ZKsync sets May 4 deprecation date for Lite as project consolidates around Era

ZKsync (ZK) has set a May 4 deprecation date for ZKsync Lite, widely regarded as Ethereum’s first zero-knowledge rollup, as the project continues focusing on its newer ZK Stack ecosystem. 

Block production on the 2020-era network will cease on that date, permanently freezing its final state to ensure balances cannot be altered post-shutdown, according to a Thursday announcement from the team.

The project described the move as a "planned, orderly sunset for a system that has served its purpose," emphasizing that the deprecation does not affect other ZKsync products such as Era or chains built with the ZK Stack framework. A read-only API will remain available for at least one year following the shutdown to support data access, the team said in the X post.

Users have been urged to withdraw assets ahead of the May 4 cutoff for greater convenience, though the team stated that funds not withdrawn by that date will remain fully claimable.

According to L2BEAT data, approximately $33.9 million remains canonically bridged to ZKsync Lite, including about $24.9 million in stablecoins, $8.4 million in ETH and derivatives, $313,320 in BTC and derivatives, and $231,130 in other assets.

ZKsync Lite, originally called ZKsync 1.0, supported token transfers, atomic swaps, and NFT minting, but did not include smart contract functionality. Development was halted in March 2023 by Matter Labs, the company behind ZKsync, following the launch of ZKsync Era, a zkEVM designed to support arbitrary smart contracts.

The Block reported at the time that Era represented the "Holy Grail of scaling Ethereum" by enabling developers to port existing applications without sacrificing security.