Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has criticized the Ethereum layer-2 community ZKsync as a result of it nonetheless operates like a multisig system regardless of claims of community-led governance.
In a publish on X (previously Twitter), Yakovenko argued that the identical “trustworthy majority” assumptions apply to ZKsync as a result of its system’s authorized or technical management might simply fall underneath the jurisdiction of a court docket, compromising its decentralization.
In response to him:
“Sufficient of the token holders to create a quorum and sufficient of the ‘skilled safety council’ could possibly be inside attain of a rando US chapter decide that might order all of them take all of the bridged belongings underneath management of a chapter belief.”
His feedback have been in response to Alex Gluchowski, co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs, the group behind ZKsync. Gluchowski had claimed the community’s new decentralized governance system was not a multisig setup and making “a essential step in the direction of Stage 2.”
Stage 2 refers to a transition from keen on full decentralization. On this stage, belief is positioned completely within the blockchain’s code and algorithms, making certain the system is open, safe, and immune to manipulation.
Notably, no Ethereum layer-2 community is completely in Stage 2 of its decentralization growth.
Decentralized governance
On Sept. 12, Gluchowski introduced that ZKsync’s governance system had gone dwell.
The system introduces a three-body construction, which incorporates the ZK token meeting—a gaggle of token holders who delegate their voting energy to delegates. These delegates can submit and vote on protocol, token, and governance improve proposals.
In response to the group:
“That is maybe a very powerful side of the system: token holders and their Delegates can provoke strange upgrades to the ZKsync protocol instantly onchain, as a substitute of counting on a single multisig.”
In the meantime, Delegates may also have authorized safety by means of the ZKsync Affiliation, an ownerless non-profit that addresses private legal responsibility considerations.
The second a part of the governance construction is the ZKsync Safety Council, which consists of engineers, auditors, and safety professionals. The Council has the facility to overview and actively approve protocol upgrades, freeze the protocol, and submit mandatory time-sensitive upgrades.
Nonetheless, their energy is constrained as they can not submit and approve upgrades unilaterally.
Lastly, the ZKsync Guardians guarantee governance proposals align with the rules of the ZK Credo. They maintain veto energy and function a verify on the opposite governance our bodies.
The three governance entities—the Token Meeting, Safety Council, and Guardians—collaborate to overview and execute proposals, corresponding to ZKsync Enhancements, Token Applications, and Governance Advisory modifications. The Token Meeting can submit proposals, which the Guardians can veto if wanted, and the Safety Council should approve protocol upgrades.
Basically, this construction prevents people or teams from having unilateral management over proposals and upgrades.
