ZKsync's New Governance System Raises Concerns

On September 13th, Matter Labs, the developer of ZKsync, announced the launch of its governance system. CEO Alex Gluchowski emphasized that it's not a multi-sig system, but rather "all proposed upgrades are initiated directly on-chain by the community of over 370,000 ZK token holders, not by any foundation or small group of trusted actors."

However, Toly, a co-founder of Solana, voiced skepticism about this claim. He argues that despite ZKsync's declaration, it still relies on the honest majority assumption, making it fundamentally similar to a multi-sig system.

Toly further states that ZKsync's governance system has a potential for centralization, unlike Solana. He points out that in Solana, even if a majority of validators agree, a single full node operated by Circle (the issuer of USDC) can reject invalid state transitions, safeguarding the system from malicious actors.

In contrast, ZKsync's "professional safety committee" might face legal risks. If enough committee members are ordered by a US bankruptcy judge, they could be forced to place all cross-chain assets under the control of the bankruptcy trust.