[TPP-8] ZKsync Community Activation Pilot Program (2025–2026)

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:

1. 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.
2. ZKnomist: One dedicated content team (written, visual, and social) covering ZKsync product development, governance and partnership launches.
3. 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:

1. Existing community initiatives (6.4M ZK); and
2. 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:

1. Consistent execution supporting ZKsync over the last 12 months
2. Community feedback on quality of execution
3. Demonstrated understanding of the ZKsync protocol stack and value propositions
4. 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- Hosted 20+ events, 600+ attendees- Represented ZKsync at 8 major LATAM conferences	- Top-of-funnel leads for Prividium/ZK chain- Monthly qualified lead funnel- Monthly institutional activations
ZKnomist	- 3K+ followers on ZKnomist X- Weekly ZKsync Spaces with hundreds of listeners- Regular content across posts, videos, calls, case studies	- 5 posts + 2 original videos on X/week focusing on ZKsync and ecosystem news - Up to 4 community calls/month - 2 ZKsync Chain Case studies/month - Discord community management
Online Educators	- 24/7 end-user support across time zones/languages- Synthesized UX feedback- Escalated multiple resolved security issues	- Time to incident identification, escalation- Bi-annual UX feedback reports- 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 proj

... please visit link below to view full proposal

https://tally.xyz/gov/zksync/proposal/19993014537746296636853362219247192671631735482612670856590540039176244970638