2 networks to scale, even though those networks often act as separate islands. Users have to move assets between them using bridges, which can be slow, expensive and risky, while developers often have to rebuild the same tools on each network.
EEZ aims to change that by making all these networks feel like one unified system. Simply put, it would allow apps and transactions on different Ethereum networks to interact instantly – without the use of bridges – while still relying on Ethereum’s core security.
The announcement comes as Ethereum’s long-term reliance on L2 scaling has faced renewed debate. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has recently suggested that the ecosystem may need to rethink parts of its L2-heavy roadmap, especially as fragmentation and user experience issues persist. EEZ looks to address these concerns directly by attempting to unify liquidity, infrastructure and user flows across networks rather than adding more isolated chains
The idea is to create shared liquidity (so funds can move freely), simpler infrastructure for developers and a smoother experience for users. The system will also continue to use ETH as its main token for fees instead of introducing new ones.
The project is developed openly with input from the wider Ethereum community.
“Ethereum doesn’t have a scaling problem. It has a fragmentation problem. Each new L2 is a silo that makes it harder to seamlessly scale and drive value back to the Ethereum mainnet,” said Friederike Ernst, co-founder of Gnosis, in a press release shared with CoinDesk. “The EEZ is designed to do the opposite.”
Read more: From ‘Ethereum’s sidekick’ to independent stars: How Vitalik Buterin’s latest pivot is forcing Layer 2s to grow up
