Gnosis Chain is set to transition from a standalone Layer 1 network to an Ethereum-settled rollup, following a governance-approved strategic direction published through GnosisDAO. The shift would retire the chain’s independent validator set and place settlement on Ethereum Layer 1.

The plan affects both infrastructure and token economics. Roughly 350,000 GNO currently tied up in validation would be unlocked when the validator set is phased out, and the treasury-funded staking subsidy would end. At the same time, the proposal says users and developers would keep the existing chain state without needing to migrate addresses, balances, or contracts.

Validator model to be retired

According to the announcement and governance proposal, Gnosis Chain will no longer rely on its own validator set once the transition is completed. Instead, the network is intended to operate as an Ethereum-settled rollup rather than as an independent Layer 1.

For GNO stakers, that change carries direct consequences. The approved direction indicates that about 350,000 GNO would be released when validators are sunset, while the staking subsidy currently funded by the treasury would also come to an end.

What stays the same for users

Despite the architectural change, the proposal presents continuity as a core part of the transition. xDAI would remain the gas token, and the network’s existing addresses, balances, and smart contract state would persist without requiring a move to a newly launched chain.

That means the change is framed less as a migration to a separate network and more as a redesign of how the current chain is secured and settled. For developers and applications already deployed on Gnosis Chain, preserving state is a central part of the plan.

Ethereum access is the main technical goal

The proposal identifies atomic access from Gnosis to Ethereum contracts and liquidity as the main technical benefit of the new model. In practical terms, that points to tighter interaction with Ethereum while using Ethereum for settlement.

However, the promised composability is not expected to be fully symmetric at launch. The documents say synchronous functionality would initially be one-directional, from Gnosis into Ethereum. Calls in the opposite direction, from Ethereum into Gnosis, along with broader cross-instance composability, are left for later development.

How the new setup is expected to work

Under the proposal, Gnosis Chain would become a Gnosis-operated instance of the Ethereum Economic Zone framework. The planned system would produce blocks every two seconds, generate state proofs every Ethereum block, and settle those results back to Ethereum Layer 1.

At the start, Gnosis Ltd would run a centralized composer responsible for ordering transactions, building blocks, and submitting them for proving and settlement. That detail underscores that the governance vote approved an overall strategic path, not a finalized technical architecture.

What the governance vote actually decided

The approval did not finalize implementation details or allocate new funding. Instead, it endorsed the direction of moving Gnosis Chain from its current standalone design into an Ethereum-settled rollup model.

The next confirmed step, based on the proposal, is continued technical development around that framework, including future work on broader composability. For now, the key decisions are the validator sunset, the preservation of existing chain state, and an initial operating model in which Gnosis Ltd controls the composer.

Source: thedefiant.io