The most touching aspect is that LINEA never describes itself as an 'alternative,' but rather as a 'continuation.' It moves execution to the second layer, using zero-knowledge proofs to compress batch results into a short proof returned to the mainnet for adjudication, increasing throughput while reducing costs, all while security and semantics remain anchored in Ethereum. What it pursues is not volume, but a sense of order: scaling without splitting, upgrading without rewriting.
This path was clearly outlined this year. Large-scale distribution brought the LINEA token to hundreds of thousands of addresses, without a reserved pool for teams or institutions, returning the narrative to 'who is using it, who is building it.' Short-term selling pressure arrived as expected, and LINEA did not compete with the market, but instead adjusted its structure: the vast majority of the network's net income goes into the buyback and burn channel, while proportionally burning ETH generated from on-chain activities, forming a closed loop of 'usage intensity - supply contraction - long-term value.'
Rather than emphasizing 'the fastest and cheapest', linea prefers to talk about consistency and familiarity. The development and interaction paths continue almost seamlessly, and the composable relationships of Ethereum are not interrupted; migration feels like changing lanes rather than moving houses. The incentives during the ignition period bring liquidity and attention, but more importantly, the subsequent deployment and integration allow the network to transition from 'activity' to 'ecology'.
Any growth will encounter stress tests. During the airdrop window, there was a brief pause in the sequencer, and production almost came to a halt for nearly an hour. Linea's response did not sugarcoat: public tracing, fixing processes, and emphasizing a schedule towards decentralization. A single failure will not define the network; the response will.
Line's value orientation always points to L1. Fees are priced in ETH, with some burned; the LINEA token serves as a medium for coordination and incentives, mapping real usage and long-term construction into the supply curve; the funds bridged in are organized into more productive capital, thus securing safety and liquidity. It is not like a noisy new category, but more like a durable infrastructure upgrade: extending the same architectural language into a larger usable space.
What we need to look at next is the retention curve after the incentive tide recedes: whether the organic part of TVL is stable, whether activity can self-sustain, and whether developers will continue to upload new versions. If the answer gradually becomes 'yes', linea will transition from 'a faster layer' to 'a key truss of Ethereum's expansion stack'. It does not promise to reshape the world, but merely allows the things we already trust to run at a more rational speed.
