Base Layer-2 Blockchain Prepares for Second Major Upgrade with Beryl

Coinbase's Base layer-2 blockchain is gearing up for its second major upgrade, Beryl. The upgrade has been deployed to the Sepolia testnet and is scheduled to be activated on the mainnet on June 25. According to Base, the Beryl upgrade introduces a new native token standard called B20.

The B20 standard enables direct issuance of assets such as stablecoins within node software and reduces the standard withdrawal latency from Ethereum to 5 days from 7 days. The Block reported that B20 follows the ERC-20 standard and also supports the ERC-2612 permit feature, which allows spending authority to be transferred with a signature alone without a separate transaction.

Base's engineering team explained that B20 executes logic written in the Rust language directly by embedding it in node software, making processing faster than typical smart contracts. This upgrade comes after Base moved away from Optimism's OP Stack and shifted to its own integrated technology stack in February, accelerating its upgrade pace.