Consensys decentralizes Linea with new Swiss nonprofit association
2024-11-13

Linea, a layer-2 (L2) zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) rollup developed by Consensys, continues its path to decentralization by establishing the Linea Association.
Linea Association, a Swiss nonprofit dedicated to advancing Linea’s growth and governance, officially announced its launch at the Devcon event in Bangkok, Thailand, on Nov. 13.
The newly launched association will serve three main objectives: support of the Linear technology, development of the Linea market and further advancement of Linea’s decentralization roadmap, Linea product lead Declan Fox told Cointelegraph.
Consensys founder and Ethereum contributor Joseph Lubin believes that the Linea Association is a major step to the network’s true decentralization that excludes excessive control by any governing entity.
Linea Association targets community-led governance with new token
The Linea Association will oversee the development and governance of Linea’s open-source technology and ecosystem and grow the Linea mainnet, a zkEVM layer 1 bootstrapped by Consensys, to scale Ethereum while preserving its security and decentralization.
One core feature of the Linea Association’s operations will be tokenholder governance, which will bring the launch of the Linea token in the first quarter of 2025.
According to the plan, the Swiss Association will be able to provide tokenholders with governance over certain activities of the Association, which will house core Linea intellectual property and a treasury to support its mission.
According to Linea’s product lead, Linea is still working on details of its future community-driven governance based on tokens.
“We want to do this in a very sort of open and transparent way,” Fox said, adding that Linea has been recently focused on decentralization efforts both from the technical and governance fronts.
Decentralization is at the core of Linea’s vision
Launched by Consensys in 2023, Linea sees decentralization as the core of its vision, according to Linea founder Nicolas Liochon, who is also a member of the board of the Linea Association.
“Linea must be owned and governed openly by all as a public good, just as layer 1 Ethereum is,” Liochon said in a press release.
The Linea Association will represent a growing ecosystem of Ethereum technologists, builders and users with the mission to “empower the world to live onchain,” he added.
According to Consensys’ Lubin, the Linea Association is well set to figure out many governance issues faced by L2s.
“We don’t believe that layer 2s that are overly controlled by a company or a very narrow group of actors, overly monetized by a narrow group of actors, will be very successful or will be properly aligned and supportive of the Ethereum platform,” Lubin told Cointelegraph, adding:
Additional reporting by Andrew Fenton.