Linea’s growth lead resigns over vision discrepancies

Linea’s growth leader Marco Monaco has resigned from his role, citing a lack of alignment with the vision for the future direction of the project.

Marco Monaco, the growth manager of Linea, the zk-rollup project developed by Consensys, left the project, stating that the reason for his departure was vision incompatibility.

Monaco, who played a key role in Linea’s growth, announced via X on September 11 that he “no longer works on Linea in any capacity,” noting that his resignation comes after a period of declining engagement over the past few months following his previous resignation from Consensys.

2/ Many of you, especially Linea developers, may have noticed that my engagement has decreased significantly over the last few months. @Consensys He left in mid-June and officially left the project in mid-July after EthCC.

— Marco Monaco (@marcomonaco83) September 11, 2024

Monaco says he spent “around 20 hours a day” developing Linea’s business vision during his two-year tenure, emphasizing his efforts to “build a vibrant ecosystem” and use Consensys’ tech stack to advance the platform. Despite his successes, Monaco expressed his desire to shift the perception of the network from “just farming” to a focus on community engagement and organic growth.

As Linea undergoes a significant transformation, Monaco noted that the review process and vision discussions led to a mutual agreement with Consensys leadership that his continued involvement was no longer aligned with the future direction of the project.

“[…] Consensys leadership and I agreed that the best path forward for Linea no longer involved me personally because our visions were no longer aligned.”

Marco Monaco

However, he did not provide detailed information on which issues he disagreed with Consensys.

Monaco’s departure comes just months after Linea came under scrutiny for pausing its entire network to block an address associated with a hacker who had exploited the Velocore decentralized exchange built on Linea for $7 million. Linea confirmed in June that it had suspended block production to prevent the hacker from selling a large amount of stolen tokens, a move that drew criticism from the broader crypto community.

The hour-long pause allowed Linea to assess the situation and coordinate with the Velocore team and centralized exchanges to freeze the hacker’s funds. However, the decision raised concerns about the centralization of the project, with some criticizing its ability to shut down the entire network, which at the time had more than $1.2 billion in locked value, according to L2Beat data.

Linea has acknowledged that its reliance on centralized operations is a security vulnerability, but reiterated its commitment to transitioning to a censorship-resistant, decentralized network.