Tech
Another episode of the Layer-2 team drama
That of Ethereum level 2 teams they clash once again. This time, major industry figures are condemning Matter Labs, the maker of zkSync, for its decision to trademark the acronym “ZK,” which is short for “zero-knowledge encryption,” the primary technology behind zkSync and a host of other blockchain projects. Matter Labs said made the move to protect users. Leaders at Polygon and Starkware, competitors in the Layer 2 space, disagree, arguing that public goods branding does not serve the interests of the Ethereum ecosystem.
In this week’s newsletter, we’ll recap the latest episode in the layer-2 saga and a host of other industry updates you won’t want to miss.
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ZK Rile Layer 2 Teams trademark filing: Matter Labs, the lead development company behind the zkSync Era blockchain, received strong criticism from fellow Ethereum layer-2 teams after unveiling plans to trademark the term “ZK.” The week-long clash led to the withdrawal of Matter Labs your trademark application, which was initially deemed necessary to protect the Ethereum community from projects and ticker tokens with similar names. ZK, or zero knowledge, is a type of encryption used by some layer 2 rollups and other blockchain projects to quickly prove transaction details are true while keeping other details private. The technology is closely associated with attempts to scale the Ethereum blockchain. Layer-2 networks like Polygon, StarkNet, and zkSync all use ZK proofs to help provide users with faster, cheaper transactions. Matter Labs’ move to the ZK brand came after a falling out with Polyhedra, a blockchain project that used “ZK” as the ticker for its token. Matter Labs is preparing its own highly anticipated airdrop token and planned to take the ticker “ZK” for himself. (Eventually Polyhedra decided to rename its token “ZKJ,” The Block reported.) When Matter Labs initially revealed its plan to trademark ZK, it sparked an ecosystem-wide outcry. Given that ZK technology, and the term itself, are used by many teams across the industry, the trademark filing was seen as an attempt by a single company to seize ownership of a “public good.” More generally, this was seen as an attack on cryptocurrency open source and collaboration ethos. In a statement shared with CoinDesk, StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson called the move “an absurd intellectual property grab.” Rebecca Rettig, chief legal officer at Polygon wrote on X that trademarking a term means “protecting a company’s brand” rather than the broader crypto community.
This isn’t the first time Matter Labs has found itself in trouble with its competitors. In August 2023, the Polygon team moved forward a media blitz with the statement of Matter Labs copied his Plonky-2 software system without proper attribution. Leaders of other teams, such as Starkware, also chimed in at the time, expressing their disappointment with Matter Labs. (Gluchowski he denied the copying allegations (but said his team “could have done better” by providing clearer attribution to other teams’ open source code.) Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal appeared to reference the debacle when weighing in on the previous controversy, saying in a statement last week that “zkSync has repeatedly acted contrary to Web3 ethics, despite consistently signaling those same values. We believe that if we do not publicly address this behavior, it will persist and potentially get worse.” Alex Gluchowski, CEO of Matter Labs, initially dismissed the complaints, sharing that his intention with the trademark application was to protect users and adding that Matter Labs would eventually move to share the trademark with a still-existing consortium of ecosystem stakeholders. Three days later, however, Matter Labs decided to do so come back entirely about his branding efforts.
Consensus 2024 Debrief: Last week, CoinDesk’s 10th annual Consensus Festival took place in Austin, Texas, and what a whirlwind it was! This year the conference had a particular focus on policy and regulation. Last month’s surprise Ether (ETH) ETF approval, bipartisan vote to repeal US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) crypto accounting policy (SAB121), e the broadest democratic softening towards cryptocurrencies were on everyone’s mind in recent weeks. Independent candidate for the presidency of the United States Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I stopped to share his thoughts on cryptocurrency politics and also expressed his opinion on former President Donald J. Trump’s guilty verdict in his secret trial. Another trend at the heart of the Consensus was artificial intelligence and its intersection with Blockchain. Consensus even dedicated an entire day (31 May) to AI discussions on the Gen C Stage. And finally, vibration checks were everywhere, with many still trying to figure out whether cryptocurrencies were on the verge of another bear or bull run. Takeaway food: it’s not exactly clear.
Last week’s top picks from our Protocol Village column, highlighting the main updates and innovations in blockchain technology.
Scaling Bitcoin continues to be a major focus for the oldest blockchain ecosystem, and now the team behind the Bitcoin layer-2 Ark protocol has created a new company that will focus on cheap and fast payments.
Ark Labs, the new company, will compete with Bitcoin’s Lightning Network with its own solution to scale the blockchain’s transaction capacity.
The company shared that it will pursue scalability by developing “an open implementation of the Ark protocol” and “building services for users,” CoinDesk said. Jamie Crawley writes.
Open deployment of Ark is expected to occur in 2024.