Matter Labs cancels ‘ZK’ trademark application following backlash from major project

Matter Labs, the company incubating the ZkSync Ethereum Layer 2 network, announced at

Matter Labs said discussions about the trademark application came down to one fact: “It would be impossible for almost everyone to agree on a group that they perceive to be credibly neutral,” the company wrote in the announcement.

After Matter Labs announced its intention to trademark the term “ZK”, several of the key ZK projects, including ZK corrections co-inventors Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali, Polygon co-founders Sandeep Nailwal and Brendan Farmer, and Eli Ben There were representatives. – Sasson, CEO of StarkWare, issued a statement condemning the move.

“ZK should remain a public good. It should not be a corporate trademark. Rather, it should be accessible to everyone,” the statement reads in part. “If a company goes through this, it will separate itself from the very community it claims to belong to.”

The controversy over ZkSync’s trademark application comes as the protocol is planning an airdrop, which is expected to occur in mid-June, The Block previously reported. The intention to use the ZK ticker led to conflict with Polyhedra, which chose to use the ZKJ ticker for its own token list.

ZkSync is one of the most popular Ethereum Layer 2 blockchains built on anti-ZK technology rather than the optimistic rollup strategy favored by networks such as Optimism, Arbitrum, and Blast.

According to data from The Block, ZkSync often has the highest 7-day moving average of transactions among all ZK-based layer 2 Ethereum networks. Competitor Linea recently suspended its network after exploiting Velocore, a decentralized exchange built on top of Linea, among other chains.

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