GnosisDAO approves Gnosis Chain migration to Ethereum L2

GnosisDAO approves GIP 153, Gnosis Chain will transform into Ethereum Economic Zone Rollup

GnosisDAO approved the GIP 153 proposal on August 19, authorizing Gnosis Chain to transform from a stand-alone Layer 1 network to a zero-knowledge proof-based Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) Rollup.

Summary: A total of 123,158 GNOs support GIP 153, approving the transformation of Gnosis Chain from Layer 1 to Ethereum Rollup. The total number of GNOs participating in the vote was 123,425, far exceeding the quorum threshold of 75,000 required for the proposal, and the excess was nearly 65%.

Gnosis Chain will retire its validator set and use Ethereum for settlement and gain financial security. The initial EEZ deployment target time is late 2026 or early 2027, depending on technology maturity. Existing applications, account balances, contract addresses and chain identifiers are expected to remain unchanged.

According to the announcement issued by Gnosis Chain, the final voting results showed that a total of 54 voters participated, of which 123,158 GNOs were in favor, 115 GNOs were against, and 151 GNOs abstained. The total number of GNOs participating in the voting reached 123,425, well above the required quorum of 75,000.

This decision provides Gnosis developers with the authority to begin the design transformation, but does not mean an immediate conversion of the chain to a Layer 2 network. The initial release is scheduled to be available in late 2026 or early 2027, depending on whether the required technology is ready.

Gnosis Chain will replace independent clearing mechanism

Gnosis Chain currently runs its own proof-of-stake consensus system and verifier set. After the transformation, the network will publish certificates and settle transactions on Ethereum, relying on Ethereum verifiers to ensure settlement security. GnosisDAO has approved the transformation of Gnosis Chain from an independent Layer 1 to a zero-knowledge proof-based Ethereum economic zone Rollup.

The existing set of Gnosis validators will eventually retire. The move will also end pledge subsidies paid from the GnosisDAO treasury. The approved proposal states that network fees will replace subsidies and become the economic foundation of the system.

GIP153 points out that the current model is difficult to sustain because fee revenue only covers a small portion of chain security costs. According to the authors of the proposal, Gnosis's issuance mechanism dilutes the rights of non-collaterals by approximately 2.3% each year, while the DAO also needs to support infrastructure and liquidity incentives. These assessments come from the proposal authors and should not be regarded as independent financial conclusions. However, the vote showed that GNO holders accepted this strategic direction and authorized the team to work on different security models.

Ethereum Economic Zone aims to solve the problem of liquidity fragmentation

Ethereum Economic Zone is a Rollup framework developed by Gnosis and ZisK with funding from the Ethereum Foundation. Its stated goal is to allow participating networks to simultaneously access Ethereum's contracts and mobility without having to rely on traditional cross-chain bridges for each interaction. The framework aims to solve Ethereum's fragmented Layer 2 ecosystem. Applications deployed on different Rollups often maintain different liquidity pools, cross-chain bridges, and infrastructure, causing users to have to move assets between isolated environments.

Gnosis Chain is expected to be the first EEZ instance to go into production. According to the plan, contracts on Gnosis can call the Ethereum contract in a single transaction and use its results. The proposal states that this would provide direct access to Ethereum's mobility venues, assets and infrastructure.

Developers expect the network to retain its applications, balances, account addresses, contract addresses and chain identifiers. Therefore, users do not need to migrate to another independent blockchain. RPC endpoints may change, and the handling of the network's U.S. dollar pegged Gas tokens still needs to be finalized.

Initial Gnosis Chain Rollup retains trust assumptions

The first EEZ release will not implement all the features described in the long-term design. Friederike Ernst, co-founder and proposal author of Gnosis, said that due to technical requirements, the initial network will use centralized sorters. Nor will the first release include mechanism-which allows users to submit transactions through Ethereum when the sorter reviews or stops processing transactions. "In the first release, there will be no mandatory inclusion functionality, but it will be added as soon as possible," Ernst said during the governance discussion. This statement is a development commitment rather than an implemented security guarantee. No specifications for forced transactions, delivery dates or proposed delay periods have been finalized.

Mandatory inclusion of functionality is important because centralized sorters can pose censorship or usability risks. Therefore, this transformation will replace Gnosis Chain's current validator model with a design that inherits Ethereum's settlement capabilities, while initially retaining centralized control over transaction sequencing. The safety characteristics of the system will depend on its proven design, upgrade controls and ultimately escape mechanisms.

Launch depends on unfinished EEZ technology

The goal of the first Gnosis EEZ release is to achieve creation by late 2026 to early 2027. The proposal estimates that this version will provide approximately 80% of the expected simultaneous composability capabilities, but will require 40% to 50% of the total engineering workload to be completed. The full EEZ specification is expected to be released in 2027, but both timetables are goals rather than fixed release dates. Developers must finalize the attestation system, fee token design, settlement contracts, and operating architecture before deployment.

The planned network will maintain a two-second block time, compared with Ethereum's block time of approximately 12 seconds. Only blocks aligned with Ethereum periods can interact synchronously with the main network. During the chain reorganization, Gnosis will also need to follow Ethereum, which means its finality will be limited by the finality of Ethereum.

GIP 153 does not require funding from the DAO. If treasury resources are required or specific agreement parameters are modified during the implementation process, further proposals may still need to be submitted. The next verifiable milestone will be technical specification release, testnet deployment, and launch planning. Until these arrive, GIP 153 should be understood as approval of Gnosis Chain's strategic direction, rather than the completion of its Ethereum Layer 2 transformation.