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Linea and Lineth

"Linea" and "Lineth" are related but distinct: Linea is the public network, brand, token, and governance context, and Lineth is the technical stack and protocol that powers it. This page states the distinction once, authoritatively, so the rest of the documentation can use each name precisely.

What is Linea​

Linea is the public, permissionless zkEVM Layer 2 network that scales Ethereum, along with its brand, token, tokenomics, and governance:

  • Linea Mainnet and Linea Sepolia: the public network and its testnet.
  • The Linea brand, the Linea Consortium that governs the Linea Protocol, and user- and developer-facing products such as the Linea SDK.

When the documentation means the network you transact on, the product, or its governance, it says Linea.

What is Lineth​

Lineth (formerly the Linea Stack) is the open-source ZK-rollup stack, codebase, and technical protocol: the protocol components, onchain contracts, and operational tooling that operators deploy. It applies to all chains built on it. It is an incubating project at LF Decentralized Trust (LFDT), where the open-source Linea Stack was contributed and renamed Lineth.

When the documentation means the technical stack, protocol, codebase, deployable components, or the LFDT project, it says Lineth.

How they relate​

Linea Mainnet is built on Lineth.

Lineth is both:

  • The foundation of Linea Mainnet.
  • A stack operators can deploy to launch their own Ethereum-compatible networks (Layer 2 or Layer 3), with configurable privacy, data availability, and finalization, while inheriting zero-knowledge security guarantees and Ethereum compatibility.

A network an operator builds with Lineth is its own Ethereum-compatible network, not the public Linea network.

note

This mirrors the LFDT naming model: the public network keeps its established name (Linea), while the donated open-source code project takes a distinct name (Lineth), following the same pattern as Hedera (network) and Hiero (LFDT project).

When each name applies​

  • Linea: Linea Mainnet-specific brand, token, tokenomics, Linea Consortium, Linea Mainnet, Linea Sepolia, Linea SDK.
  • Lineth: the technical stack and protocol, including the open-source rollup stack, codebase, components, clients, contracts, tooling, LFDT project, and all chains built on it.

On first reference within a page, the stack is introduced as "Lineth (formerly the Linea Stack)", then Lineth thereafter.

Next steps​

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