Coinbase-incubated Base network to ditch Optimism for 'unified solution'

Base, the Coinbase-incubated Ethereum Layer 2, is pivoting away from Optimism’s Superchain ecosystem and "evolving its foundational software by moving to a unified, Base-operated stack," according to a blog on Wednesday.

The move will see Base shift its reliance away from the OP Stack, and other external dependencies provided by Flashbots and Paradigm, toward a consolidated repository. In replacing Optimism from its security council, the Base Security Council is adding "an additional independent signer."

Base is by far the largest chain in the OP Stack Superchain, which recently passed a resolution to use protocol rewards for token buybacks. Base developers have previously signaled they were looking into launching a native token.

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"Today, the code operating various components of Base, such as the sequencer, is owned by multiple teams and spread across multiple repositories, which adds coordination and maintenance overhead," the blog reads. "Our unified solution, base/base, built on open-sourced components such as Reth, allows us to dramatically simplify the number of components, by optimizing them directly for our use case."

"This unification does not mean Base will be built in isolation," the blog notes. "The protocol remains public and specified in the open, and alternative implementations are welcome and encouraged. Any team can build, run, and maintain an independent client that follows the published specs and remains compatible across hard forks."

According to the announcement, Base will remain a "Stage 1" rollup, following Vitalik Buterin's classification model for L2 decentralization. In the shortterm, the chain will continue to remain compatible with the OP Stack specification. However, the team notes, Base node operators will need to migrate to a new Base client to remain compatible with future hard forks.

Base is planning an upcoming Base V1 hardfork that will add Fusaka support and swap Optimistic proofs to Base-specific TEE/ZK proofs. "Node operators will need to transition to running releases from ⁠base/base instead of Optimism’s releases," the team notes. 

Two additional hardforks are also scheduled to further reduce Base’s relationship with Optimism, with Base V3 apparently timed around the upcoming Glamsterdam Ethereum update.

The Block reached out to Base for comment and may update this article with additional context.