Control profile
- Transaction ordering
- Centralised, as at every major L2.
- Escape hatch
- Undermined by instant upgrade authority — see below.
- Upgrade authority
- The Mantle team can push INSTANT upgrades to the chain. This is the specific reason L2BEAT withholds Stage 1.
- Liveness record
- Not the binding concern.
Ketju assessment
REJECTED, and it is the only L2 here that fails on a bright line rather than a judgement call. L2BEAT rates Mantle STAGE 0 — the most cautious tier — because the team can push instant upgrades. Base and Arbitrum are Stage 1 with roughly 7-day upgrade timelocks, which at least gives a client a window to exit a rule change. Instant upgrade authority removes that window entirely, and an escape hatch that can be upgraded away is not an escape hatch. Second, compounding concern: Mantle uses EigenDA for data availability, a network secured by Ethereum RESTAKERS. We rejected restaking exposure directly at ether.fi; inheriting it underneath the data availability layer of a chain is the same risk arriving somewhere harder to see.
Observable review triggers
- n/a — rejected; revisit only on Stage 1 promotion
These triggers make the judgment monitorable. They are not predictions; each identifies a fact that would revoke or force review of the current assessment.
Advisor implementation questions
- Does the client’s thesis require censorship resistance, or primarily low-cost settlement?
- Can the client exit without cooperation from the normal transaction-ordering party?
- Who can upgrade bridges or contracts, and what delay applies?
- Does the asset introduce an issuer weaker than the chain grade?
- What evidence will show a halt, censorship event, or governance change?