Analyst: Base Network Outage Due to Invalid Block Highlights Centralization Risk of Single Sequencer Mode

Odaily Odaily reports that on-chain analyst Vadim pointed out that Base experienced a network outage today due to a consensus vulnerability triggered by a single invalid block. All block generation after block height 47806542 ceased, resulting in a network interruption lasting nearly two hours. Because Base adopts a single sequencer architecture, when this node fails, the entire network halts operation, with no backup block producers or other validator nodes capable of bypassing the fault to maintain on-chain activity. During this interruption, users were unable to conduct transactions, perform liquidations, or withdraw funds.

Furthermore, the network recovery process was not automated. Node operators within the ecosystem had to manually restart before block synchronization gradually resumed. This is not the first time Base has encountered a similar issue; in August last year, Base also experienced a network freeze lasting approximately 33 minutes due to a sequencer switchover failure. The single sequencer model exposes the centralization risk of some current L2 networks: while it offers higher speed, when the core component encounters a problem, the entire chain can cease operation due to a single point of failure.