In early 2026 Base made a decisive technical shift. After years of building on the Optimism OP Stack and participating in the Superchain, the team announced it would move to a fully unified, Base-operated software stack. The goal was simple but ambitious: ship protocol improvements faster, reduce complexity, and push performance far beyond previous limits.
The first major result of this change was the Azul upgrade. It introduced a multiproof system that combines TEE attestations with ZK proofs, enabling significantly faster finality and marking real progress toward Stage 2 decentralization. At the same time, client software was consolidated so that node operators now run releases directly from Base’s own repositories instead of Optimism’s.
Looking ahead, Base is targeting six tightly scoped hard forks per year double the previous cadence. Upcoming upgrades focus on Flashblock Access Lists, higher gas targets, new transaction types, and deeper alignment with Ethereum’s roadmap. The north-star metric remains clear: reach 1 gigagas per second while keeping the network secure, simple, and developer-friendly.
This technical independence gives Base the speed and control it needs to stay competitive as an Ethereum L2 while still remaining fully committed to the broader Ethereum ecosystem.
@jessepollak @base @coinbase @brian_armstrong
#Base #BaseChain #Azul #EthereumL2 #Scaling #Decentralization #BlockchainTech #Coinbase
Mehmet Çelik (temhemc)
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