Back in Q1 2023, Coinbase announced the testnet launch of its native Ethereum layer 2 network, Base. The solution offers a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly way for users to build dApps. Base is built on the MIT-licensed OP Stack, in association with Optimism.
Now, the L2 network is almost ready for mainnet launch. According to a recent update tweet, 80% of the boxes have already been checked. Specifically, Base’s announcement highlighted,
“We’ve now fulfilled 4/5 of our criteria for mainnet launch.”
Also Read: Base: Coinbase Announces New Ethereum L2 Network’s Testnet Launch
Internal, External Audits
Coinbase intends to make “on-chain” the next “online” and get over a billion users into the ecosystem. To achieve the objective, Base will serve as both a “home” for Coinbase’s on-chain products and an “open ecosystem” for users to build. Well, security is “an essential part of this vision” for Coinbase.
Via a recent blogpost, the team brought to light how they’re preparing for a secure mainnet launch with the help of auditing. Over the past few months, the protocol security team has been working on an internal audit. The blogpost revealed,
“Over the last 6 months, the Protocol Security team has worked closely with OP Labs to enhance the security of Base and Optimism.”
In fact, the team has also broadened the audit to “external wardens.” To prepare Base for mainnet, the team engaged the wider community through a public smart contract audit contest. Users were asked to find and report bugs in any part of the OP Stack. Parallel to the aforementioned live audit, Coinbase’s Protocol Security team also “thoroughly reviewed” findings and mitigations from past audit programs. Chalking out the results, the blogpost revealed,
“We engaged over 100 security researchers as part of this contest, and are happy to report there were no significant vulnerabilities discovered.”
Furthermore, the team is “actively working” to resolve all submissions. In fact, they are currently in the process of “ensuring appropriate action” for any informative or minor issues that were reported.
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Other Developments
To enhance the security of Base and support other teams running chains built on the OP Stack, developers are additionally working on an open source monitoring tool, Pessimism. This will help provide “prompt notification of anomalies” in the protocol and network. The blogpost highlighted that account balance irregularities, contract events, disparities between L1 and L2 states, etc. could be identified using the same.
It is not yet known when exactly Base will go live on the mainnet. However, the team noted that the launch will happen “soon.”
Also Read: 10 Reasons Why Coinbase’s Ethereum L2 ‘Base’ Is a “Big Deal”