What is Gnosis EEZ
The Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) is a neutral rollup framework, co-led by Gnosis and Zisk and co-funded by the Ethereum Foundation. Rollups built on it settle to Ethereum and are designed to call Ethereum mainnet contracts in the same transaction, with no bridge in the middle. The framework is not a Gnosis product.
Gnosis EEZ is its first instance, operated by Gnosis. In the future, the state of Gnosis Chain will be hard-forked onto it. Contracts, balances, addresses and the xDai gas token carry over unchanged, so nothing deployed on Gnosis Chain today needs to be redeployed.
The rest of this documentation covers Gnosis Chain as it runs today, and stays accurate until the fork.
What changes, in short
| Gnosis Chain today | Gnosis EEZ (future) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A proof-of-stake Layer 1 | A rollup that settles to Ethereum |
| Blocks | Every 5 seconds, from a validator set | Every 2 seconds, from a composer operated by Gnosis |
| Security | Validator economic security | Proofs verified on Ethereum |
| Reaching Ethereum mainnet | Through a bridge | A synchronous call into Ethereum mainnet, in the same transaction |
| Reaching other rollups | Through a bridge | Through a bridge, unless the rollup is part of the EEZ |
| Your contracts | Deployed on Gnosis Chain | Unchanged, at the same addresses |
The full comparison is on Gnosis Chain now and Gnosis EEZ.
One Ethereum, not a hundred islands
Ethereum doesn't have a scaling problem. It has a fragmentation problem. Rollups brought costs down and throughput up, but each one launched with its own liquidity, its own bridge and its own deployments, and each became its own island. Users pay for that in bridging fees, delays and risk every time they move.
The EEZ is built to reverse fragmentation. Rollups that join the zone are designed to compose with Ethereum mainnet in the same transaction and, in time, with each other. Ethereum stays the settlement layer and the source of truth, so liquidity and users gather around mainnet instead of drifting away from it.
Gnosis EEZ is the first instance, not the whole zone. The framework is open source and credibly neutral: it is governed through a Swiss non-profit, no single company controls it, and any team can run an instance on it. It is co-led by Gnosis and Zisk and co-funded by the Ethereum Foundation.
Where this stands
The core contracts are an early-stage implementation that has not been audited. The first release will start with an interim proving setup before real-time ZK proving, and synchronous calls will run from Gnosis EEZ into Ethereum before the reverse direction is live. Calls between EEZ instances come after that. The timeline tracks each milestone.
Where to go next
Gnosis Chain now and Gnosis EEZ
What stays the same, what changes, and what the fork means for validators.
How it works
Sequence, compose, attest, settle: the four steps behind every Gnosis EEZ block.
EEZ demos and protocol docs
Hands-on walkthroughs of a synchronous call, and the full protocol documentation.
Timeline
From the EEZ announcement to the Gnosis EEZ launch, and what follows.
Transition FAQ
Short answers for builders, users, validators and node operators.
Become a launch partner
Deploy on Gnosis Chain now and be live on Gnosis EEZ at launch.