GnosisDAO approves transition of Gnosis Chain from layer-1 to Ethereum rollup

GnosisDAO approves governance proposal GIP-153, authorizing the transition of Gnosis Chain from a standalone layer-1 network into an Ethereum Economic Zone rollup. The transition, targeted for late 2026 or early 2027, retires Gnosis Chain's independent validator set and unlocks approximately 350,000 GNO. By settling directly to Ethereum, the network aims to eliminate unsustainable staking subsidies and enable synchronous composability with Ethereum mainnet contracts.

GIP-153 governance vote results

• ▪Total participation in the GIP-153 vote reached 123,425 GNO, exceeding the required quorum of 75,000 GNO.
• ▪GnosisDAO approved governance proposal GIP-153 on August 19, 2026, authorizing Gnosis Chain's transition from a standalone layer-1 network to an Ethereum rollup.
• ▪The GIP-153 vote received 123,158 GNO in support, 115 GNO against, and 151 GNO abstaining across 54 voters.

Layer-1 to rollup transition

• ▪The initial version of the Gnosis Chain rollup will lack a forced-inclusion mechanism, which Gnosis co-founder Friederike Ernst stated would be added later.
• ▪Gnosis Chain will retain its existing applications, account balances, contract addresses, chain identifier, and xDAI gas token during the rollup transition.
• ▪Gnosis Ltd will initially operate a centralized composer to order transactions and build blocks for the transitioned Gnosis Chain.
• ▪The transition approved under GIP-153 will convert Gnosis Chain into a layer-2 network that publishes proofs and settles transactions on Ethereum.

Validator set retirement

• ▪Gnosis Chain will retire its independent validator set, which had active validators drop to roughly 52,000 by July 2026.
• ▪The retirement of the Gnosis Chain validator set will unlock approximately 350,000 GNO currently staked on the network.

Staking economics changes

• ▪GnosisDAO plans to eventually tie GNO token economics to actual network transaction fees rather than token dilution.
• ▪The transition of Gnosis Chain will end the GnosisDAO treasury-funded staking subsidy, which GIP-153 described as unsustainable.
• ▪GIP-153 stated that the existing Gnosis Chain staking model dilutes non-staking GNO holders by approximately 2.3% annually.

Ethereum Economic Zone framework

• ▪Standard Chartered global head of digital assets research Geoffrey Kendrick stated that the Ethereum Economic Zone could reduce reliance on vulnerable blockchain bridges.
• ▪The Ethereum Economic Zone is a rollup framework developed by Gnosis and ZisK, with funding from the Ethereum Foundation.
• ▪The Ethereum Economic Zone framework enables smart contracts on participating networks to interact synchronously within a single atomic transaction.

Migration timeline

• ▪Full bidirectional cross-instance composability and a complete Ethereum Economic Zone specification are planned for development during 2027.
• ▪The initial deployment of the Gnosis Chain rollup is targeted for late December 2026 or January 2027, subject to technology readiness.
• ▪The initial version of the Gnosis Chain rollup will produce two-second blocks and use an interim proving system.