Harpen

Today, we seek broader community support to call for Matters’ withdrawal of all improperly-filed, generic trademark applications. Aligned with the true Ethereum ethos, Polygon Labs consistently puts out open-source code that benefits everyone. This commitment has positively impacted the entire crypto space. Polygon Plonky2 has been widely adopted, showcasing the immense benefits of our open and collaborative approach to the web3 community. One such beneficiary is Matter Labs, whose core "zk" tech stack leverages Polygon Plonky2. Initially, they utilized this technology developed by Polygon Labs without proper attribution until they were called out. Now, they are taking it a step further. Despite relying on others' zk technology, Matter Labs now seeks to trademark "zk" to potentially restrict its use by others. Should anyone be allowed to monopolize math made publicly available by pioneers like Shafi Goldwasser, Silvio Micali, Charles Rackoff, Eli Ben-Sasson (STARKs), or Daniel Lubarov (Plonky2, a widely adopted zk library in web3)? Absolutely not. They 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. When Polygon Labs introduced Polygon zkEVM, we deliberately chose not to trademark it, allowing others to use it freely. As a result, it is now widely adopted, with Immutable zkEVM and Astar zkEVM being just two examples. Openness is fundamental to Ethereum and must be preserved, especially regarding core mathematical principles. For the sake of the entire space, this attack will not be tolerated.