Ethereum’s ENS taps Consensys’ Linea for its layer-2 network

Ethereum ENS Labs has picked Consensys’ Linea’s technology to develop its upcoming Layer-2 network project, Namechain. Consensys is a well-known Ethereum infrastructure provider that developed Linea, a zero-knowledge rollup, in July 2023. 

Linea is the seventh largest rollup network, with $1 billion under its ecosystem, according to L2Beat.

ENS founder and lead developer said they partnered with Linea to develop its network for two reasons. They believe that the values of both firms are aligning, and also, Linea’s speed is considerable.

Rollup networks are a type of blockchain that enhances speedy transactions at an affordable cost. Rollups come in two major types: optimistic and zero-knowledge. Among them, zero-knowledge rollups are often considered superior by many due to their ability to secure proof and close transactions within minutes.

Optimistic rollup, on the other hand, uses optimistic proofs, allowing transactions a seven-day period for any disputes before they finalize. It considers that proofs are optimistic, and nobody will dispute them.

Other crypto players have chosen Optimism for their layer-2 networks

Linea’s work for ENS won’t be its first project, but it is very significant. Linea is already developing a layer-2 network for blockchain wallet application Status. 

According to Nicolas Liochon, the Namechain team working on the Linea stack will ensure the Layer-2 protocol is strengthened and remains decentralized.

We want to have multiple organizations contributing to Linea, and we work on having more organizations, too, as a way to make it more secure. So really, we want to have multiple teams so there’s no centralization point.

~Nicolas Liochon

The news of ENS partnering with Linea for its Layer-2 rollout follows announcements from other crypto powerhouses planning to launch their own Layer-2 networks. Notably, several major players have opted to build their networks using the Optimism OP Stack.

Linea hints at releasing its token

In a recent announcement, the Linea team said they plan to launch a Linea token. However, there was no clarity and concrete plans on how that token would be used in the Namechain ecosystem.

ENS Web offers a simple and easily recognizable domain name service (DNS), often described as “the phone book for Web3.” ENS provides handles like parishilton.eth, which are easier to remember and type compared to numerical IP addresses.

The project settled on Linea’s Zero-knowledge rollup because it needed a fast finality. The ENS name needs to be updated, and the chain reflected faster, within the smallest interval possible, ensuring the network remains decentralized and secure. This ruled out an optimistic rollup.