The post Matter Labs withdraws ‘ZK’ trademark plans following community outcry appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Matter Labs, the team behind Ethereum’s layer-2 scaling solution zkSync, has decided to abandon its efforts to trademark the term “ZK” — short for “zero knowledge” proofs. The firm’s decision came three days after many senior ZK researchers blasted the firm’s behavior “in the strongest possible terms,” emphasizing that ZK innovations should instead be a “public good” that is “accessible to all.” “As a result of these conversations, we decided to drop all trademark applications,” Matter Labs stated in a June 2 X post. “It would be impossible to reach an agreement on a group of persons who were almost universally recognized as credibly impartial. What worked for Ethereum may not be applicable to the entire world.” Thank you to everyone who reached out following our post, offering ideas, support, and feedback. As a result of these conversations, we decided to drop all trademark applications for the term “ZK”. These discussions came down to one important fact: it would be impossible to… — Matter Labs (∎, ∆) (@the_matter_labs) June 2, 2024 In a public letter, ZK advocates stated that ZKs should remain a public good rather than a corporation’s trademark and that a firm attempting to use the legal system to annex a public good would violate a basic tenet of the cryptocurrency sector. “If the company goes through with this, it will be separating itself from the very community it claims to be a part of,” the signatories stated in the letter on May 30. Seven people signed the letter, including Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali, two of the three creators of ZK-proofs, StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, and Polygon Labs co-founder Sandeep Nailwal. Matter Labs first stated that it applied for ZK-related trademarks to ensure that ZK could be freely used in conjunction with “ZK Sync,” “ZK Stack,” and…

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Filed under: News - @ June 3, 2024 2:24 pm