Industry demands withdrawal as Matter Labs files for ‘ZK’ trademark

Matter Labs, the company behind zkSync, has caused outrage in the crypto industry by filing trademark applications in nine countries to claim exclusive ownership of the term “zero-knowledge.” This move is seen as an attempt to solidify their control over the technology. Zero-knowledge (ZK) technology is a cryptographic protocol that allows one person to prove a claim to another without revealing any details about the claim itself. The CEO of StarkWare, Eli Ben-Sasson, has criticized Matter Labs’ trademark filing, calling it an “absurd IP grab.” Industry experts, including Sandeep Nailwal, Brendan Farmer, Tiancheng Xie, and Shafi Goldwasser, have signed a public letter urging the withdrawal of the trademark application, deeming it oppressive behavior. In response, Matter Labs’ CEO, Alex Gluchowski, stated that he rejects the concept of intellectual property. Ben-Sasson emphasized that no single company should lay claim to the ZK technology paradigm, given its potential for humanity. ZK-proofs, despite being in their infancy, are increasingly important for future digital identity solutions and could be utilized as Europe’s privacy-focused digital identity solution.