A new effort to fix Ethereum’s fragmentation issue

Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) is a new framework designed to make Ethereum’s layer 2 networks work together more seamlessly.

Over the past few years, the ecosystem has expanded across dozens of layer 2 networks. Each promised faster transactions and lower fees. Together, they delivered something else as well: a more complex, fragmented user experience.

Moving assets between networks requires bridges. Liquidity is split. Applications are duplicated. For users and developers alike, Ethereum can feel less like a single system—and more like a collection of disconnected islands.

Now, a new initiative aims to change that.

What is the Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ)

Announced at EthCC in Cannes, the EEZ aims to solve the issue of Ethereum L2 fragmentation.

The project is being developed by a group of organizations including:

• Gnosis
• Zisk
• the Ethereum Foundation

The idea is simple in principle, but ambitious in scope: make Ethereum feel like one unified system again.

Instead of treating each L2 as a separate environment, the EEZ aims to enable:

• instant interaction between networks
• shared liquidity across chains
• unified infrastructure for developers

All while continuing to rely on Ethereum’s core security.

The problem it’s trying to solve

Ethereum’s scaling strategy has largely depended on layer 2 networks.

That approach worked (technically).

But it created new friction:

• users must bridge assets between networks
• transfers can be slow, costly and sometimes risky
• liquidity is fragmented across chains
• developers often rebuild the same tools multiple times

In practice, this means that even simple actions can require multiple steps and multiple environments.

“Ethereum doesn't have a scaling problem," Gnosis co-founder Friederike Ernst said. "It has a fragmentation problem. Every new L2 is a silo that makes it harder to seamlessly extend and drive value back to the Ethereum mainnet.”

What the EEZ proposes

The Ethereum Economic Zone is designed to remove these silos.

At a high level, it proposes to:

• enable cross-network interactions without bridges
• create shared liquidity between L2s and the L1
• simplify infrastructure for developers
• provide a smoother, more unified user experience

If implemented, this could mean:

• interacting with apps across different networks as if they were one
• moving assets without explicit bridging steps
• accessing deeper, unified liquidity

Importantly, the system is expected to use ETH as the primary token for fees, rather than introducing new tokens.

A response to growing debate

The launch of EEZ comes amid renewed discussion about Ethereum’s long-term scaling approach.

While L2s have enabled significant growth, they have also introduced structural complexity. Even Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has recently pointed to fragmentation and user experience as areas that may need rethinking.

The EEZ can be seen as a direct response to this shift in thinking: not more chains, but better coordination between them.

What it means for users and developers

If successful, the EEZ could change how users interact with Ethereum.

Instead of:

• choosing networks
• bridging assets
• managing fragmented liquidity

Users would experience something closer to a single, continuous environment.

For developers, the benefits could be equally significant:

• less duplication of infrastructure
• simpler cross-chain interactions
• access to unified liquidity.

From scaling to cohesion

Ethereum’s scaling strategy has always been about expanding capacity without compromising security.

The next phase may be about something else: making that expanded ecosystem coherent

The EEZ represents an attempt to move from a network of chains to a network of connected systems - where liquidity, applications and users can move freely.

What comes next

The Ethereum Economic Zone is still in development and is being built openly with input from the wider community.

Its success will depend on adoption, coordination and execution across multiple stakeholders.

But the direction is clear: the future of Ethereum may depend not just on scaling—but on how well its parts work together.

Relevance for the 1inch ecosystem

“Once the EEZ is realized, two huge opportunities open up for the 1inch ecosystem,” says Tanner Moore, Head of Developer Relations at 1inch. “First, there is potential for our aggregator to play a bigger role in DeFi infrastructure. It could be upgraded from single-transaction swaps within one chain to single-transaction swaps between many chains. Second, it would create a new opportunity for Aqua to achieve a similar end-state, cleanly unifying liquidity across the Ethereum L1 and all EEZ L2s.”

“The EEZ initiative is aligning EVM chains similarly to how 1inch originally aligned DEXes,” he concluded. “It is bringing back simple UX for on-chain actions, and I completely agree with the direction."

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