Base: who orders transactions?

Who controls it

Transaction ordering

Centralised: Coinbase, a single regulated US company, operates it

Escape hatch

OP Stack forced inclusion through L1. It works, but it costs too much to be worth using for small positions.

Upgrade authority

Governance now has longer timelocks and a larger security council, but admin keys can still upgrade bridge contracts within about 7 days.

Halts and outages

The sequencer has had outages. Funds stayed safe, but users could not reach them during the outages.

Ketju assessment

Ketju approves Base with limits: it is a Stage 1 rollup with live fraud proofs, but Coinbase, one regulated US company, orders every transaction. US authorities can compel Coinbase to act. Base has the best consumer experience of any L2: it is cheap, fast and the natural default for an embedded-wallet onboarding flow. Some clients hold crypto so that “no single party can stop me.” Routing those clients to Base because it is cheap brings back the counterparty they wanted to leave. It is the same mistake as putting such a client into USDC. Base suits clients who want yield or tokenised income.

Review triggers

• Coinbase publicly censors or filters transactions at the sequencer
• Fraud proof system disabled or made permissioned
• Upgrade timelock shortened below 7 days
• Sequencer outage exceeding 6 hours

Each trigger names a fact anyone can observe. If one occurs, Ketju will review the assessment again. None is a forecast.

Questions before use

1. Does the client’s thesis require censorship resistance, or primarily low-cost settlement?
2. Can the client withdraw without help from the party that normally orders transactions?
3. Who can upgrade bridges or contracts, and what delay applies?
4. Does the asset introduce an issuer weaker than the chain grade?
5. What evidence will show a halt, censorship event, or governance change?