Matter Labs has withdrawn the trademark application for ZK

The company Matter Labs, behind the L2 network zkSync, announced this on the social network X. After Matter Labs previously declared its intention to use ZK as a trademark, several representatives of leading projects using zero-knowledge proof (ZK) technology condemned this move. [Source].

Matter Labs, a company that is incubating the ZkSync Ethereum Layer 2 network, has abandoned all efforts to trademark the term “ZK,” the company stated on X after facing criticism from the pioneers of zero-knowledge proof or “ZK.”

Matter Labs said the discussions around the trademark application came down to one fact: For it is virtually impossible to identify a group of people that would be considered credible by almost every stakeholder,” the company stated in its release.

When Matter Labs declared its plans to trademark the term “ZK,” leading representatives of ZK projects such as Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali, co-inventors of ZK proofs, Sandeep Nailwal and Brendan Farmer, the co-founders of Polygon, and Eli Ben-Sasson, the CEO of StarkWare, issued a statement against the decision.

“ZK should remain a public good. It shouldn’t be a trademark of a corporation: “It should, however, be available to all,” the statement read in part. “This is the kind of action that, if the company proceeds with it, is literally distancing itself from the community that it pretends to be a member of.”

The trademark dispute arrived at the time that ZkSync is preparing for an airdrop which is set to take place in mid-June as The Block reported earlier. Its decision to use the ticker ZK was a problem since it triggered conflict with Polyhedra that preferred the ticker ZKJ for its token.