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 post on X (previously Twitter), Yakovenko argued that the identical “sincere majority” assumptions apply to ZKsync as a result of its system’s authorized or technical management may simply fall underneath the jurisdiction of a courtroom, compromising its decentralization.
In keeping with him:
“Sufficient of the token holders to create a quorum and sufficient of the ‘skilled safety council’ might 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 staff behind ZKsync. Gluchowski had claimed the community’s new decentralized governance system was not a multisig setup and making “a vital step in direction of Stage 2.”
Stage 2 refers to a transition from a fan of full decentralization. On this stage, belief is positioned fully within the blockchain’s code and algorithms, making certain the system is open, safe, and proof against manipulation.
Notably, no Ethereum layer-2 community is fully in Stage 2 of its decentralization improvement.
Decentralized governance
On Sept. 12, Gluchowski announced that ZKsync’s governance system had gone reside.
The system introduces a three-body structure, which incorporates the ZK token meeting—a bunch of token holders who delegate their voting energy to delegates. These delegates can submit and vote on protocol, token, and governance improve proposals.
In keeping with the staff:
“That is maybe crucial side of the system: token holders and their Delegates can provoke odd upgrades to the ZKsync protocol instantly onchain, as an alternative of counting on a single multisig.”
In the meantime, Delegates may even have authorized safety by way 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 ability to assessment and actively approve protocol upgrades, freeze the protocol, and submit obligatory time-sensitive upgrades.
Nonetheless, their energy is constrained as they can’t 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 test on the opposite governance our bodies.
The three governance entities—the Token Meeting, Safety Council, and Guardians—collaborate to assessment and execute proposals, akin to ZKsync Enhancements, Token Packages, 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.