Base Pushes Toward Final L2 Stage with First Independent Upgrade

Base, the Ethereum layer 2 network developed by Coinbase, announced Tuesday evening its first independently built network upgrade, dubbed Azul, targeting mainnet activation on May 13.

The upgrade marks a “major step” in Base’s push toward Stage 2 decentralization — the highest trust-minimization standard for Ethereum L2s, according to the Base Engineering Blog post announcing the upgrade.

The centerpiece of Azul is a multiproof system that combines two independent proof mechanisms — a trusted execution environment (TEE) prover and a zero-knowledge (ZK) prover — into a single security layer. Either can finalize a transaction on its own, but when both agree, withdrawals from Base to Ethereum settle in as little as a day, the post notes. This architecture satisfies a core Stage 2 requirement: the ability to detect and handle proof system failures entirely on-chain.

Base currently ranks as the second-largest L2 by total value secured, with $12.12 billion, per L2Beat data. Arbitrum One is ranked first with just over $16 billion.

The announcement comes amid growing pressure on L2s to mature their security models. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has pushed for faster L2 withdrawal times to reduce reliance on third-party bridges, while also questioning whether the original L2 vision still holds as the space has evolved. Base’s multiproof design is explicitly modeled on Buterin’s L2 finalization roadmap, the Azul announcement notes.

Beyond security, Azul streamlines Base’s underlying client stack and aligns the network with Ethereum’s latest execution-layer specs. Base has also doubled down on stablecoins, global markets, and AI agents as its core growth bets, and faster, cheaper finality is foundational to all three.

Azul is live on testnet now, with a $250,000 bug bounty competition running through May 4.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.