Coinbase Base L2 Encounters First Outage Since Launch

Coinbase’s Base chain, a Layer 2 (L2) blockchain on Ethereum, experienced its first major outage on September 5, almost a month after its launch. The blackout reportedly lasted 43 minutes, reminding many of Solana.

Meanwhile, crypto researcher Matt Willemsen has urged caution while using L2 solutions, emphasizing that they are not on par with Ethereum mainnet.

Coinbase Base Shaken By 43-Minute Network Outage

Base confirmed the outage, stating,

“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.”

The website noted that a problem caused a stall in the production of blocks. Which in turn affected users trying to submit transactions. However, Base notes that the problem was identified and fixed, and the network was back to normal on September 6. It boasted of a stable network and RPC (Remote Procedure Call) APIs the day after the investigation.

At the same time, crypto researcher Matt Willemsen reminded users about the reliability of L2 chains built on Ethereum against the OG. He remarked,

“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.”

Read more: How To Use Arbitrum Bridge To Bridge Ethereum Tokens

Willemsen noted that he is not suggesting not using L2s, but users should be more cautious about what they’re dealing with.

However, Base boasted a 100% uptime on the mainnet until the recent outage. In the last 60 days, the website had a 100% uptime while the Bridge was at 99.97% with a partial outage on August 29 and 30.

Mainnet hit an operational hurdle, bringing uptime to 99.91%. Notably, five components had a major outage, while one had a partial outage per the official status.

The testnet hasn’t been down in the last three months.

Just Like Solana?

The outage raises questions about the Base’s long-term performance. It is valid to ask if it might follow a trajectory similar to Solana’s.

Solana has faced its share of challenges in the past. In February, Solana suffered a network blackout, and in 2022, the network experienced multiple outages for various reasons. For instance, Solana Foundation-ran Remote Procedure Call (RPC) endpoints went offline because of a bug, leading to one of the network outages.

However, in 2023, Solana released a performance report showcasing improved network uptime and strength.

Base Mainnet officially launched on August 9. The Coinbase L2 blockchain officially launched with hundreds of dApps, with many on the way. However, comparisons are being made if Base is following Solana within a month of its launch.

Based on the latest statistics by Dune Analytics, the total value bridged on Base is close to $430 million. Daily activity on the Base network has been increasing, with over 11,000 new users joining on September 5, bringing the cumulative user count to 1,188,206.

Additionally, daily transactions exceeded 361,400 on the day, with a cumulative transaction count surpassing 18 million.

But Base’s recent outage is a stark reminder that emerging L2 solutions can experience hiccups that could put thousands of users at risk. Users must emphasize understanding the risks and benefits when navigating the segment.