TL;DR
- Base restored network stability after the delays and dropped transactions that began on January 31.
- The network attributed the incident to a configuration change in transaction propagation that caused the block builder to repeatedly reprocess non-viable transactions.
- Base rolled back the change, confirmed normal transaction flow, and announced a postmortem along with upgrades to the pipeline, the mempool, and monitoring systems.
Base restored stability to its Ethereum Layer 2 network following a series of transaction inclusion delays and an increase in dropped transactions recorded in late January. The incident began on January 31 and affected users during periods of elevated congestion, although block production remained active at all times.
What Happened?
According to the network, the issue originated from an infrastructure configuration change related to transaction propagation. That adjustment caused the block builder to repeatedly attempt to include transactions that could not be executed due to a rapid increase in base fees. This behavior led to inefficient reprocessing, higher transaction drops, and confirmation delays during peak activity.
During this period, users experienced higher-than-usual latency for transaction confirmations and, in some cases, the direct exclusion of submitted transactions. Base clarified that blocks continued to be produced consistently and that there were no full service interruptions or protocol security failures.
The network resolved the incident by reverting the configuration change. Base confirmed that the rollback normalized transaction flow and restored the expected behavior of the inclusion system. After applying the fix, the team confirmed the recovery of overall network stability.
The protocol announced that it will publish a root cause analysis and a detailed postmortem report in the coming days. The document will outline the sequence of events, the technical factors involved, and the actions taken during incident management.
Base Warns of Possible Delays and Announces Further Improvements
The team noted that intermittent delays may still occur under conditions of elevated congestion while additional structural improvements are implemented. Planned measures include optimizing the transaction pipeline, removing unnecessary peer-to-peer communication overhead, and adjusting mempool queue behavior to improve inclusion under stress.
Base also said it is strengthening its monitoring, alerting, and change management systems for future infrastructure deployments. These improvements aim to detect transaction propagation anomalies earlier and accelerate response times during similar events.
The estimated timeline to complete these upgrades is approximately one month. Base recommended that users and developers follow official communications through its status page to stay informed about network performance and potential operational issues
