Matter Labs, the company incubating the ZkSync Ethereum Layer 2 network, has dropped all attempts to trademark the term "ZK," the company announced on X, following backlash from pioneering zero-knowledge proof or "ZK" researchers. 

Matter Labs said the discussions around the trademark application came down to one fact: "It would be impossible to agree on a group of people perceived as credibly neutral by nearly everyone," the company wrote in its announcement. 

After Matter Labs announced its intention to trademark the term "ZK," several representatives of leading ZK projects, including Shafi Goldwasser and Silvio Micali, co-inventors of ZK proofs, Sandeep Nailwal and Brendan Farmer, co-founders of Polygon, and Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO of StarkWare, released a statement condemning …