TL;DR: Base’s Commitment to Decentralization
Base is an open, permissionless Ethereum L2 incubated at Coinbase with a commitment to decentralization. Base was built on the open source OP Stack in collaboration with the Optimism Collective, and together, we are working toward improved decentralization using the Law of Chains as our guide. This commitment includes routing a portion of Base sequencer revenue to the Optimism Collective and actively participating in governance.
The Vision Behind Base
We launched Base with a big vision: bringing the next million developers and billion users onchain. In order to accomplish this vision, we believe that Base must be decentralized, because decentralization will help enable a global, open, onchain economy that will unlock economic freedom around the world.
Building on the OP Stack
From the beginning, we’ve prioritized decentralization on Base through our decision to build Base on the OP Stack in collaboration with the Optimism Collective. This collaboration has allowed us to build Base on an open source codebase that will scale Ethereum and further the entire onchain ecosystem.
The Starting Point: The Dream of a Superchain
We had two key reasons for building on the OP Stack, in close collaboration with the Optimism Collective.
- We believe the building blocks for a global, open economy should be a public good accessible to all developers.
- We believe that Ethereum will scale through many interoperable chains — the Superchain.
As an open source public good, any developer today can build on or contribute to the OP Stack. When they do, they’ll join Base, OP Labs, and countless other teams across the industry who are working together to strengthen this public good. And the more hands on the code, the more chances to spot and secure the foundation, making everyone built on top stronger.
The Base and Optimism teams discovered a shared vision for scaling Ethereum when we worked together on EIP-4844. We dreamt of a “Superchain” future: a web of rollups and L2s, all working together to jointly scale Ethereum. Chains that are part of the Superchain will allow builders and users to transact and move across chains easily and affordably, creating a consistent user experience and laying the groundwork for teams everywhere to build a decentralized future.
Decentralizing Base and the OP Stack with Optimism
Base is committed to decentralizing Base and strengthening the OP Stack through technical improvements, commitment to the Law of Chains neutrality framework, and contributing back to public goods. These initiatives will not only strengthen Base, but the foundation on which the Superchain and the global, open, onchain economy can be built.
Technical Improvements Towards Decentralization
Layer 2s (L2s) today are categorized from Stage 0 to Stage 2 (according to Vitalik) based on their level of decentralization. Stage 0, or “full training wheels”, is the most centralized stage. As L2s move up the stages, they become more decentralized. Stage 1 is “limited training wheels,” and Stage 2 is “no training wheels.”
Right now, no L2 is at Stage 2. The tech needs to mature before L2s can safely reach higher degrees of decentralization. The more we can boost and scale the infrastructure supporting L2s, the faster we get to full decentralization.
We’re working closely with the Optimism Collective to improve the decentralization of the OP Stack and progress Base from a Stage 0 to Stage 2 L2, including:
- Contributing to op-geth and op-node scalability and reliability.
- OP-reth implementation for client and fault proof diversity.
- Building Pessimism to improve monitoring and the safety of the OP Stack.
Alongside our contributions, we’re excited to see OP Labs and other contributors to the OP Stack making fast progress on key decentralization goals, most notably fault proofs. We’re working closely with these teams to ensure that Base adopts these improvements as soon as they are ready.
Commitment to the Base Neutrality Principles and the Law of Chains
We believe Base must be an open, neutral ecosystem to enable a global onchain economy that unlocks economic freedom around the world. As part of our commitment to the Base Neutrality Principles, we’re proud to be committing to the “Law of Chains.” This defines a common set of standards for Superchain protocols, including a commitment to neutrality, a decentralized security model, protections for users, chain operators, and chain governors, and principles for community governance.
As part of our commitment to the Law of Chains, we have implemented structures like a multisig upgrade process and a challenger key structure to ensure decentralization and prevent single points of control.
Funding and Supporting Public Goods
To support sustainable funding for the OP Stack and other public goods, Base is contributing a percentage of its sequencer revenue to the Optimism Collective and participating in onchain governance.
Conclusion
Base is committed to furthering the Superchain vision of an open, global, and onchain economy through decentralization. With our joint efforts with the Optimism Collective, we aim to create a more resilient foundation for the OP Stack and the Superchain.
We invite others to join us in this vision, helping to bring the next million builders and billion users onchain.
https://base.mirror.xyz/aBwt4flT1WAKJGQTj2AXBpH_8Qd3umQ-ZECLAJoO_nE
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