ZetaChain votes to shut down Layer 1 network and move ZETA to Solana

ZetaChain (ZETA) token holders voted Sunday to shut down the project's Layer 1 blockchain, approving a move to Solana for a project that raised $27 million three years ago to help connect competing networks.The vote on Proposal 68 ended at 10:58 a.m. ET with 99.4% in favor, according to the project's governance portal. Participation was 58%, exceeding the 40% quorum. Opposition and abstentions were 0.3% apiece.ZetaChain's developers have been working on Anuma, an AI app launched in February, and now say they don't need their own blockchain to pursue it, instead moving it to Solana with the ZETA token.The project counts more than 300,000 Anuma users, per its self-reported numbers, and a million requests across 35 AI models. The app's memory system is encrypted and works across models; ZETA holders can lock up tokens in return for credits to spend on AI."What Solana's AI stack still lacks is the application layer: an app people use every day, with memory that belongs to them and travels across models, apps, and agents," the ZetaChain team wrote in their post about the vote.In its proposal, the team points to the work involved in maintaining a Cosmos SDK chain. "As a Cosmos SDK chain, ZetaChain inherits every upstream advisory and patch, and each one has to be coordinated across dozens of independent validators," the migration proposal states. "AI tooling is making such vulnerabilities easier to find, as the August 25 patch showed, so there will be more."Last month, Cosmos Labs disclosed attacks against six Cosmos EVM chains, though not ZetaChain. The attackers sold stolen funds for about $5.7 million. A researcher had reported the flaw months earlier, but testers mistakenly believed it couldn't be exploited on live networks, The Block reported at the time.No shutdown date, yetThough the vote passed, the proposal leaves ZetaChain running while its contributors work out the full details of the conversion. The ZETA token is to become a native Solana SPL token at a one-for-one rate, retaining its ticker and total supply. Vesting schedules remain unchanged, per the proposal, which excludes ZETA on Ethereum and BNB Chain.A second, forthcoming proposal will specify the block height for a balance snapshot and determine the shutdown block, along with instructions for claiming tokens and withdrawing connected-chain assets. ZetaChain says it won't put that to a vote until exchanges have confirmed their swap arrangements, and hasn't given a firm date.ZETA staking continues in the meantime, and the Sept. 17 announcement was less specific about what happens afterward: the team said it was still exploring how to handle staking and rewards on Solana.Blockchain.com and Jane Street Capital were among the investors in ZetaChain's August 2023 funding round. Back then, the project was preparing a network on which developers could use assets from chains as different as Bitcoin and Ethereum in the same application. Its mainnet launch was announced the following January.The price of ZETA has fallen about 2.5% in the past 24 hours, per The Block's ZetaChain Price page.