The GnosisDAO community has made a fateful decision: GNO token holders voted by an overwhelming majority to transform Gnosis Chain from an autonomous layer-1 blockchain into a ZK-rollup with settlements directly on Ethereum. The vote concluded on August 19, and the results are impressive: 123,158 votes "for" versus just 115 "against," with a quorum of 75,000.
The Essence of the Transformation
Gnosis Chain will become the first practical implementation of the Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) concept—a framework for interconnected rollups announced back in March of this year. The key change: the network will abandon its own set of validators, transferring consensus and security functions directly to the Ethereum blockchain. This radically increases the level of protection but simultaneously alters the economic model.
Users will not need to migrate: addresses, balances, and smart contract states will be fully preserved, and xDAI will remain the gas token. However, GNO staking will undergo significant changes—after abandoning validators, approximately 350,000 coins will be unlocked, accounting for about 27% of the total supply. Subsidies from the DAO treasury for locking tokens will cease, which will inevitably impact stakers' yields.
A Strategic Maneuver
The developers acknowledge that the current model of a separate L1 with lower security and liquidity cannot withstand competition with Ethereum. Transitioning to a regular L2 also did not seem like a solution amid more than 100 competing rollups. Therefore, the bet is placed on deep integration with Ethereum: applications on Gnosis Chain will be able to interact with smart contracts and liquidity of the main network within a single transaction, without traditional bridges.
In the long term, the GNO economy will be tied to network fees—revenue distribution models or token buybacks are being considered. The first launch is scheduled for December 2026 to January 2027, with the full EEZ version featuring two-way ZK proofs expected during 2027. The market has already reacted: GNO rose by more than 7% in a day, reaching $123.
My comment: This is a bold and logical step that could set a precedent for other L1 projects realizing the futility of competing with Ethereum alone. However, the compromise on decentralization at the initial stage is a risky move that will require exceptional transparency from the team. If the EEZ model proves its viability, we could see a wave of similar transitions—and this will change the entire layer-2 landscape.