ZKsync Community Activation Pilot Program (2025–2026)
| Description | Details |
|---|---|
| Title | ZKsync Community Activation Pilot Program (2025–2026) |
| Proposal Type | TPP |
| One Sentence Summary | Allocate 20M ZK tokens over 12 months, administrated by the ZKsync Foundation, to fund key existing community initiatives and activate a competitive RFP process focused on global awareness, developer adoption, and education. |
| Proposal Author | ZKsync Foundation |
| Proposal Sponsor | Polar |
| Date Created | 2025-09-09 |
| Version | v1.0 |
| Summary of Action | Transfer 20M ZK tokens from the Token Governor Timelock to a multisig managed by the ZKsync Foundation to fund three existing community initiatives and a Community RFP Pilot. |
| Link to Contracts | See Program Mechanics section |
| Link to Discussion | https://forum.zknation.io/t/tpp-draft-zksync-community-activation-pilot-program-2025-2026/762 |
Summary
The ZKsync Community Activation Pilot Program allocates 20M ZK tokens across a 12-month pilot to fund community-driven education, adoption, and visibility for ZKsync. The program will be funded using previously recovered tokens from the April 2025 compromised-admin key incident currently located in the Token Governor Timelock.
This pilot tests governance-led funding for ongoing community initiatives (ZK Amigos, ZKnomist, Online Educators) and a Community RFP Pilot, focused on additional initiatives that drive ZKsync awareness, partnership opportunities, and increased community engagement for ZKsync. The ZKsync Foundation will oversee strategy and approves funding initiatives. The Program Contributors will be responsible for providing input and guidance to the ZKsync Foundation on RFP development and winner selection.
Abstract
Over the past year, the ZKsync ecosystem has seen multiple community-led pilots emerge across online and IRL channels. These initiatives have aimed to grow awareness and excitement for ZKsync, leading to increased builder interest and engagement.
The ZKsync Community Activation Pilot Program will fund key existing community initiatives that have been successful over the past year, and activate new contributors and advocates, both online and IRL.
A total of 6.4M ZK will be allocated to three existing community initiatives:
- ZKsync LATAM (former ZK Amigos): on the ground LATAM team supporting ZKsync enterprise and institution engagement, targeting financial institutions and public sector with professional and systemic approach to increase funnel activity ahead of Buenos Aires DevConnect.
- ZKnomist: One dedicated content team (written, visual, and social) covering ZKsync product development, governance and partnership launches.
- Online Educators: Focused on user education via the ZKsync Discord to address questions and mobilize the online community to amplify ZKsync unique value propositions.
The remaining 13.6M ZK will fund a competitive Community RFP Pilot focused on growth, education, and tooling in alignment with ZKsync’s technical roadmap. Tokens would be distributed to selected service providers, accelerating adoption of ZKsync via new ZKsync builders, business opportunities, and integration partners, especially in the context of Prividiums and Appchains.
The eligibility for the RFP Pilot will be focused on initiatives in alignment with ZKsync’s technical roadmap.
Motivation
New ZKsync offerings such as Prividium chains, advanced proofs, and Gateway interoperability rely on grassroots adoption across diverse communities.
It is critical to support online and IRL community engagement efforts to ensure awareness and readiness for new ZKsync deployments. This ensures that people from every region are aware and equipped to promote Prividium and other ZKsync offerings.
The ZKsync Community Activation Pilot Program aligns with ZKsync’s goal to expand onchain activity via community-led activities. The program addresses:
- Community Reach: It is important to reach a diverse community spread across the globe, supporting upcoming ZKsync Chains.
- Discovery and Adoption of New Use-Cases: ZKsync needs paths to address ZKsync builder and user engagement over the next year as ZKsync Chains start connecting with ZKsync Gateway and begin to realize the ZKnomics roadmap.
- Competitive Pressure : ZKsync must continue to grow to compete with other L2 ecosystems by accelerating developer adoption, community involvement and ecosystem growth.
Program Design
The 12-month program will be structured into two 6-month funding seasons.
There are two workstreams to this proposal:
- Existing community initiatives (6.4M ZK); and
- A Community RFP Pilot (13.6M ZK).
Workstream 1: Existing Community Initiatives
The program will fund 3 existing community initiatives in two, six-month seasons. Season 2 funding will be contingent on performance evaluation at the 5-month mark.
The proposed initiatives have been chosen based on:
- Consistent execution supporting ZKsync over the last 12 months
- Community feedback on quality of execution
- Demonstrated understanding of the ZKsync protocol stack and value propositions
- Alignment to ZK Credo
These programs were previously funded by Matter Labs and the ZKsync Foundation. Upon approval of this proposal, the initiatives will continue executing with public reports of impact every 6-months on the ZKsync Governance Forum, tailored to their individual objectives:
Workstream 1 Overview
| Program | Description | Type | Total 12-month ZK Token Allocation (USD @$0.05) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZKsync Regional Activation (ZK Amigos) | LATAM regional squad executing in-person events, online activations, and ecosystem BD across LATAM. | IRL | 2.2M (~$110k USD) |
| ZKsync Community Content Lead (ZKnomist) | Independent content and community team producing recaps, explainers, videos, livestreams, community calls, and case studies. | Online | 2.4M (~$120k USD) |
| Online ZKsync Educators | 4 Educators (Demacia, Neilandroid, Mike, Lisanc) providing end-user support, issue escalation, and UX feedback. | Online | 1.8M (~ $90k USD) Per Educator: 450k ZK (~$22.5k USD) |
Workstream 1 Deliverables
| Program | Success To Date | Key Deliverables |
|---|---|---|
| ZK Amigos | - 16 active quality leads including one pilot with LATAM financial institution<br>- Hosted 20+ events, 600+ attendees<br>- Represented ZKsync at 8 major LATAM conferences | - Top-of-funnel leads for Prividium/ZK chain<br>- Monthly qualified lead funnel<br>- Monthly institutional activations |
| ZKnomist | - 3K+ followers on ZKnomist X<br>- Weekly ZKsync Spaces with hundreds of listeners<br>- Regular content across posts, videos, calls, case studies | - 5 posts + 2 original videos on X/week focusing on ZKsync and ecosystem news <br>- Up to 4 community calls/month <br>- 2 ZKsync Chain Case studies/month <br>- Discord community management |
| Online Educators | - 24/7 end-user support across time zones/languages<br>- Synthesized UX feedback<br>- Escalated multiple resolved security issues | - Time to incident identification, escalation<br>- Bi-annual UX feedback reports<br>- Time to resolve user queries |
ℹ️ Tokens will be distributed unlocked on a monthly basis for the existing community initiatives outlined above. Tokens are divided equally across the two seasons. Funding for these initiatives for season two will be assessed at the end of season one.
Workstream 2: Community RFP Pilot
A total of 13.6M ZK (approximately USD $680,000 at $0.05 per token) will be allocated to support in-person and online growth and education initiatives. These funds will be distributed through a new Request for Proposal (RFP) program. An RFP is an open call issued by the ZKsync Foundation that outlines a specific objective, opportunity, challenge, or need within the ecosystem, and invites individuals, teams, and organizations to submit possible plans describing how they would address it.
The ZKsync Foundation will publish RFPs for community initiatives. Interested participants can then submit their proposals detailing their approach, timeline, expected budget breakdown and expected impact.
All RFP responses will be reviewed and evaluated by the ZKsync Foundation based on strategic alignment, feasibility, and experience. Then, one or more winners may be selected for funding. Depending on the RFP responses, the ZKsync Foundation might not select a winner if no proposals meet the requirements of a given RFP.
Awarded projects will receive funding in the form of ZK tokens. The conditions of each RFP will determine the cadence of funding distribution (e.g., upfront, milestone-based, or phased) and whether a lock-up period will apply to the tokens.
The RFP program will begin publishing the first RFPs in October, pending onchain execution of this proposal, and new RFPs will be posted continuously thereafter to ensure ongoing innovation and community participation.
The ZKsync Foundation will post RFPs that focus on one of the four following categories.
| RFP Category | Description | RFP Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Product Marketing and Community Activation | Campaigns and events to increase ZKsync brand and solutions awareness in alignment to broader industry calendar. | 1. Local meetups, events, and hackathons during industry conferences;<br> 2. X and other social media campaigns amplifying recent ZKsync developments;<br> 3. Podcasts, blogs, media content documenting ZKsync developments |
| Adoption Enablement | Content, such as videos or reports, or events that support onboarding, business opportunities, and activity on ZKsync. | 1. Sales and onboarding content for integration partners, including case studies of Prividium, Gateway, Airbender, zkOS, and other protocol primitives;<br> 2. Institution networking opportunities;<br> 3. Resources for ZKsync target customers, such as financial organizations and crypto businesses with Appchains |
| Data & Transparency | Initiatives that aggregate, summarize, and surface ZKsync activity. | 1. Tracking asset tokenization, transactions, and users across the ZKsync ecosystem;<br> 2. Leaderboards of ZKsync Chains and their contributions to growing ZKsync |
| Community Tooling | Deploy tools that can scale effective community initiatives, with evidence of impact over previous 12 months | 1. Community activation incentive tools;<br> 2. ZKsync customer enablers |
Eligibility
Service providers who submit proposals for each RFP in the RFP Pilot will be required to:
- Submit their response on the ZK Nation Governance Forum, specifying capabilities, deliverables, budget, KPIs, etc.
- Define specific KPIs (e.g., active developers, TVL, new wallet creations) relevant to initiative.
Selected service providers for each RFP will be required to:
- Provide public analytics regarding their performance (e.g. Dune Analytics or monthly reports)
- Complete KYC/KYB requirements with ZKGPS as necessary
The ZKsync Foundation, supported by program contributors, will be responsible for selecting service providers for each RFP, refining eligibility criteria, and terminating engagements based on performance.
ℹ️ The three existing community initiatives receiving funding in this proposal will be permitted to participate in the RFP process should there be a meaningful expansion of their pre-defined scope. The ZKsync Foundation, supported by Program Contributors, will assess and determine eligibility if one of the existing community initiatives submits a proposal for an RFP.
Program Mechanics
Unlike prior Token Programs that rely on minting, this program is funded via previously minted tokens held in the Token Governor Timelock. As the tokens are already minted, there will be no need for a creation of a capped minter for this program.
The program funding will be sourced as a transfer of 20M minted ZK will be executed from the Token Governor Timelock to a multisig controlled by the ZKsync Foundation. See details below.
| Name | Target Address | Signers | Type | Token Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community_Pilot_Multisig2025 | 0x3Da86E64768209Dcd38344Ee052A57c904dD9696 | ZKsync Foundation 3/5 Multisig | Transfer | 20M ZK |
Program funding will be distributed to service providers via streaming or vesting contracts, using available tooling such as Drips, Hedgey, etc. Gradual distribution of funds enables the ZKsync Foundation to pause or cancel the distribution to service providers based on performance.
Participants & Responsibilities
Program Administrator
The ZKsync Foundation will serve as program administrator. Their responsibilities as Program Administrator include:
- Set up multisig for transfer of ZK tokens to streaming or vesting contracts for service providers upon direction of ZKGPS.
- Ensuring existing community initiatives submit reports once every 6 months.
- Publishing RFPs for the Community RFP Pilot.
- Reviewing RFP responses and selecting vendors.
- Pausing and cancelling token distributions based on performance.
- Managing compliance of all token recipients in cooperation with ZKGPS.
Program Contributors
The Program Contributors will support the ZKsync Foundation by providing input and guidance to the ZKsync Foundation on RFP development and winner selection.
- Matter Labs:
- Porter Adams, Matter Labs Developer Relations
- Golem, Matter Labs Business Development
- Independent Delegate Community:
- The ZKsync Foundation may select one independent Delegate or community member as a contributor on an RFP by RFP basis. Interested Delegates must submit a response to this Google Form including a link to their Delegate profile, motivation, and the relevant experience.
ℹ️ Independent program contributors may be eligible for a ZK grant for their support throughout the program length. The grant will be dependent on current service contracts and scope of support. If contributors are paid, KYC will need to be completed prior to distribution of funds.
Accountability
- Legal Contracts: All service providers will enter into legal contracts with ZKGPS, aligning compensation and deliverables defined in this proposal.
- Onchain Token Allocation Tracking: Token allocations are publicly available by default. Seasonal reports by the ZKsync Foundation will include a summary of program disbursements.
- Token Assembly Oversight: The Token Assembly may cancel the program at any point via a Token Program Proposal. Upon proposal cancellation execution, all active token distributions will be cancelled, and un-spent tokens will be returned to the Token Governor Timelock.
- Unused Tokens: All unused tokens at the end of the program will be returned to the Token Governor Timelock.
