Coinbase-Backed Base Blockchain Experiences Near-Two-Hour Outage

Base blockchain, supported by Coinbase and used as Ethereum's largest layer-2 network, experienced an outage lasting nearly two hours on Thursday. A consensus issue led to an invalid block being processed, halting all transaction activity.

The problem was first flagged at 4:03 pm UTC, with Base's status page reporting that block production was 'unhealthy' by 5:21 pm UTC. The team identified the cause as a consensus problem causing an invalid block to be sequenced, which then prevented new blocks from being created.

Base confirmed recovery just before 6 pm UTC, stating that blocks were being produced normally and ecosystem-wide infrastructure had synced properly. The team advised node operators to restart their Base nodes to restore proper synchronization.

Funds on the network remained safe throughout the outage, according to Jesse Pollack, creator of Base. He acknowledged the halt was unacceptable and emphasized the team's commitment to improving Base as a platform for 'global, 24/7 finance.'