Base launches Cobalt upgrade with conditional transactions and new B20 asset functions

Base's third mainnet upgrade, Cobalt, went live on Wednesday, designed to give traders greater control with Validity Transactions and add new functionality to its B20 token standard.

Validity Transactions enable users to submit time-bound transactions that remain dormant until certain conditions are met, the team explained in a statement shared with The Block ahead of the launch. This allows for more control over the criteria and timing for eligible transaction inclusion on Base.

As an example, a trader could submit a swap that only becomes eligible if the pool price reaches at least a certain USDC value before a certain block, the team said. If the price reaches that level in time, Base can include the transaction; otherwise, it is never included.

"The API is neutral infrastructure that provides advanced traders with the added benefit of keeping their submissions private until they land," Base said.

B20 token standard

The Coinbase (COIN)-incubated Ethereum Layer 2's upgrade also adds enhancements to its B20 token standard, which went live with Base's Beryl upgrade in June.

Composite Policies enable asset issuers to combine existing allowlists and blocklists with OR or AND logic, Base explained.

"This makes it possible to reuse live policies, such as KYC allowlists and sanctions blocklists, without copying member lists or maintaining offchain synchronization," it said.

For example, a fund could require recipients to be on both a KYC list and its own accreditation list. A transfer would fail if the recipient was removed from either one.

Meanwhile, Schedule Multiplier Updates align the B20 Asset multiplier with the ERC-8056 standard and let issuers schedule changes to how an asset's balance is displayed, such as for a stock split. Existing integrations on Beryl will continue to work, while new integrations can adopt the updated standard over time, the team said.

Finally, Cobalt adds a "seizeWithMemo" function for B20 assets and stablecoins, allowing authorized administrators to reassign a holder's balance where seizure has been enabled.

Base gave an example of a frozen account where an authorized administrator moves shares to a recovery wallet. The transaction records the source, destination, amount, and a memo onchain.

Over the coming months, Base said it also plans to reduce block times from 2s to 200ms, make smart accounts native at the protocol level with gas sponsorship and transaction batching, and support a subset of EVM improvements from Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade.