Slava Fedenko

What Is Linear (LINA)?

Linear is a decentralized delta-one asset protocol capable of instantly creating synthetic assets with unlimited liquidity. The project opens traditional assets like commodities, forex, market indices and other thematic sectors to cryptocurrency users by supporting the creation of “Liquids” — Linear’s synthetic asset tokens.

The protocol consists of various products like Linear.Buildr, a DApp used to manage Liquids using Linear (LINA) and other tokens as collateral. The exchange is specifically created to enable trading of a variety of Liquids with rapid confirmation times and robust security.

LINA is an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum network whose main purpose is as collateral for Liquids (using Buildr) and for community governance of the protocol. All token holders have access to the Linear DAO, enabling them to vote on different initiatives and proposals, helping to shape the development of the Linear ecosystem.

The main goal of Linear is to provide a superior user experience with better scalability and greater speed thanks to the cross-chain capabilities of the protocol. Linear Finance intends to provide a simple solution for users that want exposure to traditional assets while still benefiting from the features enabled only by blockchain technology.

Who Are the Founders of Linear?

Linear Finance was co-founded by Drey Ng and Kevin Tai and has a small team of less than a dozen individuals according to the official Linear Finance Linkedin page.

Drey Ng is co-founder and current chief product officer of Liquefy, a platform that offers access to tokenized securities by lowering the barriers to entry. He is also a blockchain instructor in Hong Kong and has several years of experience in the fintech industry.

Kevin Tai was the vice president of Credit Suisse in Hong Kong, a prominent global wealth manager and an investment bank. He graduated from Harvard Business School and has more than a decade of experience in the economy sector.

What Makes Linear Unique?

Although Linear Finance is built on top of the Ethereum network, the protocol allows users to access other supported chains and transfer assets to them. In addition to digital assets, Linear enables customers to access traditional assets like forex and commodities through dynamic price feeds which act to solve the systemic front-running problem that occurs with many decentralized exchange (DEX) protocols.

LINA tokens serve as the base collateral to mint Liquids. However, customers can also use other digital assets like ETH and wBTC to cover 20% of this base collateral. The Linear Exchange provides unlimited liquidity for Liquids and lowers the settlement timeframe to as low as one second per block — making it suitable for high-frequency traders and those running algorithmic trading software.

In time, Linear Finance users will be able to access synthetic traditional assets and ultimately equities in the near-term. The cross-chain approach helps Linear reduce fees and solves the oracle frontrunning issue that can occur with some existing protocols on Ethereum.

One of Linear Finance’s most unique features is its proposed liquidation mechanism, which will be decided based on community governance. LINA holders are able to help choose transaction fees and how much to allocate to the insurance fund, among other options by voting.

How Many Linear (LINA) Coins Are There in Circulation?

The total supply of LINA is currently 10 billion tokens. Linear utilizes an inflationary system with a decreasing rate until a terminal floor is reached. The inflation rate is initially set at 75%, but this decreases at 1.5% per week— and is subject to modification if a consensus is achieved by the LinearDAO.

Linear Finance secured a $1.8 million investment from reputable seed investors like Alameda Research, NGC Ventures and Hashed. In addition, the project conducted a small initial coin offering (ICO) in September 2020, raising a total of $310,000 by selling LINA tokens at $0.005 with a personal cap of $500 per participant.

Of the total supply, 40% is reserved for staking rewards, 15% for the Linear Finance reserve, and 10% to the ecosystem. The team also has a 10% allocation, while advisors have 5% — both team and advisor tokens are subject to a vesting schedule.

As per early projections by the Linear team, 40% of the LINA supply will be in circulation around 40 months after the genesis event, though this may be lower due to potential token burns.

How Is the Linear Finance Network Secured?

As an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum Network, Linear leverages one of the largest proof-of-work (POW) mining networks to secure its tokens.

\ On top of this, the LinearDAO was created to give LINA holders the power to vote on proposals that help ensure the Linear Finance ecosystem develops along the path desired by its users. The actual Linear Finance delta.one asset protocol is trustless and based on Ethereum smart contracts, which can be updated should the need arise.

Where Can You Buy Linear Finance (LINA)?

LINA is listed on popular centralized exchanges like BitMax and MXC, in addition to the popular decentralized exchange, Uniswap. As of November 2020, the token can be traded against Ethereum (ETH) and Tether (USDT), or against wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) on Uniswap.