Ethereum devs and L2 leaders go all in on based and native rollups

Executives from leading Ethereum layer 2s have said they’re willing to make Ethereum more unified by implementing “based” and “native” rollups, which they say could improve security while making the network less fragmented.

The head of Ethereum layer 2 Base, Jesse Pollak, said on a Jan. 25 call with Ethereum founders and developers that based rollups are “both a flexible and powerful tool that we’re going to be able to use for Base to make it more connected to Ethereum and increase the security guarantees that it provides.”

Optimism Foundation Director Ben Jones added that base rollups would improve the collaboration between Ethereum’s base layer and layer 2s.

“I want to just reemphasize we are here to support this, it is war time.”

Ethereum layer 2 networks like Arbitrum, Optimism and Base have racked up massive fees from implementing high-speed, centralized sequencers — the order in which transactions are processed and added to a block on the blockchain — which has come at the cost of unification.

Based rollups, proposed by Ethereum core developer Justin Drake in March 2023, return this process to the base layer and thus improve the network’s decentralization because the block-building process would be carried out by all Ethereum validators as opposed to a single, centralized sequencer.

Meanwhile, native rollups would improve how the transactions are executed on the base layer, making the network more composable.

These layer 2s would, however, be forgoing a significant portion of revenue obtained through Maximum Extractable Value — the additional profit block producers earn by rearranging, including or excluding transactions.

Arbitrum, which is in favor of transitioning to based rollups, has made $210 million in revenue from its centralized sequencer, while Base has earned $96.2 million, Dune Analytics data shows.

However, based or native rollups could bring more revenue back to Ethereum’s base layer and possibly have a positive impact on Ether’s (ETH) price.

Decentralized sequencing on Ethereum’s base layer would, however, mean that transactions are confirmed in 12 seconds instead of around 1 second on many Ethereum layer 2s.

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Several Ethereum layer 2 executives are also in favor of implementing “FABRIC” — an infrastructure that would support based rollups.

Ethereum layer 2 Taiko’s CEO Daniel Wang said his firm is willing to adopt the FABRIC standard to “conquer” Ethereum’s interoperability problems.

“We’ve been waiting for the FABRIC standards so we can work together and provide a full solution,” Ethereum layer 2 Taiko’s CEO Daniel Wang said.

Wang’s Taiko was the first layer 2 to implement based rollups on Ethereum, Drake noted in June. 

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