Recently, Azu, when I log into Linea, my mindset is no longer 'let's see if there are any activities to participate in,' but more like stepping into a new economic zone that has already begun its own rotation. The most obvious change when the homepage opens is the Developer Hub and Exponent leaderboard specifically for developers: now every dApp must register officially, verify contracts, and connect statistics before it can appear on the ecological leaderboard and incentive distribution. It's clear at a glance who truly has users every day and who just pulled some data for a few days to climb the rankings. For someone like me, a long-time player in various 'ecological incentive programs,' this is the first time I feel that an L2 is no longer just about 'giving users rewards,' but is starting to calculate seriously: which applications are worth supporting in the long run.
After carefully reviewing the official information, Exponent is essentially a growth engine running for three months, starting on November 4 and lasting until the end of January next year, offering $250,000 worth of rewards specifically to those applications that can bring real users and transactions to Linea. To participate, project teams need to first register their dApps in the Developer Hub, verify all contracts deployed on Linea on LineaScan, and then the system will score based on 'the number of real users passing PoH', 'contract interaction volume', and 'transaction scale', ranking and distributing funds accordingly. This approach has two benefits: first, it is fairer to developers, as it is no longer the case that whoever markets better or writes a better English pitch gets the major share; second, it is more transparent for ordinary users like us, as we can directly see 'where real users are using', rather than being misled by a pile of polished posters into making zombie interactions.
In the past few days, I've been browsing according to the leaderboard, deliberately choosing some applications I haven't used much before. The most intuitive feeling is that when I enter a new project, I used to check Twitter, Discord, and look for airdrop speculations and yield screenshots; now I focus more on the 'growth curve' in Exponent: whether the transaction volume has been rising for several weeks, whether active users have 'spiked and then dipped', and then select a few DeFi, tools, and social applications that I will use regularly based on my needs. You will find that the original interactions of 'forcing myself to click just for points' have gradually decreased, replaced by 'since I need to do things on this chain anyway, I might as well help these truly useful dApps achieve results', transforming my role from 'task worker' to 'equity shareholder'.
What's even better is that this leaderboard is not just counting in the air, but is directly tied to Linea's own economic model. The dual burning mechanism launched during the Exponent period will take effect for every transaction starting from November 4: 20% of the fees paid by users on-chain will be directly burned in ETH form at the protocol layer, while the remaining 80% will be used to buy back $LINEA in the market for further burning, which means that with every real usage, it will simultaneously help ETH and LINEA perform a bit of 'deflation gymnastics'. Coupled with the previously announced Native Yield design — ETH bridged to Linea will be automatically staked through protocols like Lido v3 on the main net, with the generated staking yield directed into the incentive pool for long-term subsidies to LPs and applications — the entire structure transforms into a closed loop of 'real transactions → protocol income → dual burning + Native Yield → reinvest back into the ecosystem'. For users, you can do whatever you need to on-chain every day, but there is an extra layer of awareness: you are not just burning a path; you are helping this path itself become more valuable.
If we zoom out a bit, we find that Linea is no longer satisfied with just being 'its own L2'. In July of this year, Status Network announced the launch of a native gas-free L2 testnet on the Linea zkEVM stack, cutting out the traditional revenue stream of sequencer fees and replacing it with bridge-in yield-bearing assets and native application fees to sustain the network, then returning 100% of the net income to the community for liquidity incentives, public funding pools for applications, and SNT buybacks. Their positioning is very clear: they want to make this layer of the network a 'zero threshold entry' for gaming, social, and DeFi, where users do not need to prepare gas in advance, and developers do not need to deal with various paymaster contracts, as all costs are embedded in bridged yield and application fees. For Linea, this is equivalent to growing an additional 'gas-free experience layer' on top of itself, but security and execution are still borne by the underlying zkEVM, with profits split through Native Yield and collaborative mechanisms.
I finished reading the documentation and press releases for Status, and I actually have a very intuitive feeling: this is the first batch of samples for Native Yield transitioning from the white paper to the ecosystem. In the past, when people talked about 're-staking yields on L2', it was more about the protocol level and DeFi pools; now it is starting to become the foundation of the entire stack's business model — you can convert bridged ETH and stablecoins into yield-bearing assets like stETH and sDAI, allowing part of the yields to support sequencers, part to feed builders, and part to be used for token buybacks, even paving a gas-free path for users. From this perspective, Linea is not just 'helping itself to monetize', but is packaging its zkEVM technology and economic model into a stack product that can be exported to other L2/L3s.
Behind these changes is a governance structure that is relatively unnoticed by ordinary users but is very critical to the entire ecosystem. Linea did not take the old path of 'relying solely on token voting', but instead established a dual-layer structure of Linea Consortium + Linea Association: the former is an alliance composed of institutions in the Ethereum ecosystem, with early members like ConsenSys, Eigen Labs, ENS Labs, SharpLink, and Status, responsible for setting the big direction — such as the rhythm of incentive distribution, rules for the use of the ecosystem fund, and long-term inflation/deflation roadmap; the latter is a non-profit association registered in Switzerland, responsible for executing community airdrops, fund distributions, and various specific tasks on the decentralized path. Coupled with the distribution structure of 'a total supply of 7.2 billion, with over 75% locked in ecosystem funds and builders, and ConsenSys's retained portion locked for five years', you can see that this chain is designed to move in the direction of 'giving builders and users the major share, while locking the project team itself'.
On the other hand, institutional funds are pouring oil on this path. Companies like SharpLink, which are listed on NASDAQ, have publicly stated that they plan to gradually migrate up to $200 million worth of ETH to Linea over the next few years, allowing them to earn higher on-chain yields here through Native Yield, EigenLayer series infrastructure, and ecosystem incentives, with custody entrusted to compliant custodial banks like Anchorage to ensure compliance audits while not sacrificing the flexibility of DeFi. The greatest significance of this for ordinary players is not the old saying 'institutions are coming, a bull market is coming', but rather a very realistic matter: there is finally a visible, tangible source of long-term funds in the interest streams of L2, rather than relying solely on short-term token subsidies to maintain it.
Returning to the entry experience layer, ConsenSys's home MetaMask is also quietly making Linea into a network that can be seen at a glance. Now when you open MetaMask Portfolio and select Linea in Discover, you can see a dedicated network page: it lists the mainstream dApps, popular tokens, NFTs, and recent events in the ecosystem, without needing to find RPC or add a network yourself, and you can even jump directly to the Bridge or specific application page from there. Coupled with the main net protocol Lido, which has already provided guidance on 'one-click bridging stETH to Linea', for a user who has just entered the scene and only knows how to use the little fox, the gap from 'I have a bit of ETH and want to increase my yield' to 'I am using this money to do things on Linea' has been significantly bridged.
From the perspective of Azu, if I were to summarize the current feeling this chain gives me in one sentence, it would be: Linea is recalculating the accounts of 'the L2 business', shifting from 'paying for liquidity' to 'scoring builders and distributing dividends for real usage'. The Exponent leaderboard and Developer Hub turn developers' efforts into visible transcripts; Native Yield and dual burning turn every click by users into incremental long-term value for ETH and LINEA; attempts like Status's gas-free L2 on the Linea stack serve as external validation: this logic is already attractive enough to warrant others to adopt it as a foundation. For ordinary users, the simplest way to participate remains very straightforward: first, bridge a small amount of funds that you originally intended to keep in the Ethereum ecosystem for the long term, select a few applications that you will actually use according to the Exponent leaderboard, and gradually make 'doing things on Linea' a norm; if you are a developer, then honestly go to the Developer Hub to register your dApp, placing your product on this 'cake-slicing based on real usage' assembly line, rather than relying on one-off marketing to win the first round.
The future war of L2s will likely no longer be about whose TVL rises the highest or who offers the most aggressive subsidies, but rather which ecosystem can make builders and users feel that 'spending an extra day here is the best arrangement for their assets and time'. From the changes over the past few months, Linea has at least provided a sufficiently clear and distinct answer.
