Overview
How the Lineth protocol works
Lineth provides the technical protocol used by Linea Mainnet and other networks built with Lineth. This page focuses on the protocol flow: how transactions move from execution to proof generation and finalized state.
For the deployable stack and operator overview, see Lineth. For the public network overview, see Linea Mainnet.
Protocol flow
At a high level, the Lineth protocol processes transactions through four stages.
1. Execute transactions
Transactions enter an Ethereum-compatible execution environment. Smart contracts run against the current network state, and each accepted transaction produces a deterministic state transition.
2. Batch and trace blocks
Executed blocks are grouped into batches. The protocol records the execution traces needed to prove that each state transition was computed correctly.
3. Generate validity proofs
The proving system uses those traces to generate zero-knowledge proofs. A verifier can check the proofs without replaying every transaction in the batch.
4. Submit for data availability and finalization
The protocol submits the information required for data availability, verification, and finalization to the configured finalization layer. Data availability and finalization choices depend on the deployment model: Linea Mainnet is one deployment that finalizes to Ethereum, while other Lineth-based networks can use different finalization paths.
Component details
This overview is intentionally high level. For the architecture and component-level details behind execution, batching, proving, onchain contracts, and finalization, see architecture.
Next steps
- New to the Linea and Lineth names? See Linea and Lineth for how the public network relates to the open-source stack.
- Review the architecture for component-level protocol details.
- Read the Lineth overview for the deployable stack and operator view.
- Understand Linea Mainnet as a public deployment of the protocol.