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Base restored stability to the network after reversing a configuration change which caused transaction delays.
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The incident didn’t stop block production. It confirmed degraded performance, rather than an outage.
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Base plans include a public postmortem, and a month-long upgrade of infrastructure to reduce future disruptions.
After a configuration problem caused delays in transactions and dropped transactions at the Ethereum layer-2 networks, the base network stability has now been restored. The incident caused a higher-than-usual delay for the inclusion of transactions, but block production continued.
Base reports that the problem first appeared on January 31, when users complained of intermittent delays and missing mainnet transactions. Base reported that despite these conditions, blocks were still being produced, indicating that the problem didn’t escalate into a complete network outage.
Delay caused by configuration error
Base explained that the problem was caused by a configuration change which affected transaction propagation. As base fees increased, the block builder continued to fetch transactions that were not able to be executed at current fee conditions. This led to a higher number of transaction drops and slower inclusion time for users who submitted transactions during the affected period.
The team responded by rolling the configuration back. Base confirmed that the fix had restored overall network stability. In subsequent updates, the network operator confirmed the return of normal transaction processing after the rollback.
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Network Remains Operational
Base reported that the network was still functioning at a basic level during the incident. Although there were delays, blocks continued to be produced and transactions processed. This distinction highlights that the event was a degraded performance and not a complete stoppage of network activity.
In a blog post published on February 1, Base reiterated the fix had addressed immediate cause of disruption. It also noted that periods with increased congestion could still lead to delays or dropped transactions in the current system behavior.
Base Network Stability: Planned Improvements
Base has said that it will prepare a root cause analysis which will be made public in the next few days. The team also described a series infrastructure improvements that aim to strengthen the Base network stability, and reduce the likelihood of similar events.
Changes include streamlining transaction pipelines, removing peer-to-peer overhead and tuning queue behavior in mempools to better manage pending operations. Base plans to improve alerting systems and monitor infrastructure rollouts. The company estimates that this work will take approximately one calendar month to complete.
Related: The Base Network sets a record high in contract deployers and reaches 21.7K
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