Developers from Gnosis, Zisk, and the Ethereum Foundation introduced the Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) at the EthCC conference in Cannes on March 30, putting Ethereum’s layer-2 fragmentation at the center of the discussion. The proposal is designed to make interactions across multiple layer-2 networks simpler for both users and developers by treating them less like isolated systems and more like a unified environment.
Ethereum has leaned on layer-2 networks for years to expand capacity, but that model has also produced a growing coordination problem. Each network runs on its own track. Users moving assets between chains often have to rely on bridges, which can be slow, expensive, and exposed to security risk. Developers face a different burden: rebuilding similar tools again and again across separate chains.
EEZ targets bridge-free interaction across rollups
The core idea behind EEZ is to let multiple layer-2 networks function as if they belong to one economic domain. Under the proposal, transactions and applications would be able to interact across networks instantly without bridges. That shifts the focus from simply adding more scaling layers to reducing the friction created when those layers cannot easily work together.
Gnosis co-founder Friederike Ernst said each new layer-2 network tends to behave like a silo, making it harder to extend value back to Ethereum mainnet. EEZ is meant to reverse that pattern rather than add another disconnected zone to the stack.
Shared liquidity and synchronous execution sit at the center
The framework also proposes synchronous smart contract execution across rollups. In practical terms, developers could deploy applications that operate across multiple chains within a single transaction. That is a notable change in how cross-rollup apps could be built, especially for products that now depend on fragmented liquidity and separate execution paths.
Shared liquidity is another major part of the design. Funds would move more freely between networks instead of staying split across separate layer-2 ecosystems. At the same time, ETH would remain the main token used for fees, keeping fee payments consistent across the broader Ethereum ecosystem.
The proposal lands during an active scaling debate
EEZ arrives as Ethereum continues to debate the trade-offs of its scaling strategy. Vitalik Buterin has recently questioned parts of the current layer-2 approach, pointing to fragmentation and centralized components as areas of concern. Those comments gave more weight to an argument that scaling gains may be coming with rising coordination costs.
Current data shows there are more than 20 active layer-2 networks securing nearly $40 billion in value, yet liquidity and user activity remain dispersed across platforms such as Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism. Reaction to EEZ has been mixed inside the ecosystem. Some developers support pushing beyond pure throughput expansion, while others remain focused on preserving the advantages the current model already delivers. Technical details and performance benchmarks for EEZ are expected in the coming weeks.