Formal Vote - Social CGP3 — Linea Network Expansion

Abstract

This proposal aims to add protocol support for Linea chain. Linea is a zk-rollup built by the ConsenSys team.

Motivation & Rationale

Prior to the Connext DAO’s start, Connext Labs has been working closely with Linea and participated as a close partner in their testnet campaign over the summer. With this proposal, Connext DAO is making it possible to support Linea’s Voyage Campaign (November 7 - December 19).

Chain expansion is crucial for Connext Protocol to strengthen its presence in the ecosystem and build long lasting usage and relationships with new communities. Linea is the first chain that is being added pending this proposal passing. A more streamlined process for the DAO to propose and add additional chains will be detailed following the approval and launch of an optimistic roots network upgrade.

Specification

Connext Protocol is seeking to support Linea in order to:

1. increase transfer volume and net fees to routers
2. tap into the Linea ecosystem for new business development opportunities
3. support the Linea team’s mission and growth

The Consensys and Linea teams are deeply experienced and as such, they will be a strong partner for the growth of Connext Protocol long-term. Further, Linea is sufficiently aligned with Connext DAO’s values of decentralization.

Technically, Linea relies on an innovative, internally-built, lattice-powered prover which utilizes zkSNARK technology. It enables proofs to be generated quickly and yet does not require a trusted setup.

Linea currently has >250 dApps, $29.67M TVL, $25M-$30M weekly volume (up from ~18M in September). This is expected to continue to grow, and will introduce new key integration partnership opportunities for Connext DAO to consider.

Steps to Implement

This proposal is asking the DAO to approve the Security Council to submit the onchain configuration transactions required to add the Linea connector to the messaging network.

There are two reasons to grant security council permission to execute these transactions rather than using an executable proposal:

1. Security - Connext Foundation is not yet comfortable with having executables used to upgrade or reconfigure the system because there is an interdependency that hasn’t been fully tested. Direct multisig transactions have been fully tested, and used to upgrade the messaging layer in production in the past.
2. Speed - Time is of essence, and going through the security council route is faster.

Timeline

With this proposal, Connext Protocol would be included in the upcoming Linea Voyage campaign from November 7 through the end of December.

Considering the campaign starts on the 7th, it would be best to maximize impact and launch as early as possible, but no later than the bridges week then starts on 14th.

With support from delegates during the RFC step, this proposal is progressing to the formal vote in order to take effect pending proposal passing.

Overall Cost

Adding Linea will increase gas costs related to operating the network, however, the increase is not significant. There are no other additional costs that the DAO needs to cover.