Over the next several weeks Linea will be putting the spotlight on some key builders and influencers at the center of the Ethereum ecosystem as we profile the founding stewards that make up the Linea Consortium. First up is Status, a major contributor to all things Ethereum for years with an ethos that aligns perfectly with Linea's commitment to pushing value back to mainnet. Read on to learn more about Status and watch their recent appearance on the somETHing podcast. You can learn more about the Linea Consortium and how it fits into building the L2 where Ethereum wins here. 

A Legacy of Ethereum Alignment

Founded in 2017, just two years after Ethereum's launch, Status has been a long-standing contributor to the ecosystem, starting with a decentralized communication platform and wallet, continuing with Waku for peer-to-peer encrypted communication, Codex for decentralized storage, and Nimbus, a client for Ethereum. 

For years Status has been a builder and leader in the space, mirroring the Ethereum ethos through an unwavering commitment to open-source development, decentralization, and privacy.

Linea and Status aligned early in their relationship on a commitment to open source infrastructure and Status Network became one of the first direct contributors to the Linea codebase.

Status Network is leveraging the Linea stack to build an L2 with distinctive features that will greatly benefit the broader ecosystem:

• Natively gasless transactions: Status Network's L2 is designed to be fully gasless, meaning users will not pay gas fees for transactions, including sending ETH, using DeFi apps, playing games, or even deploying contracts. This addresses a significant barrier to mainstream adoption for gaming and social applications.

• Yield distribution back to users: Status Network will give back 100% of the net yield generated by the L2 to the community, after covering operational costs. This yield is generated by natively staking bridged ETH on Ethereum mainnet, similar to Linea's approach, as well as stablecoin native yield (in collaboration with Aragon) and a commission on native apps fees. The community will have the power to vote on how this yield is allocated, whether for public goods, boosted liquidity provider (LP) positions, or funding new applications.

• Linea token utility: Status Network aims to be the first to offer Linea yield, allowing users to deposit LINEA and SNT tokens to earn a yield boost in LINEA tokens, providing an immediate and strong use case for the token.

• Open-sourcing new features: Status Network plans to make its gasless module open source for everyone to use, enabling any new Linea chain to also be gasless. The team is also planning the integration of alternative data availability layers (like EigenDA) into the Linea stack for higher throughput and better scalability of the gasless architecture.

Stewarding and shaping Linea's future

As a Linea Consortium founding member, Status Network is one of the trusted Ethereum-native organizations responsible for managing 75% of the Linea token supply dedicated to ecosystem growth, public goods funding, and Ethereum R&D. This is the largest ecosystem fund in Ethereum to date.

Status Network's vision for the future of Linea and its cluster includes fostering closer integration and interoperability between chains, aiming for a seamless messaging system rather than traditional bridges to enable easy cross-chain interactions.

The strong alignment, shared technical contributions, and innovative approaches of Status Network make it an invaluable steward working to strengthen Ethereum within and beyond the Linea Consortium.

Go deep at Status.network, read the docs and follow Status on X.