A group of Ethereum projects have announced a new effort aimed at fixing 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 make Ethereum’s many add-on networks (known as layer 2s, or L2s) work together more seamlessly.
The framework is being developed by Gnosis, Zisk and the Ethereum Foundation. Gnosis is a longtime Ethereum infrastructure developer, while Zisk focuses on zero-knowledge proving technology.
It comes as Ethereum for years relied on L2 networks to scale, though these networks often operate like separate islands. Users have to move assets between them using bridges, which can be slow, costly and risky, while developers often have to rebuild the same tools on each network.
The EEZ aims to change that by making all these networks feel like one unified system. In simple terms, it would allow apps and transactions on different Ethereum networks to interact instantly — without needing 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 the ecosystem may need to rethink parts of its L2-heavy roadmap, particularly as fragmentation and user experience issues persist. The EEZ appears to directly address those concerns by trying 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 would also continue to use ETH as its main token for fees, rather than introducing new ones.
The project is being developed openly with input from the wider Ethereum community.
“Ethereum doesn’t have a scaling problem. It has a fragmentation problem. Every new L2 is a silo that makes it harder to seamlessly extend 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 standalone stars: How Vitalik Buterin’s latest pivot is forcing Layer 2s to grow up