Nicolas Liochon (Linea): "Our aim is not for Consensys to manage everything".

What stage has Linea reached in its development?

Linea was launched around a year ago (read our article published on this occasion, editor's note). Today, we record around one billion dollars of TVL (Total Value Locked) in our applications, with an average of 55 transactions per second on a typical day. We're very pleased with the progress we've made!

TVL is a key metric because decentralised finance is the basis of what a blockchain can offer. It was crucial for us to position ourselves in this segment and demonstrate Linea's technical capabilities. We have established a solid DeFi ecosystem and robust foundations.

What's the next step?

Decentralisation is our main objective, because we don't want Consensys to manage everything end-to-end. Decentralisation of the sequencer is a major issue. A lot of people choose not to do it because it saves a lot of money and it's easier to manage a single high-performance sequencer. However, we have been working for several months on setting up a decentralised sequencer where everyone will be able to participate in the creation of blocks, independently of Consensys.

> Survey: the plans of the giant Consensys

Can you give us a timetable for the decentralisation of the sequencer?

It's difficult to give precise dates at the moment, but from 2025, visible stages of decentralisation will be put in place with several sequencers operating on the network.

Is a token required to decentralise a sequencer?

To guarantee fast performance, we can't wait for a proof to be verified on layer 1, i.e. Ethereum. In the case of a Zk Rollup, this operation takes around 30 minutes, which is far too long. By staking assets on layer 2, the latter can be trusted before the 30 minutes, as it has no interest in lying because of the staked assets (which can be 'slashed' in the event of an error or attempted corruption, editor's note). Several options are available, such as restaking or creating a token. In any case, it's essential to have something to stake.

Many of L2's tokens disappointed at their launch, what's your analysis?

For many projects, the arrival of a token was expected, as with ZkSync (read our analysis) and Starknet (read our analysis). The game is a familiar one and this can lead to disappointment if user expectations are underestimated. However, it is crucial to have several technical stacks for Zk EVM, and the diversity of projects is a good thing.

The quests offered to Linea users have been criticised by some of the community, how do you deal with this feeling?

We fully accept our choices! Some experiences may have been disappointing, particularly in gaming, but many things are new and it's normal that not everything is perfect. Quests introduce gamification, but you don't have to do everything. We took this into account in our last season by clarifying that users are not obliged to take part in every quest.

What will determine the success of some L2s over others?

There's a technical dimension and a business dimension. On the technical side, I think that 4 to 10 technical designs will persist, with around 5 main ones with similar missions, and a few more innovative ones. If the latter become relevant, the old technologies will migrate to them. We're already seeing this with optimistic rollups planning to move to Zk Rollups.

> Layers 2 Ethereum: State of play and challenges

And on the business side?

The fragmentation of liquidity between the different Zk Rollups is a huge challenge. High execution capabilities will be a differentiating factor between projects. This is why we are investing heavily in this aspect, which will naturally lead to a concentration of the best-performing projects.

What is Linea's performance today?

We are among the best, notably with 12 million gases per second. We plan to increase this capacity by 20% per quarter, and next year we hope to reach a capacity ten times higher. This will attract applications requiring high peak usage.

The best technology isn't always the one that wins out, how do you avoid this pitfall?

Our ecosystem is very solid, as Linea's DeFi shows, which already offers the essentials. Many developers are innovating on our platform, particularly in the field of 'SocialFi'. Compared with other ZkEVMs, we're among the leaders. What's more, our link with Metamask, even though it won't systematically use Linea, should bring in many users, TVL and new use cases.

> Joseph Lubin (Consensys): "The SocialFi wave is just beginning"

Is Linea lacking an exclusive "killer app"

Most applications today are positioned on the multichain, which is consistent with the objective of decentralisation. For new applications, Linea offers a number of advantages and optimum use of its ecosystem. Users also benefit from large capacities without fear of high fees.

How do you differentiate yourself from Base, Coinbase's L2, which is also developed by a legacy company?

Base is based on Optimism's OP Stack and is not a Zk EVM. They know they will have to review their stack at some point. It is possible that Base will one day use Linea's stack when they switch to ZkEVM. There's a stack of the past and a stack of the future!

Are you planning to create a "Superchain" like Optimism, but adapted to the Zk EVM stack?

We're remaining modest about this. Open source technologies will be reused by everyone, that's the Web3 philosophy. We'll be among the first to benefit from the 'provers' developed by other ecosystems.