Coinbase Base suffers first major outage | Credit: Shutterstock
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Key Takeaways
A month after its launch, Base experienced a 43-minute outage, reminiscent of Solana’s.
Base recognized a delay in block production due to its internal infrastructure during the outage.
Despite it, Base has grown significantly, with a total bridged value of around $430M.
Almost a month after its inception, Coinbase’s Base chain, an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) blockchain, experienced its first significant outage on September 5. Many were reminded of Solana by the 43-minute blackout, according to reports.
Earlier today we had a delay in block production due in part to our internal infrastructure requiring a refresh.
The issue has been identified and remediated. No funds are at risk.
While L2 solutions are not on par with the Ethereum mainnet, crypto researcher Matt Willemsen has cautioned users against adopting them.
According to Base’s status page, users were experiencing trouble submitting new transactions on the network because block production had paused. Around 9:36 p.m. UTC, the problems were discovered, and 14 minutes later, a solution was found.
Base stalled block production | Credit: Status.Base.org
“We had a delay in block production due in part to our internal infrastructure requiring a refresh. The issue has been identified and remediated. No funds are at risk.”
A glitch resulted in a halt in the manufacture of blocks, according to the website. It therefore had an impact on customers who tried to submit transactions.
Base stated that the network returned to normal on September 6 once the issue was found and resolved. The day after the investigation, it bragged about having a reliable network and RPC (Remote Procedure Call) APIs.
Crypto researcher Matt Willemsen also reminded users of the L2 chains based on Ethereum’s trustworthiness versus the OG at the same time. He observed:
“Another reminder that using Ethereum L2s (e.g., Arbitrum One, OP Mainnet, zkSync Era, Base) is NOT the same as using Ethereum mainnet, which is more battle-tested and involves fewer trust assumptions.”
Willemsen clarified that he is not advocating against the usage of L2s, but rather that users should exercise greater caution when utilizing them.
But before the recent outage, Base had a 100% uptime on the mainnet. The website’s uptime during the previous 60 days was 100%, but the Bridge’s uptime was 99.97%, with a partial outage on August 29 and 30.
Mainnet overcame a technical obstacle, bringing uptime to 99.91%. According to the official status, one component had a partial outage and five components experienced substantial outages.
In the past three months, there hasn’t been a testnet outage.
Similar to Solana?
The outage casts doubt on the Base’s long-term effectiveness. It is reasonable to wonder if it will take a similar course to Solana’s.
In the past, Solana has encountered its share of difficulties. A network blackout occurred in Solana in February, and the network endured numerous disruptions for various causes in 2022. For instance, one of the network failures was caused by Remote Procedure Call (RPC) endpoints managed by the Solana Foundation becoming unavailable as a result of a defect.
However, Solana published a performance report in 2023 that showed increased network strength and uptime.
Base Mainnet Soars but Outage Raises Caution Flag
August 9 saw the formal launch of Base Mainnet. With many more on the way, the Coinbase L2 blockchain officially debuted with hundreds of dApps. However, if Base is launched within a month after Solana, comparisons are being made.
According to Dune Analytics’ most recent statistics, the total worth of bridges on Base was close to $430 million. The number of users on the Base network has been growing daily, and on September 5 alone, over 11,000 new users joined, bringing the total to 1,188,206.
Additionally, the number of transactions each day exceeded 361,400, and the total number of transactions exceeded 18 million.
However, Base’s recent outage serves as a clear reminder that buggy new L2 solutions can endanger thousands of customers. When traversing the segment, users must stress understanding the risks and advantages.
Teuta is a seasoned writer and editor with more than 15 years of experience. She has expertise in covering macroeconomics and technology as well as the cryptocurrency and blockchain industries. She has worked for several publications as a journalist and editor, including Forbes, Bloomberg, CoinTelegraph, Coin Rivet, CoinSpeaker, VRWorld and Arcane Bear.
Teuta began her professional career in 2005, working as a lifestyle writer at Cosmopolitan in Croatia. From there, she branched out to several other publications, covering mainly business and the economy. She then turned her attention to the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain, believing that crypto is among the most important inventions in the history of humanity. Her involvement in fintech began in 2014 and she has since lent her expertise in writing, editing and gathering information about the world of crypto, blockchain, NFTs and Web3.
An all-round news hound, mentor, editor, and writer, Teuta enjoys teamwork and good communication. She holds a WSET2 diploma and has a thing for chablis, punkrock music and shoes. She also holds a double MA in Political science and Entrepreneurship.
