The Expedition has garnered immense success thus far, attracting a staggering 450,000 participants throughout Linea and our network of partners. We are delighted to extend a warm invitation to you for the exhilarating third week of captivating endeavors dedicated to delving into the world of NFTs.

A fortnight ago, we cordially invited you to embark on a remarkable expedition, the Linea Voyage, to explore the boundless potential of a Layer 2 (L2) network. And boy, did you, the ingenious builders, answer the call!

The level of engagement and participation in the Voyage, spanning across Linea and our extensive partner ecosystem, has surpassed all our expectations. The inaugural week's bridging campaign alone witnessed an impressive turnout of 450,000 participants. Furthermore, the Linea network has witnessed a staggering 2.5 million transactions.

Before we delve into the intricacies of the tasks for the upcoming NFT week, we'd like to share the valuable insights we've gained from the first two weeks of this magnificent Voyage.

With an unprecedented number of builders stress-testing Linea during this period, it was anticipated that we might encounter some hurdles with the network. However, these challenges were an integral part of our mission to identify areas for network enhancement. Let us now examine some of the issues Linea faced over the past two weeks and the steps we've taken to address them, thus ensuring continuous improvement.

Linea Voyage: Learnings So Far

One notable observation has been the significant surge in transaction fees across various testnet networks during the Bridge week of the Linea Voyage. This escalation was a direct result of the extensive bridging activity on Linea. Despite community requests for an extension of the Bridge week, we made the decision not to do so. We extend our apologies to other teams that were concurrently building on these testnet chains.

Additionally, we encountered challenges with unstable RPC connectivity for Linea during the Bridge week. This instability was primarily caused by the substantial volume of requests directed towards both the Linea team's public endpoint and Infura, which is currently available only to select partners. To mitigate this issue, we implemented measures such as reducing the rate limit, increasing the number and size of nodes, and encouraging partners to deploy their own nodes. We are actively addressing the strain on the Linea Message Bridge, utilized by some partner bridges during the Bridge week, and are working diligently to resolve it.

Furthermore, certain third-party-operated testnet faucets experienced difficulties. It is important to note that faucets are not designed to handle high stress levels, as their primary purpose differs.

The majority of concerns pertaining to the Linea network were primarily attributable to the extreme load placed on various components. Our team and partners exerted significant effort to swiftly scale their infrastructures during the Bridge week, ensuring the best possible user experience. We express our immense gratitude to the team and our partners for their unwavering support. We encourage users to explore and appreciate the seamless experiences offered by our partners, eagerly anticipating the mainnet experience.

Finally, we acknowledge that some users may have encountered difficulties in completing certain tasks during the Bridge week. We want to assure everyone that the Linea Voyage spans several more weeks, affording users ample opportunities to earn numerous points.

We assure you that these challenges experienced during the testnet phase will be effectively addressed as we prepare for our mainnet launch. Identifying and resolving these issues during the testnet phase is vital to ensure a smooth transition to the mainnet.

For detailed information on how to utilize our early testnet partners, please refer to our documentation available here.

Linea Voyage Week 3: NFTs

As we conclude yet another remarkable week of the Voyage, we are delighted to unveil the theme for the upcoming week: non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

During this eventful week, our mission is to ignite your imagination and encourage you to delve into the vast realm of NFTs, where endless possibilities await. NFTs serve as a captivating gateway to comprehend the advantages of asset and identity tokenization. We are thrilled to introduce Linea esteemed partners for this week's tasks: ghostNFT, NFTs2me, Zonic, and Bilinear.

By engaging in the designated activities curated by Linea and our partners, you will gain firsthand experience of what it means to be an integral part of the NFT community. From creating and deploying new NFT projects on Linea to engaging in NFT transactions, you will embark on a journey to become an NFT master.

Your tasks will include creating token-gated content, airdropping soulbound NFTs to Ethereum Name Service (ENS) addresses, and minting game NFTs, among other exciting endeavors. For detailed guidance on how to interact with Bilinear, Zonic, GhostNFT, and NFTs2me, we invite you to explore our informative tutorials.

The NFT week's activities will commence on May 16th, 2023, at 9 am Eastern Time (ET) and conclude on May 21st, 2023, at 11:59 pm ET. You will have four additional days, until May 25th, 2023, at 11:59 pm ET, to claim points for completed activities as long as they were performed before the May 21st deadline.

Eligible addresses will be updated daily, every 24 hours. If you currently see the message "You are NOT eligible," please ensure to check back after the addresses have been updated.

As previously mentioned, our primary objective with the Voyage is to prepare Linea for its mainnet launch later this year. We express our gratitude to each and every participant who has contributed to the various tasks, helping us stress-test and scale the network. Our commitment lies in building a truly robust L2 network in Linea, and we are immensely grateful for the support we have received from the web3 community.

If you stay with us throughout the nine-week Linea Voyage, you will become eligible for a unique collection of NFTs based on your contributions during this period and your cumulative position on the leaderboard. More information about these NFTs will be shared later in May.

To stay up to date with the latest challenges and find ones that pique your interest, we encourage you to follow us on Mirror, Twitter.

Together, let's embark on this thrilling NFT adventure and shape the future of Linea!