• The Swiss non-profit organization will oversee Linea's development and governance.

• The Linea Association will prioritize building a fast, secure, and accessible network for users worldwide.

• The Linea Network, first users of Linea technology, takes a key step toward network decentralization, with plans to launch the LINEA token by Q1 2025 for community-driven governance.

Bangkok, Thailand, November 13th - Today at Devcon, the Linea Association, an independent Swiss non-profit organization, announced its launch. The Association is dedicated to advancing the growth, development and governance of Linea’s open-source technology and ecosystem, as well as its canonical instance, Linea Mainnet, a zkEVM Layer-2 bootstrapped by Consensys to scale Ethereum while preserving its security and decentralization. This milestone represents a significant step toward decentralizing the Linea network and fostering community-led governance.

Mission and Priorities of the Linea Association

The core priorities of the Association echo those of Linea today: To empower the world to live onchain. The Association's priorities include:

• Supporting the development of Linea Mainnet, which is powered by Linea Technology, and continuing to build a network that is exceptionally fast, affordable, and secure—one that remains accessible worldwide to people from all economic and social backgrounds, and that is maximally aligned with and supportive of the operation and evolution of Ethereum Layer 1.

• Advancing Linea’s decentralization through the development of governance mechanisms and the implementation of decentralized sequencing and proving.

• Enabling developers to build decentralized applications with great user experience, and to distribute these applications to millions of users, particularly through MetaMask.

• Stimulating the formation and growth of stronger communities of real people, with meaningful engagement. Some initial projects include Foxy, efrogs, and Linus.

• Empowering users and businesses to store and manage their valuable onchain data—including their identity and property. Initial real-life use cases include onchain payments with MetaMask Card and onchain identity projects with attestation registries like Verax.

“Decentralization is at the core of Linea's vision. Linea must be owned and governed openly by all as a public good, just as Layer 1 Ethereum is. The establishment of the Linea Association ensures that the protocol's future lies in the hands of its community, empowering users and developers to shape its trajectory collaboratively and transparently. The Linea Association will represent a growing ecosystem of Ethereum technologists, builders, and users with the mission to empower the world to live onchain”, said Nicolas Liochon, Founder of Linea and member of the Board of the Linea Association.

Committing to Linea’s Governance Decentralization: TGE Intended by End of Q1 2025

The Linea Association will act as the steward for protocol governance, ensuring social and technical alignment. A core feature of the Linea Association's operations will be Tokenholder Governance. As a result, the Linea Association aims to launch the LINEA token by the end of Q1 2025. This will allow Linea token holders to participate in governance. While a snapshot has not yet been announced, the LXP Voyage has ended and Linea continues to be focused on fostering organic community growth, inviting more than 1.3 million human verified addresses to call Linea their home network. LINEA tokens will be distributed via a Token Generation Event (TGE) to ecosystem contributors. Over time the LINEA token will take on additional utility beyond governance. More details on the token design, economics, and utility will be shared by the Linea Association before TGE.

The Swiss Association affords the ability to provide token holders with governance over certain activities of the Association, which will house core Linea intellectual property and a treasury for supporting its mission of furthering the growth and development of the open-source LINEA software technology, the Linea Network, and other networks using the Linea technology.

Fulfilling Linea’s Vision for Technical Decentralization

Since its mainnet launch in August 2023, Linea has become the fastest-growing zkEVM on Ethereum, surpassing 230 million total transactions in less than 15 months. The ecosystem has grown from 150 partners in August 2023 to over 420 in November 2024.

Currently in phase 1 of its decentralization roadmap, Linea has decentralized core protocol development by onboarding long-term Ethereum contributors, like Status. Status develops the Nimbus client, which secures 10% of Ethereum Proof-of-Stake. Linea's technology is already publicly available, under the Apache license, which ensures that users have the freedom to view, fork, and modify the code, fostering transparency and aligning with web3 values.

Governance of The Linea Association

The Association will be governed by a multi-layered structure that includes:

• A Board of Directors,

• A General Assembly,

• Employees reporting to an Executive Director, and

• A Token Governance body

The Association is independent of Consensys - aligning with the vision of Consensys’s CEO Joseph Lubin, to progressively decentralize core Consensys innovations. Consensys is excited for the future of Linea - a future which is better if it is owned and governed by the community instead of on a centralized basis. Consensys looks forward to the continued growth of both the Linea Mainnet and the Linea technology, and integrating both the Network and technology with its core offerings such as MetaMask and Infura/DIN.

“As Consensys progresses toward decentralization, Linea represents a foundational step in our vision of creating a Network State for the emerging decentralized global economy, one of many overlapping Network States in which we expect to participate. By decentralizing critical elements of our ecosystem, including governance, infrastructure, and community empowerment, we aim to foster a more resilient and transparent web3. Through initiatives like Linea, we’re building the foundation for an open, collaborative and censorship-resistant world, where individuals and communities globally can participate fully and securely,” said Consensys’s CEO, Joseph Lubin.

Media Contact: PR@linea.build

About The Linea Association

The Linea Association is an independent Swiss non-profit organization, dedicated to the development, growth, and governance of Linea’s open-source technology and ecosystem, as well as its canonical instance, Linea Mainnet—a zkEVM Layer-2 built to scale Ethereum while preserving its security and decentralization. With a mission to grow Linea, the home network for the world, as an inclusive ecosystem, the Linea Association champions initiatives that drive network decentralization, community-led governance, and innovative applications that elevate web3 user, builder, and community experiences.