Linea vs Lineth
"Linea" and "Lineth" are related but distinct: Linea is the public network and product, and Lineth is the open-source stack that powers it. This page states the distinction once, authoritatively, so the rest of the documentation can use each name precisely.
What Linea is
Linea is the public, permissionless zkEVM Layer 2 network that scales Ethereum, along with its product and governance:
- Linea Mainnet and Linea Sepolia: the public network and its testnet.
- The Linea brand, the Linea Consortium that governs the Linea Protocol, and user- and developer-facing products such as the Linea SDK.
When the documentation means the network you transact on, the product, or its governance, it says Linea.
What Lineth is
Lineth (formerly the Linea Stack) is the open-source ZK-rollup stack and codebase: the protocol components, onchain contracts, and operational tooling that operators deploy. It is an incubating project at LF Decentralized Trust (LFDT), where the open-source Linea Stack was contributed and renamed Lineth.
When the documentation means the codebase, the deployable stack, or the LFDT project, it says Lineth.
How they relate
Lineth is both:
- The foundation of Linea Mainnet: the public Linea network runs on Lineth.
- A stack operators can deploy to launch their own Ethereum-compatible networks (Layer 2 or Layer 3), with configurable privacy, data availability, and finalization, while inheriting zero-knowledge security guarantees and Ethereum compatibility.
A network an operator builds with Lineth is its own Ethereum-compatible network, not the public Linea network.
Protocol vs. stack: these are different things. The Linea protocol is the set of rules and guarantees of the public Linea network, which is why the Protocol section keeps the name Linea. Lineth is the open-source implementation of that stack: the components, clients, contracts, and tooling. So a page can correctly say "Lineth is comprised of these components" while still describing "the Linea protocol" the public network runs.
This mirrors the LFDT naming model: the public network keeps its established name (Linea), while the donated open-source code project takes a distinct name (Lineth), following the same pattern as Hedera (network) and Hiero (LFDT project).
When each name applies
| You mean… | Use |
|---|---|
| The public network, Mainnet, Sepolia, L2, zkEVM | Linea |
| The product, brand, Consortium, governance (Linea Protocol), Linea SDK | Linea |
| The rules and guarantees of the public Linea network | the Linea protocol |
| The open-source stack (components, clients, contracts, tooling) | Lineth |
| The open-source rollup stack / codebase / LFDT project | Lineth |
| A network an operator deploys using the stack | a network built on Lineth |
On first reference within a page, the stack is introduced as "Lineth (formerly the Linea Stack)", then Lineth thereafter.
Next steps
- Read the Linea network overview.
- Explore Lineth, the open-source stack.