{ "meta": { "title": "Base Azul Wrapped", "subtitle": "An engineering wrap on Base's first independent hardfork", "blog_post": "https://blog.base.dev/introducing-base-azul", "blog_published": "2026-04-21", "mainnet_activation": "2026-05-28", "release_tag": "v0.9.0", "release_tag_date": "2026-05-20", "release_published": "2026-05-21", "window_start": "2026-02-18", "window_end": "2026-05-20", "window_label": "Feb 18, 2026 → v0.9.0", "days_in_window": 92, "primary_repo": "base/base (a.k.a. base/node-reth — the public azul monorepo)", "comparison_repos": ["cb/base (internal infra)", "cb/base-routing"] }, "headline_numbers": { "commits": 1767, "pull_requests_public": 1575, "pull_requests_referenced": 1441, "insertions": 738634, "deletions": 371319, "net_lines": 367315, "files_touched": 18291, "rust_loc_at_v090": 223124, "rust_files_at_v090": 1382, "total_files_at_v090": 1965, "total_code_lines_at_v090": 366575, "avg_commits_per_day": 12.6, "avg_prs_per_day": 11.3, "avg_loc_added_per_day": 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37, "commits": 31, "insertions": 12914, "deletions": 2485, "files": 250 }, { "name": "Brian Bland", "handle": "BrianBland", "x_handle": "brianisbland", "prs_public": 19, "commits": 24, "insertions": 23920, "deletions": 3426, "files": 121 }, { "name": "Kaley Chicoine", "handle": "kmchicoine", "prs_public": 15, "commits": 15, "insertions": 9453, "deletions": 2009, "files": 224 }, { "name": "Taehoon Kim", "handle": "taehoon", "prs_public": 0, "commits": 76, "insertions": 9254, "deletions": 8001, "files": 325, "external": true, "org": "Succinct" } ], "component_breakdown": [ { "component": "crates/proof", "insertions": 201459, "deletions": 130589, "label": "Proof System (TEE + ZK)" }, { "component": "crates/consensus", "insertions": 124072, "deletions": 96145, "label": "Consensus Client" }, { "component": "crates/execution", "insertions": 114979, "deletions": 78506, "label": "Execution Client" }, { "component": "crates/flashblocks", "insertions": 111115, "deletions": 110502, "label": 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"bin/consensus", "insertions": 2896, "deletions": 1747, "label": "bin/consensus" }, { "component": "bin/prover", "insertions": 2723, "deletions": 1902, "label": "bin/prover" }, { "component": "bin/prover-registrar","insertions": 2216, "deletions": 1612, "label": "bin/prover-registrar" }, { "component": "bin/builder", "insertions": 1111, "deletions": 621, "label": "bin/builder" }, { "component": "bin/batcher", "insertions": 700, "deletions": 633, "label": "bin/batcher" } ], "major_new_components": [ { "name": "base-reth-node", "summary": "New sole execution client built on reth — replacing all other client options.", "path": "bin/base + crates/execution" }, { "name": "base-consensus", "summary": "New consensus client built on Kona — faster historical sync, optimized for gigagas/s.", "path": "bin/consensus + crates/consensus" }, { "name": "Multiproof system (TEE + ZK)", "summary": "Permissioned AWS Nitro TEE prover + permissionless Succinct SP1 ZK prover. Either type can finalize; agreement collapses withdrawals to as little as 1 day.", "path": "bin/prover + crates/proof + crates/succinct" }, { "name": "Challenger", "summary": "Game-monitoring service that challenges invalid proofs in dispute-game contracts.", "path": "bin/challenger" }, { "name": "Prover Registrar", "summary": "On-chain TEE attestation + CRL registrar for permissioned proofs.", "path": "bin/prover-registrar" }, { "name": "Proposer", "summary": "Rust proposer for proof orchestration and on-chain output submission.", "path": "bin/proposer" }, { "name": "Builder + Flashblocks", "summary": "Block builder + flashblock streaming. Empty blocks dropped ~99% (~200/day → ~2/day).", "path": "bin/builder + crates/builder + crates/flashblocks" }, { "name": "Batcher", "summary": "Rust batcher with Holocene-aware framing and blob/calldata channel logic.", "path": "bin/batcher + crates/batcher" }, { "name": "Ingress RPC + Websocket Proxy", "summary": "Hardened public RPC ingress and back-pressured websocket proxy.", "path": "bin/ingress-rpc + bin/websocket-proxy" }, { "name": "basectl + baseup", "summary": "Operator CLI tooling and one-shot installer for node operators.", "path": "bin/basectl + baseup" }, { "name": "Audit Archiver", "summary": "Cold-path archiver for audit and witness artifacts.", "path": "bin/audit-archiver" } ], "azul_features": [ { "name": "Multiproofs", "detail": "TEE + ZK provers combine; either proof type can finalize. Withdrawals as short as 1 day." }, { "name": "base-reth-node as sole execution client", "detail": "Standardizes on one execution client (down from multiple)." }, { "name": "base-consensus", "detail": "New consensus client with faster historical sync and 1 gigagas/s-oriented optimizations." }, { "name": "Ethereum Osaka alignment", "detail": "EIP-7825 (tx gas limits), EIP-7939 (CLZ opcode), EIP-7883 (MODEXP cost), EIP-7823, secp256r1 gas-cost alignment." }, { "name": "Smaller Flashblocks payload", "detail": "Reduced websocket payload size to make room for upcoming perf features." } ], "comparison_internal_repos": { "ext_base_azul_window": { "label": "ext/base — Feb 18 → v0.9.0 (3 months)", "commits": 1767, "prs": 1575, "insertions": 738634, "deletions": 371319 }, "ext_base_last_3_months": { "label": "ext/base — Feb 20 → May 20 (3 months)", "commits": 1220, "insertions": 454112, "deletions": 291036 }, "cb_base_alltime": { "label": "cb/base — all time (since Dec 2022)", "commits": 1355, "prs": 830, "insertions": 364697, "deletions": 300122, "first_commit": "2022-12-05", "duration_years": 3.5 }, "cb_base_routing_alltime": { "label": "cb/base-routing — all time (since Apr 2023)", "commits": 292, "prs": 157, "insertions": 70249, "deletions": 6574, "first_commit": "2023-04-07", "duration_years": 3.1 }, "cb_base_combined_alltime": { "label": "cb/base + cb/base-routing — combined, all time", "commits": 1647, "prs": 987, "insertions": 434946, "deletions": 306696 } }, "public_releases": { "base_base": { "label": "github.com/base/base", "release_count": 37, "stable_releases": 34, "prereleases": 3, "first_release": "2025-04-28", "first_release_tag": "v0.1.0", "latest_release": "2026-05-27", "latest_tag": "v0.9.1", "releases_by_year": [ { "year": "2025", "releases": 20 }, { "year": "2026", "releases": 17 } ] }, "base_node": { "label": "github.com/base/node", "release_count": 67, "stable_releases": 64, "prereleases": 3, "first_release": "2023-03-07", "first_release_tag": "v0.0.1", "latest_release": "2026-05-22", "latest_tag": "v0.16.0", "releases_by_year": [ { "year": "2023", "releases": 24 }, { "year": "2024", "releases": 14 }, { "year": "2025", "releases": 23 }, { "year": "2026", "releases": 6 } ] }, "comparison_note": "base/base shipped 37 azul-era releases in its first ~12 months. base/node shipped 67 substantive releases over 3+ years (excluding 14 recent releases that only bumped the base/base dependency)." }, "cool_facts": [ { "headline": "1.7× the code, in 1/12th the time", "detail": "738K insertions in the Azul push vs. 435K insertions across cb/base + cb/base-routing all-time — more code, in a tiny fraction of the time." }, { "headline": "5,000 TPS bursts, sustained", "detail": "The new execution + builder stack has held multiple 5,000-TPS bursts on devnet." }, { "headline": "~99% fewer empty blocks", "detail": "Builder + flashblocks work took empty blocks from ~200/day down to ~2/day on Base mainnet." }, { "headline": "$250K audit competition", "detail": "Hosted an Immunefi audit competition April 21–May 4, 2026 with a $250,000 reward pool." }, { "headline": "35% of all PRs from one engineer", "detail": "Andreas Bigger (@refcell) authored 554 of 1,575 public PRs in the Azul push." } ], "launch_context": { "tldr": "You launched a hardfork. Are you not happy? What's there to be happy about.", "release_cadence": "Fortnightly client releases", "audit_competition": { "platform": "Immunefi", "dates": "Apr 21 – May 4, 2026", "reward_pool_usd": 250000 }, "operator_change": "Node operators migrate to base-consensus + base-reth-node before activation.", "developer_change": "Most apps require no changes. MODEXP-heavy apps, very-large-transaction senders, and direct Flashblocks websocket consumers should review spec changes.", "future_upgrades": [ { "name": "Beryl", "target": "June 2026", "features": [ "Better tokens — Native ERC-20 Standards", "Faster withdrawals — 7 → 5 days", "Faster nodes — Reth 2.2" ] }, { "name": "Cobalt", "target": "August 2026", "features": [ "Better UX — Native AA", "…and much more" ] } ] }, "notes": { "methodology": "ext/base commit/LOC stats from `git log --since=2026-01-01 --until=2026-05-20 --no-merges v0.9.0`. Public PR stats and language LOC from GitHub API + tokei (collected by parallel agent in ../codex-data). Author counts merge multiple emails for the same identity." } }