A group of Ethereum projects have announced a new effort aimed at solving a growing problem in Ethereum: its ecosystem is becoming too fragmented.
Revealed at the EthCC conference in Cannes, the project – called the “Ethereum Economic Zone” (EEZ) – is designed to allow Ethereum’s many complementary networks (called layers 2 or L2) to 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.
This comes from the fact that Ethereum has for years relied on L2 networks to scale, although these networks often operate as separate islands. Users must 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.
The EEZ aims to change that by making all of these networks look like a unified system. Simply put, this would allow applications and transactions on different Ethereum networks to interact instantly – without the need for bridges – while relying on Ethereum’s core security.
The announcement comes as Ethereum’s long-term reliance on L2 scaling is the subject of renewed debate. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently suggested that the ecosystem may need to rethink parts of its L2-heavy roadmap, especially as fragmentation and user experience issues persist. The EEZ appears to directly address these concerns by attempting to unify the flows of liquidity, infrastructure and users across networks, rather than adding more isolated chains.
The idea is to create shared liquidity (so funds can flow freely), simpler infrastructure for developers, and a smoother experience for users. The system would also continue to use ETH as the primary token for fees, rather than introducing new ones.
The project is developed openly with input from the broader Ethereum community.
“Ethereum doesn’t have a scalability problem. It has a fragmentation problem. Each new L2 is a silo that makes it harder to seamlessly expand and return value 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 sidekick’ to standalone stars: How Vitalik Buterin’s latest pivot is forcing Layer 2s to grow
