RIADeFi
Refusal file · other

Why Ketju rejected zkSync Era Bridge

Memo v1Published by Ketju Research

A registry memo, published verbatim and versioned. Superseded versions are recorded, never edited away. A rejection is a judgment for Ketju's client base and thesis, not a universal safety claim. Not investment, legal, tax, or compliance advice.

The memo

REJECTED ON A NO-DELAY CENSORSHIP CAPABILITY LAYERED ON TOP OF AN EMERGENCY PATH THAT BYPASSES ALL STANDING DELAYS. zkSync Era, Matter Labs' ZK rollup, uses real SNARK validity proofs and a three-hour post-execution delay before withdrawals become actionable — materially faster than an optimistic rollup's seven-day window, a genuine mechanism strength. But L2Beat rates it Stage 0, and its own risk summary states plainly that funds can be stolen through a malicious upgrade because the standard 4-day-3-hour to 8-day-3-hour upgrade delay can be bypassed entirely if the EmergencyUpgradeBoard initiates it instead, with no delay at all. Separately, an operator-controlled TransactionFilterer can block user transactions, including withdrawals, with zero delay — the same censorship-filter pattern that already sank Robinhood Chain in this batch. A real, confirmed compromise of a privileged key inside this exact organization in April 2025 compounds rather than offsets the structural concern.

What would reopen the file

  • The TransactionFilterer capability is removed, or is demonstrated to require the same delay and approval path as a standard upgrade
  • The EmergencyUpgradeBoard's ability to bypass the standard multi-day delay is removed or itself gated behind a minimum standing delay
  • zkSync Era reaches at least Stage 1 per L2Beat's published criteria
  • Twelve consecutive months with no privileged-key compromise anywhere in the Matter Labs or ZK Foundation governance or operational infrastructure, counted from the April 2025 incident

Facts on file

Verdict
Rejected
Exposure
other
Chains examined
Ethereum
Memo version
v1
Reviewed
Next review

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