Contributors in the zero-knowledge (ZK) field, including StarkWare and Polygon, publicly condemn the attempt by Ethereum Layer 2 network zkSync to register “ZK” as a trademark, calling it a threat to the crypto community and demanding the withdrawal of the application.
The controversy stems from the token code dispute between cross-chain protocol Polyhedra Network and zkSync. Polyhedra had issued the “ZK” token as early as March this year. However, Bybit exchange’s announcement last week to list zkSync’s token, ZK, sparked dissatisfaction from Polyhedra.
Polyhedra later explicitly stated on the X platform that zkSync intended to snatch their token code and claimed that zkSync had never contacted Polyhedra and had been spreading rumors among different entities.
This sparked a backlash from industry insiders. On May 30th, Polyhedra Network received public support from several leaders in the ZK field. In a statement, projects including StarkWare and Polygon condemned the actions of zkSync developer Matter Labs, claiming that Matter Labs attempted to register the ZK trademark and use it for their own token, which goes against the fundamental spirit of the crypto and Ethereum communities.
The statement emphasized that zero-knowledge technology is a public good and should remain open to everyone, calling on Matter Labs to withdraw its trademark application. The signatories of this statement include Turing Award winner and co-inventor of zero-knowledge proofs Shafi Goldwasser, Algorand founder Silvio Micali, StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, Polygon’s co-founders Sandeep Nailwal and Brendan Farmer, Polyhedra Network co-founder Tiancheng Xie, and zkEVM project founder Elias Tazartes.
Linea, an L2 network developed by ConsenSys, also published a post today supporting this statement and urging Matter Labs to stick to its mission and withdraw its trademark application.
In addition, Taiko, a Layer 2 network recently launched on the Ethereum mainnet, stated that “in light of similar discussions this week regarding token codes, we want to be fair to everyone.” Due to other projects already using $TKO as their code, Taiko decided to change its token code from $TKO to $TAIKO. In response to the conflict with zkSync, Polyhedra also announced that the token code it will use when listed on the HashKey exchange will be changed to “ZKJ.”
In response to criticism from multiple industry insiders, Matter Labs published a post earlier today on the X platform, stating, “ZK technology belongs to the community, and this is the end of it.” They claimed that their application for related ZK trademarks was to ensure the free use of the term “ZK” in contexts such as “ZK Sync” and “ZK Stack,” stating that, “whether we like it or not, trademarks are the only legal tools available today.”
Matter Labs continued, stating that the existence of trademarks is to protect users, not the company. All trademarks previously registered by Matter Labs are defensive, including those related to ZK, with the aim of preventing dishonest actors from misleading customers and confusing their products and services with those provided by Matter Labs.
Alex Gluchowski, the CEO of Matter Labs, clarified that the company had previously contacted the legal team of the Ethereum Foundation, expressing willingness to collaborate in creating a legal framework to enable the use of “ZK” and similar important technical terms in the public domain.
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