Ethereum
Linea blockchain shutdown highlights slow decentralization of Ethereum L2 – TradingView News
Ethereum’s Layer 2 blockchain Linea’s decision to stop block production after being hacked highlights the need for Layer 2 companies to prioritize decentralization sooner rather than later, says CEO Alex Gluchowski from Matter Labs.
On June 2, more than $2.6 million in Ether ETHUSD was transferred from Consensys-launched Linea after the hacker successfully exploited the Linea-based decentralized exchange Velocore, Linea explained in an X article. 
Linea has since resumed block production, but the team’s decision to shut down the zkEVM blockchain highlighted the need for decentralization on the Ethereum layer, noted by Gluchowski.
“Decentralizing the sequencer is not an option. Every serious L2 stack should strive to get this right first,” said Gluchowski, whose company is behind one of Linea’s competitors in zkSync.
He received a response from Linea’s head of product, Declan Fox, who acknowledged that decentralization was not an option, but stressed that the network was on a “strong path” to decentralization in a much longer time frame. shorter than many of its competitors.
“Considering that many Rollup frameworks 2+ years older than us aren’t any more advanced, I’m pretty pleased with our pace.”
Linea announced its “The Linea Voyage: Surge” campaign in April, which will aim to increase the total value locked on Linea to $3 billion. According to L2BEAT, just over $1.2 billion is currently blocked on the blockchain.
However, one observer criticized the company for setting such a target in light of the recent hack.
Linea’s ruling was an action of “last resort”
The Linea team said they had no choice but to shut down their sequencer to prevent additional funds from leaking out.
“This was the action of last resort to protect Linea users.”
Linea said it was informed of the hack by Hexagate, which helped trace stolen user funds, vulnerable smart contracts and exploiters’ addresses. Linea said they couldn’t immediately contact Velocore because it was the “middle of the night” in their time zone.
“Like the other L2s, we are still in the ‘training wheels’ phase of existence, which gives us guarantees to use.”
The hacker exploited Linea-based DEX Velocore, which moved 700 Ether – worth over $2.6 million – out of Linea via a third-party bridge.
The sequencer was paused between blocks 5081800 and 5081801.
The company highlighted its intention to decentralize Linea’s network, including its sequencer, in the future, which would prevent it from stopping block production and censoring addresses.
Meanwhile, Velocore said it was working with involved external networks to provide refunds to affected victims.