Base Network Goes on the Offensive: Coinbase’s Ethereum L2 Gears Up to Outpace Solana
Coinbase’s Base network—Ethereum’s dark horse scaling solution—is loading its upgrade cannons. The goal? To outperform Solana’s speed demon reputation by slashing costs and turbocharging throughput.
Why it matters: Layer 2 wars just got hotter. While Solana’s been the darling of the ’blockchain trilemma’ crowd, Base is betting its Ethereum-aligned ecosystem and Coinbase’s retail firepower can flip the script. Expect devs to migrate—if the upgrades deliver.
The cynical take: Another ’major upgrade’ in crypto? Wake us up when it actually moves the needle beyond trader speculation and into real-world adoption. (But yes, we’ll still watch the token price.)
Base Targets Overhaul That Could Challenge Solana and Sui
The Coinbase executive explained that the improvements WOULD scale Base to meet rising demand from both users and developers
According to Pollak, the team is working to reduce transaction confirmation times to 200 milliseconds and keep network fees consistently under $0.01.
Those two goals are part of a broader plan to process over 200 transactions per second in the short term. Pollak confirmed that Base ultimately aims to reach 1 million TPS.
Pollak also stressed that Base is moving toward a more decentralized architecture. The plan involves shifting key components of the protocol, such as the base state transition logic, directly onto Ethereum’s LAYER 1 via smart contracts.
we will make @base:
fastest – 200ms, lower
cheapest –
highest throughout – 200 TPS, higher
neutral – L1 CR, no sandwich, +builders
decentralized – stage 1 and 2
people will make noise and we will keep delivering for users and builders.
This change would allow multiple independent developers and validators to shape the network’s evolution.
Base is undergoing several infrastructure upgrades to support these enhancements. The goal is to make it the most scalable and user-friendly ethereum Layer 2 network.
A central part of the upgrade is Flashblocks, a system that enables near-instant “preconfirmation blocks” to give users a faster and smoother experience. The team is already running testnet trials and expects to introduce the update on mainnet by summer 2025.
The Coinbase-backed network also intends to expand its gas throughput. Base is targeting a rise from the current 25 million gas per second (Mgas/s) to 50 Mgas/s in Q2, eventually reaching 250 Mgas/s by the end of the year. This would mark a 100-fold improvement over its original capacity.
Pollak believes these upgrades will significantly enhance Base’s speed and efficiency. Once fully implemented, they could position the network as a strong competitor to chains like solana and Sui.
