Layer 2 blockchain · settles to Ethereum
Base ticker ETH
Summary
Rollup on Ethereum. Base documents a single active sequencer that orders transactions into roughly 2-second L2 blocks, with about 200ms Flashblock preconfirmations. A batcher posts compressed batch frames to Ethereum as calldata or blobs so any validator can reconstruct the L2 chain from L1. Output proposals are checked through onchain dispute games; the Beryl upgrade docs describe a single-proof path with a 5-day finalization window and a TEE plus ZK dual-proof path with a 1-day window. L2BEAT says anyone can propose outputs by posting a bond with an initial proof, either an AWS Nitro TEE attestation or an SP1 ZK proof, although the TEE signers sit on an allowlist that the Base coordinator multisig manages alone; anyone can challenge with a ZK proof, and users can force transactions in through Ethereum with up to a 12-hour delay. Block production does not use its own stake or work. 1234916
Design
- System
- Layer 2 blockchainBase Mainnet (chain ID 8453) is a rollup that posts its transaction data to Ethereum; it has OP Stack lineage but runs its own node software (base/base) and upgrade schedule. ETH is the gas asset; there is no separate Base gas token.
- Settles to
- EthereumBatch data is posted to Ethereum; Base says L2 blocks reach L1 batch finality about 20 minutes after posting (64 L1 blocks). Withdrawals to Ethereum finalize after the proof window: 5 days single-proof or 1 day dual-proof (TEE plus ZK) per the Beryl docs. Users can force transactions in through Ethereum with up to a 12-hour delay, per L2BEAT.
- Settlement family
- Ethereum / EVM
- Scarce resource
- Other
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Other
- Who makes blocks
- One active sequencer run by Base; a June 2026 postmortem describes Base Engineering patching and recovering it after two complete block-production halts (116 and 20 minutes).
- Fork choice
- No open L2 fork choice: the canonical L2 chain is derived from batch data posted to Ethereum, and Ethereum's own fork choice and finality govern that data.
Qualifications
- Scarce resource · Not applicable. Base block production uses no stake or work of its own; the sequencer is operator-assigned and security is derived from Ethereum plus the proof system.
- Finality · Partial. Base documents staged confidence: Flashblock about 200ms, L2 block about 2s, L1 batch inclusion about 2 min, L1 batch finality about 20 min. Only the last stage inherits Ethereum finality, so Base's finality does not fit the standard finality categories used for comparison.
- Withdrawal window · Applies. 5 days single-proof / 1 day dual-proof (TEE + ZK) since Beryl mainnet activation 2026-06-25; the transaction-finality page still shows the pre-Beryl 7 days.
- Flashblocks · Partial. Flashblocks are sequencer preconfirmations, not Ethereum settlement or finality.
- Upgrade authority · Applies. L2BEAT reports that the Ethereum contracts can be upgraded with no delay by a nested 2-of-2 of the Base Security Council (8 of 11) and a Base coordinator multisig (3 of 6). That 2-of-2 also acts as guardian and can pause withdrawals, and a separate 3-of-12 Base multisig can pause them too, each pause expiring after three months unless the guardian extends it. The coordinator multisig alone manages the allowlist of TEE signers. Signer identities were not sourced.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Scalability and Security
- Gives up
- Decentralized block production and upgrade safety: one sequencer orders all transactions, and when it failed in June 2026 new L2 blocks stopped entirely. A 2-of-2 of the Base Security Council (8 of 11) and a Base coordinator multisig (3 of 6) can upgrade the Ethereum contracts with no delay and no exit window, per L2BEAT. Withdrawals to Ethereum also wait out a proof window, and forced inclusion through Ethereum can take up to 12 hours.The security emphasis refers to Ethereum data availability and the TEE and ZK proof system, which L2BEAT rates Stage 1 and describes as open to anyone for proposing and challenging. The TEE arm trusts AWS Nitro hardware attestations and a signer allowlist that the Base coordinator multisig manages without Security Council approval, and the instant upgrade power held by the Base multisigs is part of the trust model.
- Full node at home
- Demanding 678Base lists an 8+ core CPU, at least 32 GB RAM (64 GB recommended) and a locally attached NVMe SSD sized at twice the chain plus a snapshot plus 20%; a node also needs an Ethereum L1 RPC and beacon endpoint, either its own synced L1 node or a provider. Base's docs call running a node resource-expensive.
- Throughput claims
- No classified figure recorded
Scaling layers
- Horizen · Rollup, mainnet 171819
Horizen's docs describe one sequencer that posts batches and state commitments to Base; in the standard configuration a state proposal can be disputed for 7 days, either by a trusted multisig or by a fault proof anyone can submit. The live contract settings, the multisig members and the upgrade-key holders were not verified, and no independent risk review was found.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | A protocol-level trust-minimized swap mechanism on Base was not reviewed; EVM contracts could implement one but none was verified. |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Light clients | Unknown | A light-client verification path for Base was not reviewed. |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | No payment or state channel layer anchored to Base was reviewed. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Base is EVM-compatible with standard Ethereum JSON-RPC, so spend conditions are smart contracts. 15 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Rollups | Ecosystem software (publisher not distinguished) Earlier definition | Horizen, an OP Stack rollup that Horizen calls a Layer 3, publishes its transaction data and state commitments to Base and settles there; it has its own profile. Other chains anchored to Base were not reviewed. Base itself is a rollup on Ethereum, as described in the mechanism and Ethereum-dependency notes of this profile. 17 |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | Established in the ecosystemAerodrome Finance | Aerodrome documents a Base-focused decentralized exchange using AMM pools. Liquidity depth was not measured and other venues were not reviewed. 11 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | Established in the ecosystemUSDC (Circle) | Circle lists natively issued USDC on Base (0x833589fCD6eDb6E08f4c7C32D4f71b54bdA02913). Native means issuer-issued on Base, not a protocol asset. 12 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | Algorithmic or hybrid stablecoins on Base were not reviewed. |
| Bridges | Native to the protocolBase canonical bridge (Ethereum deposits and withdrawals) | Deposits and withdrawals between Ethereum and Base run through protocol contracts; withdrawals finalize only after the proof window. Third-party bridges were not reviewed. Risk: Withdrawals depend on the dispute-game, TEE and ZK proof system and wait 5 days single-proof or 1 day dual-proof since the Beryl upgrade; Base's transaction-finality page is stale and still shows the older 7 days. L2BEAT reports that a 2-of-2 of the Base Security Council and a Base coordinator multisig can upgrade the bridge contracts with no delay, leaving no exit window, and can pause withdrawals as guardian. 13416 |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemBasescan, Blockscout (base.blockscout.com) | Base documentation lists Basescan for Mainnet; Blockscout runs a Base Mainnet instance. Explorer indexes are not canonical consensus. 510 |
| Hardware wallets | Established in the ecosystemLedger, Trezor (Safe 3, 5, 7) | See the Ledger and Trezor custody entries: Trezor's Base page lists Base as a supported network, and Ledger's Base announcement describes Base accounts in Ledger Wallet. Token and contract-interaction coverage was not reviewed. 1314 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | Native supportSame as native: Unknown | Can: Add a Base account in Ledger Wallet with the device's Ethereum app, per Ledger's Base announcement Can: Manage ETH and ERC-20 tokens on Base; Ledger suggests the Zerion app in Ledger Wallet's Discover section if a token does not appearThe source is Ledger's September 2023 Base announcement, whose text now uses the Ledger Wallet name. Ledger's Base coin page returned 404, and Ledger's full supported-assets list was not checked. 14 |
| Trezor | Native supportSame as native: Unknown | Can: Send and receive Base assets in Trezor Suite with a Trezor Safe 3, Safe 5 or Safe 7, per Trezor's Base page Can: Use the device through MetaMask or Rabby, which Trezor names as compatible appsTrezor's Base page lists Base as the supported network for the Safe 3, Safe 5 and Safe 7; the Model One and Model T are not listed there, which is not the same as confirmed unsupported. The page brands the asset as "Base", but Base has no token of its own: the gas asset is ETH on Base. 13 |
Public data
Your AI can request these lookups through the connection. The website itself runs no lookups. Networks: mainnet.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Available | native ETH balance, nonce and code presence at provider-reported latest Base state |
| Tokens and assets | Available | paginated indexed token balances through anonymous Base Blockscout or explicitly injected Alchemy, with exact contract base units |
| NFTs | Available | paginated ERC-721/ERC-1155 token IDs with exact quantities through anonymous Base Blockscout or explicitly injected Alchemy |
| Transactions | Available | transaction, receipt execution and provider-relative latest/safe/finalized inclusion |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 26, 2026; next review was due Oct 6, 2026.
Publication date · newest first
-
Cobalt was scheduled for Base Mainnet on September 30, 2026
Base documentation marked Cobalt live on Sepolia on September 23 and still shipping for Mainnet on September 30. The v1.4.2 release was required operator software, but a release and a scheduled date do not prove Mainnet activation.
- Type:Upgrade
- Proposal:Specified
- Release:required-node-release-v1.4.2
- Activation:Mainnet scheduled not observed
Sources: Base — Cobalt Overview (external site) · Base contributors — Base v1.4.2 (external site) · Base — Base Status (external site)
-
Base node development and releases moved to base/base
The v1.3.0 release moved the public node image to the base/base repository. The older base/node repository is archived and directs new installations and upgrades to base/base, so release monitoring should follow the new repository.
- Type:Release
- Proposal:Not applicable
- Release:Released
- Activation:Repository migration observed
Sources: Base contributors — Base v1.3.0 (external site) · Base contributors — base/node repository (external site)
-
Base released a hinted-P384 design for onchain AWS Nitro validation
Base published an open-source redesign that moves expensive P-384 inversions offchain as checked calldata hints and reported Base measurements below the per-transaction gas cap. The post says use in the canonical bridge proofs system is planned; this record does not claim that migration has occurred.
- Type:Release
- Proposal:Not applicable
- Release:Open source library released
- Activation:Canonical bridge use planned not observed
Source: Base Engineering Team — Making AWS Nitro Validation feasible onchain (external site)
-
Base published remediation for the June 25–26 block-production outages
Base reported two complete block-production halts lasting 116 minutes and 20 minutes. Its postmortem attributes both to stale execution journal state after transaction validation failure, records a sequencer patch and recovery, and separately identifies an engine-reset race that contributed to the recurrence.
- Type:Release
- Proposal:Not applicable
- Release:Sequencer remediation deployed
- Activation:Incidents resolved 2026 06 26
Source: Base Engineering Team — Postmortem: June 25th Block Production Outage (external site)
-
Beryl is live on Base Mainnet
Beryl was announced on June 18, 2026, and current Base upgrade documentation marks it live on Mainnet on June 25, 2026. The upgrade introduced B20 precompile-based tokens, reduced the single-proof withdrawal finalization window from seven days to five, and shipped Reth V2; the Base v1.1.1 GitHub release instructs node operators to upgrade before the June 25 activation.
- Type:Upgrade
- Proposal:Specified
- Release:required-node-release-v1.1.1
- Activation:Mainnet live observed in current docs
Sources: Base — Beryl Overview (external site) · Base Engineering Team — Introducing Base Beryl (external site) · Base contributors — Base v1.1.1 (external site)
Publication date unknown
-
Base release-awareness sources remain manually curated
The reviewed monitoring set is Base upgrade documentation, Base status notices and base/base GitHub releases. No scheduled intake, webhook or automated news feed is configured by this module.
- Type:Source
- Proposal:Not applicable
- Release:Not applicable
- Activation:Manual only
Sources: Base — Cobalt Overview (external site) · Base contributors — Base v1.4.2 (external site) · Base — Base Status (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Base through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- The legal/corporate operator of the Base sequencer was not sourced; the profile says only that Base runs it.
- Forced inclusion through Ethereum (up to 12 hours) and the rule that anyone can propose or challenge outputs come from L2BEAT; the reviewed Base docs did not describe them.
- The upgrade-multisig thresholds come from L2BEAT; the signers of the Base Security Council and coordinator multisigs were not sourced.
- Cobalt (mainnet scheduled 2026-09-30) adds fee payment in B20 tokens, validity transactions, onchain-driven dynamic upgrades and onchain TEE-signer registration replacing the RISC Zero/Boundless flow; recheck the gas-asset sentence, the upgrade-authority description and the proof-system description after activation. The Cobalt page does not say which B20 tokens can pay fees or whether ETH stays the default.
- Base's transaction-finality page is stale: it still states the pre-Beryl 7-day withdrawal wait and the older fault-proof challenger description. This profile follows the Beryl upgrade page (5 days single-proof, 1 day dual-proof), live on mainnet since 2026-06-25.
- Current Base chain size, bandwidth and IOPS requirements were not captured; the home full-node assessment relies on the published minimums and sizing formula.
- Trezor's Base page does not list the Model One or Model T; they are recorded as not listed, not as unsupported. Ledger's Base coin page returned 404, so Ledger support rests on its 2023 announcement (text updated for the Ledger Wallet name); Ledger's current supported-assets list was not checked.
- Horizen is the only chain anchored to Base listed here, because it has its own profile; other Layer 3s and any channels anchored to Base were not reviewed.
- Atomic swaps, reversible or delayed transfers and recovery, light clients and algorithmic stablecoins on Base were not reviewed.
- Third-party bridges (e.g. Circle CCTP) and venues other than Aerodrome were not reviewed.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 25, 2026 Next check due Oct 25, 2026.
- Base Protocol Overview (external site)
- Batcher (external site)
- Transaction Finality (external site)
- Beryl Overview (external site)
- Connect to Base (external site)
- base/base (external site)
- Run a Base Node (external site)
- Node Performance (external site)
- Postmortem: June 25th Block Production Outage (external site)
- Base Mainnet explorer (external site)
- About Aerodrome (external site)
- USDC Contract Addresses (external site)
- Safe & secure Base wallet (external site)
- Base, The New Layer 2 Incubated by Coinbase, Joins the Ledger Ecosystem! (external site)
- Cobalt Overview (external site)
- Base (external site)
- Horizen L3 architecture (external site)
- Horizen architecture (external site)
- Mainnet network details (external site)
Report an error
Found something wrong or out of date? Reporting is free, and every chain goes through the same process. Published corrections appear in the public log.
Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding