- Base has experienced its first significant outage.
- The incident has attracted jabs as crypto community members draw parallels with Solana.
- The latest incident comes amid growing concerns over centralization and rugpulls.
Base, the Coinbase incubated Ethereum Layer -2 blockchain has dominated headlines in the past few hours but not for reasons it is used to. The instant crypto sensation has experienced its first major outage in less than a month of its launch, sparking significant concern and derision.
Base Derided
For about 33 minutes between 9:36 pm UTC and 10:09 pm UTC on Tuesday, September 5, Base experienced its first significant outage as no new blocks were produced on the network. Commenting on the issue, the team behind the protocol asserted that the “delay in block production” was partly due to a problem with “internal infrastructure.”
While block production had already resumed by 10:09 pm UTC, the issue was not fully resolved till 12:56 am UTC on Wednesday, September 6, per the project’s status page.
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Despite the relatively rapid response of the Base team, the crypto community wasted no time comparing the nascent blockchain to Solana, a chain known for its frequent network outages. Specifically, several community members called out the team for refraining from using the term “outage.”
Influential crypto community member Bigs quipped that it appeared that specific terms like “outage” and “down” were only reserved for Solana.
Similarly, Global Storage Engineer Jarek Piotrowski commented, “It’s called an outage – thank you.”
Like Bigs and Piotrowski, Ultimate Wallet Community Officer Genry expressed similar sentiments, jokingly prodding the team not to be ashamed of calling the incident an outage.
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Base’s recent troubles come amid growing concerns over centralization and frequent rugpulls.
Not a Perfect Start
Less than a month after its launch, Base has already attracted over one million users and has broken into the top ten chains by TVL. Boasting a TVL of $405 million at the time of writing, Defi Llama ranks Base as the eighth largest blockchain by TVL.
But despite the big numbers, there have been bumps in the road. Perhaps a victim of its success, the hype and activity surrounding the protocol have also attracted bad actors. There have been at least three confirmed rugpulls on Base in as many weeks. The most recent rug on Magnate Finance led to the loss of an estimated $6.5 million.
Aside from growing uncertainty over rugs, concerns remain about Base’s centralization and Coinbase’s potential influence over the network. On August 24, Base outlined plans to address centralization concerns, including implementing multiple software clients to improve the network’s resilience and decrease the chances of downtime. However, no timeline was given for these plans.
On the Flipside
- Plans to employ multiple software clients could reduce the chances of outages in the future.
- Solana outages typically lasted for hours at a time.
Why This Matters
With the launch of Base, Coinbase promised to bring the next one billion users on-chain. Frequent network outages would harm user experience and significantly hamper any such plans.
Read this to learn more about Base’s rapid rise:
Base Chain’s Explosive Growth Shows the DeFi Market Is Still Up for Grabs
Recent large Ethereum transfers to Coinbase have stirred market uncertainty:
Mammoth 300K ETH Transfer to Coinbase Stirs Market Uncertainty
