index.mdx

August 18, 2026 ยท View on GitHub

import GlossaryTerm from '@theme/GlossaryTerm'; import ActionCards from '@site/src/components/ActionCards';

provides the technical protocol used by Linea Mainnet and other networks built on it. This section describes the protocol internals, including the components that make up its architecture, and how it processes transactions, generates proofs, and finalizes state.

Learn more about the Lineth protocol:

<ActionCards cards={[ { text: "Linea and Lineth", description: "Learn how the public network relates to the open-source protocol stack.", href: "/protocol/linea-vs-lineth", }, { text: "State manager", description: "Learn how Lineth tracks and proves Ethereum-compatible state.", href: "/protocol/architecture/state-manager", }, { text: "Prover", description: "Learn how the prover generates zero-knowledge validity proofs.", href: "/protocol/architecture/prover", }, { text: "Source code", description: "Browse Lineth and Linea source repositories.", href: "/protocol/reference/repos", }, ]} />

:::tip For the deployable stack and operator overview, see Lineth Stack. For the public network overview, see Linea Mainnet. :::

Protocol overview

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.

For the architecture and component-level details behind execution, batching, proving, onchain contracts, and finalization, see architecture.