How Base Blockchain Makes Ethereum Faster and Cheaper Without Cutting Corners

If you were asked to pick any two of these options: peace, health, and wealth, which would you go for?

There is a certainty that whatever option you decide to forsake comes at a cost, as they are all equally important.
This is similar to Ethereum's current predicament: it's between choosing two of the three crucial features of blockchain.
Decentralization, Security, and Scalability are the three pillars holding the blockchain network. Each of these features plays a significant role in upholding the network.

• Decentralization in the blockchain network ensures that no single entity controls it and provides a trustless system.
• Several security techniques, such as digital signatures, hash functions, and public keys, help guard the network from attacks.
• Scalability plays an important role in ensuring that transactions are processed faster and gas fees are low.

Taking a closer look at the function each feature offers, which did you think should be sacrificed?

Ethereum, being so big on having a decentralized and secured network, decided to sacrifice scalability (to some extent).

The downside of sacrificing scalability is that the network becomes congested, which often leads to slower transaction processing speed and a hike in transaction fees as several users want to leverage the specialized functionality Ethereum offers.

What's the use of decentralization and security if users have to compete to process their transactions by paying exorbitant transaction fees?

This challenging problem led to the invention of innovative technology, such as Base, a layer-2 scaling solution, to scale Ethereum.

In this article, we'll explore the world of Base and how it is an efficient solution to the Ethereum scalability issue.

What is Base Blockchain?

Base is a layer-2 scaling solution developed by one of the biggest crypto exchanges, Coinbase. As a Layer-2 scaling solution, Base is designed to scale Ethereum by offloading transactions from on-chain, processing them off-chain, bundling them into a single batch, and submitting them back to the Ethereum Blockchain.

The solution Base offers speeds up transaction processing. Mores, there are claims that transaction fees are ten times cheaper than when processing them on Ethereum.

This provides a better solution for Ethereum, as scalability issues can be solved without sacrificing decentralization and security. Base is built on Ethereum and inherits all of its security and decentralization properties.

Features of the Base Blockchain

Base possesses several notable features that distinguish it from other layer-2 scaling solutions. These features include:

• Ethereum Virtual Machine (Evm) compatibility: Base compatibility with the Evm standard makes it easy for developers to migrate their existing decentralized applications on Base without making significant changes to their code.
• Account Abstraction: This feature allows users' accounts to be treated as smart contracts, ultimately increasing user experience by simplifying the complex process of managing an account, authorizing transactions, and enhancing security features.
• Easy-to-use Application Programming Interface (API): Base offers an API that allows developers to set up gasless transactions for their decentralized application and also speeds up the app development process.
• Coinbase Support: Baseintegration with Coinbase makes it easy to build decentralized applications with access to Coinbase products, users, and tools.
  

How Exactly Does Base Blockchain Scale Ethereum?

Base taps into the power of the Optimism Stack (OpStack) and uses an Optimistic Roll-up to help scale the Ethereum network. The OpStack, an open-source project by Optimism, makes it easy for anyone to build a layer-2 solution on Ethereum. The goal is to create something bigger—a superchain network, where a group of interconnected layer-2 blockchains work together, sharing security, governance, and communication. All of this is made possible through the OP Stack.

As a layer-2 solution that uses Optimistic Roll-up, Base scales Ethereum through the following process:

1. Off-chain transactions: Base reduces the workload on Ethereum by offloading transactions and taking them off-chain for processing.
2. Batched transaction: The transactions taken off-chain are processed and bundled into a single batch. This reduces the transaction cost because a single transaction fee will be paid and shared by all the users in the batch transaction.
3. Submission: The batch transaction is then submitted back to the Ethereum main net.
   

However, since Base uses Optimistic Roll-up, the batch transactions are assumed to be valid by default and will only be challenged if there's a potential fraudulent activity. The validated transactions are then submitted to Ethereum.

Advantages of Base Blockchain

The Base blockchain offers several advantages, which include:

• Low costs: Base offers a solution that reduces the cost of processing transactions on Ethereum. By using Base, users can process their transactions without paying exorbitant fees.
• High Transaction Processing Speed: Base increases transaction processing speed by offloading transactions from Ethereum and processing them off-chain. This increases users' experience by allowing them to process their transactions faster.
• Security: Base inherits Ethereum's security and decentralization, which makes it highly secure and resistant to attacks.
• Gasless Transactions: Base gasless transactions enhance the user's experience by removing gas fees and making transactions cost-effective.
  

Drawbacks of the Base Blockchain

Base offers several benefits; however, just like every other approach, it has drawbacks. Some of the drawbacks Base is currently faced with include:

• Centralization: Centralization is one of the challenges Base is currently facing since Coinbase is currently the only sequencer of the network. This implies that Coinbase controls all the servers responsible for validating transactions. It is also responsible for sequencing and finalizing transactions, which is against the core principle of having a decentralized network. Although there are plans and strategies that the company is working on to tackle this centralization issue.
• Withdrawal Delays: Base uses Optimistic Roll-ups, which means there are possibilities of long withdrawal periods where users have to wait for about seven days before they can get their funds. This challenge often arises when a user senses a potential fraud and challenges the transaction using fraud-proofing. The fraud-proving system can take a longer period before finality can be reached.

Base Blockchain Use Cases

Base offers a wide range of opportunities that can benefit various applications. Some of the use cases include:

• Decentralized Finance (DeFi): DeFi platforms can leverage the cost-effectiveness and high throughput Base offers. Examples of DeFi protocols using Base are Uniswap, SushiSwap, and Aave.
• Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT): NFT platforms can leverage Base scalability to create scalable platforms for creating, buying, and selling digital art. This scalability ensures users can mint and trade NFTs without facing network issues or high costs.
  Examples of NFT platforms using Base are OpenSea, Zora, and Niftykits.
• Gaming: The base high transaction speed allows blockchain-based games that often require large numbers of transactions to build a smooth and seamless experience without delays or high costs, which are often common with layer-1 networks.
  

Final Thoughts

The Base Blockchain offers a great solution to Ethereum's scalability problem. Ethereum users can now pay a small fee for processing transactions and won't have to wait for a longer period before processing their transactions, which was often associated with Ethereum before Base came in.

Base is a promising solution with more potential for growth in the future. This means it can effectively tackle some of the problems it's currently faced with.

References

Coinbase Layer2 Blockchain Explained
Introducing Base blockchain solution to scaling Ethereum
Base: Features, Drawbacks, and Future of Coinbase’s L2