Last Updated on July 12, 2023 by COINBUZZFEED
Linea, a project aimed at creating a more scalable Ethereum network, has achieved a significant milestone with the launch of its mainnet alpha release. This development follows a successful public testnet phase, during which Linea garnered immense popularity and emerged as one of the largest and fastest-growing projects on the Goerli network. The Linea team is now set to onboard launch partners, marking a crucial step towards making Ethereum more scalable and efficient.
Building a More Scalable Ethereum with Linea’s zkEVM Rollup Network
Linea leverages the power of zero-knowledge proofs in combination with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) equivalence to enable the creation of scalable decentralized applications (dapps) and facilitate the migration of existing ones. What sets Linea apart is its ability to achieve scalability without requiring extensive code changes or smart contract rewrites. This feature ensures a seamless transition for developers and users, streamlining the process of building and using dapps on Ethereum.
To deliver the mainnet alpha release, the Linea team has devoted significant effort to developing, testing, and prototyping various upgrades to the zkEVM architecture. These upgrades are designed to enhance the network’s performance, user experience, and transaction costs. Linea’s primary objective is to build the most scalable, efficient, secure, and user-friendly Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) rollup.
Empowering Users and Builders with Linea’s Alpha Release
Linea’s alpha release brings with it a host of benefits for users, builders, and developers in the Ethereum ecosystem. The release boasts faster throughput and significantly lower transaction fees compared to Ethereum Layer 1 (L1). This improvement opens up new possibilities for the development of scalable Ethereum dapps. Moreover, the alpha release enables deeper integrations with MetaMask, a popular Ethereum wallet provider. MetaMask plans to offer Linea to its users for Bridge, Swap, and Buy features within the Portfolio.
As Linea’s launch partners begin migrating to the alpha release, a wide range of scalable dapps will become available. These include gaming applications, identity solutions, decentralized social networks, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). With Linea’s improved scalability, these dapps can achieve higher throughput and lower transaction costs, fostering innovation and growth in the Ethereum ecosystem.
The latest major upgrade, Linea Alpha v0.2.0, executed on June 13, 2023, introduced key architectural changes in anticipation of the mainnet launch. Here are the highlights of the Linea Alpha v0.2.0 upgrade:
– Batch conflation: Reduces fixed costs for L2 blocks by optimizing verification.
– New version of the Canonical Message Service: Implements a “push” execution model, removes message deadlines, and reduces or eliminates service fees.
– Minimum viable product release of Postman SDK and cross-chain message execution system: Enables seamless execution of messages across different chains.
– New version of the Canonical Token Bridge: Supports N-N ERC20 token bridging and a reserved/well-known token registry.
– Upgraded rollup zkEVM contract: Incorporates a new outer-proof system, switching from Groth16 to PLONK, and integrates with the new security council system.
– Upgraded prover and block production + trace generation components: Provides support for the new architecture, especially batch conflation.
Limitations on the Mainnet Alpha Release
To ensure a smooth rollout of the mainnet alpha release, certain limitations and safeguards have been put in place. During the first week, RPC calls to the network will be restricted to launch partners only, and the bridge UI will require a password for access. Upon opening the network during ETHCC, some withdrawal limits will remain in effect initially. However, Linea aims to work with its bridge partners to gradually reduce and eliminate these limits within the first 90 days. Additionally, there will be a delay of at least eight hours between the L2 and L1 for state changes to ensure proper monitoring and protection against potential malicious activities. Linea mainnet alpha does not offer full coverage of the EVM opcodes and precompiles.
Linea has already witnessed the integration of over 100 partners during the testnet phase
