My name is Wang Hao, I am 38 years old, an ordinary history teacher in Beijing. I usually study ancient books and archaeology, and my life is as calm as a still pond. In the spring of 2025, while cleaning out my grandfather's old house, I accidentally came across a yellowed diary. It was written by my grandfather in the 1980s, and inside was a yellowed note that read hastily: "The key to the future is on the 'line', zero knowledge unlocks the treasure." At that time, I laughed it off, thinking it was just the old man's fanciful thinking. Little did I know, this would become the turning point of my life. A few months later, I transformed from a person who knew nothing about blockchain into an active contributor to the Linea ecosystem, with my account skyrocketing from just a few thousand yuan to the million level. This is not some fantasy novel, but a wonderful journey I experienced. Today, I will use the first-person perspective to take you into the world of Linea, sharing the knowledge and discoveries that enlightened me. I hope that after reading, you can learn the secrets of blockchain and avoid blindly following trends.
Everything started with the origins of Linea. Linea is an Ethereum Layer 2 network developed by ConsenSys, the creator of MetaMask. This project gradually matured starting in 2023, and by 2025, it had become a leader in zkEVM rollups. What is zkEVM? The zero-knowledge Ethereum virtual machine ensures transaction correctness using mathematical proofs (zero-knowledge) without revealing details, while being fully compatible with Ethereum smart contracts. Imagine the pyramids of ancient Egypt: magnificent on the outside, with countless treasures inside. Linea is like a modern "pyramid key," solving Ethereum's mainnet congestion and high fee issues. The first time I studied it was on a rainy night in April 2025; I was curled up in my study, randomly opening a clue in the diary, searching for "zero-knowledge," and unexpectedly linking to Linea. Hot topics: scalability, with Ethereum's transaction volume surging in 2025, mainnet gas fees often exceeding hundreds of dollars; Linea packages transactions through rollups, reducing costs by 90% and processing thousands of transactions per second. This is not just a technological upgrade but also touches on environmental issues—rollups reduce energy consumption, complying with EU carbon neutrality regulations.
Among the hot topics, Linea's token economy is the focus of 2025. The LINEA token was officially launched on September 10, 2025, with a total supply of 9.36 billion, initially distributed to 749,000 eligible users. This reminded me of my grandfather's diary entry about "treasure distribution"—perhaps he foresaw the fair distribution of cryptocurrency. In-depth analysis: Linea adopts a deflationary model, burning a portion of tokens with each transaction, reducing supply, and driving up value. On November 10, 2025, 18.44% of the supply will be unlocked, valued at approximately $40.67 million; this may trigger short-term volatility but looks promising in the long term. Knowledge point: Deflationary economies are similar to Bitcoin halving; Linea's Exponent mechanism will burn 20% ETH and 80% LINEA starting in November, directly enhancing ecological circulation. I personally participated in the airdrop point accumulation: bridging assets to Linea, with gas fees being negligible, and when exchanging points for tokens, I made my first small fortune.
My story begins with a random scene. In June 2025, I attended an antique exhibition at the Palace Museum and met Xiao Liu—a young programmer I randomly encountered, wearing glasses and carrying a laptop bag. We talked about ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and he suddenly said, "Hao Ge, did you know? Zero-knowledge proofs in blockchain are like ancient ciphers." I had a flash of inspiration and took out my grandfather's diary to share. He laughed heartily and recommended I try Linea: "This is the epitome of zkEVM, allowing you to jump from history to the future." After returning home, I bridged some ETH to the Linea testnet and deployed a simple contract—simulating an NFT game of tomb exploration. The process was smooth as silk: writing code with Remix IDE took only a few seconds to upload. Compared to the mainnet, I saved thousands of yuan. Hot topics: NFT revival, the AI-generated art wave in 2025, and Linea's low entry barrier allowing ordinary people to create markets. My game randomly set scenes: players use LINEA to trade virtual artifacts, incorporating zk privacy to ensure transaction anonymity.
In-depth study of Linea's technical core. Linea's Beta v1 upgrade introduced new arithmetization in 2025, proving 100% zkEVM compliance. What is this? Arithmetization transforms code into polynomial equations; zk proofs verify the equality holds without revealing computational details. Knowledge gain: unlike optimistic rollups like Arbitrum, zk rollups do not require a challenge period, providing direct mathematical security against fraud. Linea's proof time dropped from minutes to seconds, with a TVL exceeding $500 million in 2025, bridging $330 million in ETH and $50 million in local assets. Hot topics: security vs speed, Linea uses Lattice for protection and quantum resistance to fend off future threats. I compared it to Optimism: Linea's zk is more private, suitable for DeFi privacy lending.
The turning point came in July. My small NFT game launched, attracting hundreds of players, with TVL rising to tens of thousands of dollars. My wife, Xiao Min, went from skepticism to support; we strolled in the Summer Palace on weekends, and she learned to use Linea to store DAI and earn returns. Hot topics: DeFi integration, Linea seamlessly supports Uniswap and Aave, where I borrowed ETH at a low interest rate of 1%. But my grandfather's diary had a riddle: "Treasure hides behind crisis." Sure enough, in August, market fluctuations caused ETH to drop by 20%, draining liquidity from my game, and users rushed to withdraw. I panicked as my account shrank by half. Xiao Liu called to comfort me: "Use MetaLinea to optimize." MetaLinea is Linea's lending layer, acting like a fund manager, automatically allocating funds to high-yield markets. In 2025, it gained popularity due to regulatory friendliness; the US SEC approved Layer 2 ETFs, benefiting Linea.
Random character involvement: I got in touch with Old Zhang, a retired miner in Shanghai who turned into a blockchain player. We collaborated through video calls and invented a new dApp: a "historical simulator" based on Linea, generating scenes of ancient civilizations at random, where players use zk proofs to verify real artifact data transactions. The inspiration came from my grandfather's diary with a blockchain twist added. Hot topics: GameFi-DeFi integration, the metaverse craze in 2025. The dApp used a pygame prototype, integrated with Linea API; after launch, users surged, and I earned transaction fees, replenishing my account.
The cross-chain charm of Linea is my "treasure key." In 2025, SWIFT piloted blockchain payments, making Linea the first choice Layer 2. Its bridge supports multi-chain transfers; I bridged assets from Polygon in just 30 seconds. Knowledge gain: cross-chain security relies on Merkle trees to avoid bridge hacks. In-depth analysis: Linea vs Base, Base is optimistic, while Linea zk is more reliable, with no 7-day withdrawal wait. The roadmap shows a decentralized sequencer will be launched by the end of 2025 to prevent single points of failure. Hot topics: decentralized governance, Linea DAO allows users to vote on proposals; I participated in optimizing the burn mechanism.
My empire was built after the TGE in September. The price of LINEA rose from $0.1, and I cashed out to buy a house in the suburbs of Beijing. Random scene: celebrating with Xiao Min in a café; she now manages family finances with Linea. We discussed the Groth16 proof scheme: compressing proofs to a few hundred bytes for high efficiency. On November 4, 2025, Linea shared updates on the SomETHing Podcast, emphasizing zk-proof efficiency and consolidating its leadership position in Layer 2.
Through Linea, I transformed from a history teacher to an explorer. Hot topics: regulation, the EU's MiCA requires transparency, and Linea is open-source compliant. The Ethereum Foundation used it to deploy funds, proving reliability. In-depth study: The IRM interest rate model is based on on-chain data, with AI optimizing the curve.
Inspirational conclusion: If you have a "lost diary," Linea might be the key. From an ordinary person like me to an ecosystem builder, you can too. Go learn zkEVM and build dApps. Blockchain is like ancient civilizations, waiting to be unlocked.
