The Ethereum layer-2 network Base, incubated by Coinbase, experienced a halt in block production for over two hours on Thursday due to a consensus problem. The network has since recovered, and operations are returning to normal as it continues with a planned upgrade.
The outage highlights the ongoing challenges in maintaining the stability and reliability of layer-2 blockchain networks, even those backed by major exchanges like Coinbase. The successful recovery and continuation of a planned upgrade demonstrate resilience, but such incidents can impact user confidence and transaction activity.
The Ethereum layer-2 network Base experienced a significant disruption on Thursday, with block production halting for over two hours. The issue, which began around noon ET, was attributed to a consensus problem that resulted in an invalid block being sequenced, thereby preventing the creation of new blocks. The network status page indicated that all funds remained secure during the outage. Around 1:00 p.m. ET, the issue was identified, and shortly thereafter, block sequencing began to normalize, with applications and infrastructure providers restarting and syncing their nodes. This marks the first block production and deposit issue on Base's mainnet in 90 days, although the network did experience approximately 30 hours of withdrawal delays in May. Despite the disruption, Base is continuing with its planned Beryl hardfork upgrade, which is set to introduce a new token standard for stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, while also aiming to reduce withdrawal delays. Blockchain outages, though not common, have affected various networks, including Sui and Solana, in the past.