Partnerships and opportunities in DeFi on Linea

The **Linea Stack**, a production ZK rollup that has powered Linea Mainnet since 2023, is being contributed to the Linux Foundation Decentralized Trust as a new incubating project called **Lineth**. **Key developments:** - The Linea Consortium has joined as a premier member, taking a Governing Board seat alongside The DTCC and Consensys - Lineth will share the same neutral foundation as Linux and Besu (Ethereum's L1 client) - The move emphasizes **credible neutrality** - ensuring no single entity can control the infrastructure - Maintains 100% Ethereum bytecode compatibility The transition represents a shift toward open governance, where the technology's future direction will be determined collectively rather than by a single organization. According to Consensys, this aligns with Vitalik Buterin's guidance for the Ethereum ecosystem to differentiate itself. By placing both the rollup stack (Lineth) and the L1 client (Besu) under the same neutral governance structure, the project aims to create infrastructure that can be trusted long-term by enterprises and developers alike. [Read more about the announcement](https://linea.build/blog/building-a-credible-neutral-infrastructure-linea-stack-joins-linux-foundation-decentralized-trust-as-lineth)

Linea has officially closed its Exponent growth program, which ran from November 2025 to January 2026. The initiative was designed to reward developers who built and scaled applications on the Linea network. **Program Structure:** - Rankings determined by verified user transactions - $250,000 prize pool distributed among top 42 teams - No judges or pitch decks required **Key Benefits for Participants:** - Token launch support with liquidity on Etherex - Infura & Web3Auth subscriptions - Subsidized smart contract audits - Access to core engineering team The program reinforced Linea's dual-burn economic model, where 20% of net gas fees burn ETH and 80% buy and burn LINEA tokens. This mechanism directly linked network activity to value creation for token holders. Read the full program conclusion: [linea.build/blog/linea-exponent-program-conclusion-and-final-update](https://linea.build/blog/linea-exponent-program-conclusion-and-final-update)

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance's Privacy Working Group has published its first comprehensive report mapping the current state of privacy solutions in the Ethereum ecosystem. **Key Highlights:** - The report establishes baseline privacy standards for enterprise adoption of public blockchain networks - Focuses on giving enterprises confidence to build on Ethereum's public infrastructure - Represents collaborative effort from multiple contributors in the ecosystem This initiative addresses a critical barrier to enterprise blockchain adoption: the need for robust privacy guarantees while maintaining the benefits of public networks. The working group's findings provide a roadmap for organizations evaluating Ethereum for business applications. The full report is now available for review by developers and enterprises considering blockchain implementation.

Linea has published an update to its documentation page. The zkEVM rollup's technical documentation is available at docs.linea.build for developers building on the network. **Key Points:** - Documentation refresh for Linea's developer resources - Updates available on the official [Linea Docs](https://docs.linea.build/) page - Follows previous documentation updates from earlier this month Linea continues to maintain its technical documentation for developers working with the zkEVM scaling solution.

Phylax Systems CEO Odysseas will discuss the evolution from reactive to proactive security approaches in DeFi during an upcoming conversation. **Key Details:** - **Topic:** The Credible Layer and its implications for builders and DeFi security - **Date:** Thursday, January 29th - **Time:** 3:00 PM UTC - **Platform:** X and YouTube - **Hosts:** suzapolooza_eth and EricCMack Several protocols including Euler Finance, Malda, Turtle, and Denaria Finance have already integrated the Credible Layer for protocol protection. Public assertions are available at [app.phylax.systems](http://app.phylax.systems).