Base Stage 1 status and the centralized sequencer

Base, which launched in August 2023, is an open, permissionless Ethereum L2 incubated at Coinbase. It was built on the open source OP Stack in collaboration with the Optimism Collective. Collaborators use the Law of Chains to guide improved decentralization. This commitment includes routing a portion of Base sequencer revenue to the Optimism Collective and participating in governance. Base aims to bring the next million developers and billion users onchain. It works to build a global, open onchain economy. Base was built to scale Ethereum and further the entire onchain ecosystem. Base reached Stage 1 in April 2025 via permissionless fault proofs. This milestone put it ahead of Optimism, which remains at Stage 0 according to L2Beat. Arbitrum also holds Stage 1 status. Although Base moved up the decentralization ladder, Coinbase still operates the sole sequencer. The February 2025 outage stopped all Base transactions when the Coinbase sequencer failed. Risks like censorship and MEV extraction exist.

The shift toward a unified stack

Coinbase announced a shift away from the Optimism-centric decentralization plan in February 2026. The company now builds toward a unified, Base-operated stack instead. The shift changes direction. You already know that a single sequencer concentrates power, so why does the roadmap still lack a specific date for sequencer decentralization? The Base sequencer contributed 44.8% of Optimism Collective revenue in October 2025, which equaled 109.6 ETH out of the total 244.9 ETH collected during that specific month. While Arbitrum and Base both reached Stage 1, the reality remains that a single entity in the United States controls the transaction ordering and block production for the entire Base network without any immediate competition.

Base uses a 2-2 contract upgrade multisig structure to prevent any single entity or individual from triggering upgrades to the smart contracts. This structure includes the Base Upgrade Multisig and the Optimism Foundation Multisig. A 1-2 challenger key structure allows either the Base team or the Optimism Foundation to delete invalid output proposals. These proposals prove withdrawals from L2 to L1. This structure prevents one party from having singular control. Base relies on the Law of Chains to guide its decentralization. This framework defines standards for Superchain protocols such as neutrality and a decentralized security model. The Optimism Foundation developed the initial version. The Security Council will help secure Base and Optimism Mainnet. A set of independent, geographically distributed community members will execute protocol upgrades. Once live and approved by Optimism Governance, this Council will secure Base and other chains built on the OP Stack. The Security Council manages upgrades as determined by Optimism Governance.

Beryl and technical updates

The Beryl upgrade, which arrived on the Base Sepolia testnet in June 2025, introduced the B20 token standard to allow for the issuance of stablecoins and other assets directly inside the node software through Rust-based precompiled contracts. This standard implements the full ERC-20 specification and includes ERC-2612 permits. Holders approve spenders with a signature instead of a separate transaction. This feature works as a drop-in replacement for existing wallets, exchanges, and indexers built for ERC-20 tokens. Beryl also reduced the standard withdrawal delay to Ethereum from seven days to five. This change targets the path most bridging providers use. The upgrade expands blockspace for builders. Two versions exist at launch: a general-purpose asset version and a stablecoin version. The stablecoin version uses fixed six-decimal precision. The toolkit includes role-based access control, mint, and burn functions. It also includes optional supply caps and granular transfer policies. A freeze-and-seize mechanism exists for regulated issuers. Beryl ships Reth V2, which is the latest version of the Rust-based execution client. This update reduces disk usage across the chain’s full, minimal, and archive nodes. Base raises gas targets. The next upgrade, Cobalt, targets September and expects to introduce native account abstraction. This will make smart accounts a protocol-level feature with built-in gas sponsorship and transaction batching. The toolkit includes code audited by the company and Spearbit. Future updates will let issuers pay gas fees in their own B20 tokens.