In a joint statement on May 30, several Ethereum-related projects, including StarkWare, Polyhedra, and Polygon, criticized Matter Labs' attempt to trademark "zero-knowledge" as its intellectual property.

The statement was endorsed by industry leaders such as Polygon co-founders Sandeep Nailwal and Brendan Farmer, StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, Polyhedra Network co-founder Tiancheng Xie, and Turing Award winner Shafi Goldwasser.

‘ZK is a public good’

Zero Knowledge (ZK) blockchains have become popular for improving security and scalability for developers. These blockchains leverage the security of layer-1 blockchains like Ethereum, allowing decentralized applications (dApps) to achieve higher throughput and faster transactions while protecting user information and reducing costs through batched transactions.

Experts argue that “ZK is a public good that should belong to everyone.” They believe Matter Labs' trademark attempt contradicts the principles of crypto and Ethereum. They stated:

“ZK should remain a public good. It shouldn’t be a trademark of a corporation; it should be accessible to all.”

Polygon echoed this sentiment in a social media post.

The Ethereum layer-2 blockchain network asserted that "openness is fundamental to Ethereum and must be preserved, especially regarding core mathematical principles.” They added:

“[Matter Labs] may claim to do this for the benefit of users. But ask yourself: Will users truly benefit if one company monopolizes zk technology? Would zkSync as a network even exist without the zk technology developed by Polygon Labs? No, a trademark on ‘zk’ actually introduces user harm through confusion.”

The crypto leaders are calling on the community to demand the withdrawal of Matter Labs' trademark applications.

Matter Labs response

In response, Matter Labs CEO Alex Gluchowski expressed his opposition to intellectual property. He explained that the trademarks were meant to protect crypto users rather than the company.

He stated:

“All the trademarks we had ever registered, including ZK-related ones, are defensive, to prevent dishonest actors from misleading their customers and confusing their products and services with the ones offered by Matter Labs.”

Gluchowski also mentioned that Matter Labs had reached out to the Ethereum Foundation’s legal team to collaborate on establishing a legal framework for using "ZK" and other critical tech terms in the public domain.