Coinbase-incubated Base network adopts Succinct’s zero-knowledge tech

Base, the Ethereum scaling layer incubated by Coinbase, has tapped zero-knowledge tech provider Succinct to help bolster its cryptographic security.

The network isn’t going full ZK rollup overnight, though it is adding Succinct’s SP1 zero-knowledge virtual machine (zkVM) and Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) as an enhancement.

“As the network has grown, so has the need to keep strengthening the infrastructure that users and developers rely on every day,” Wilson Cussak, head of Base Chain, said. “Expanding Base with ZK proofs a meaningful step to deepen the network’s security and resiliency.”

Notably, Base launched as an optimistic rollup — a type of scaling solution that allows users to dispute invalid transactions within a certain challenge period, but optimistically assumes they’re correct.

ZK-rollups, on the other hand, provide real-time cryptographic certainty that the computation behind a batch of rolled-up transactions was executed correctly, proving validity upfront and doing away with the need for a challenge period.

For Base, the integration will offer “a faster path to 1-day finality, replacing the multi-day challenge period of an optimistic rollup with cryptographic finality, and provides a trust-minimised way to move billions in capital back to Ethereum mainnet,” the announcement reads.

Succinct, the most widely adopted zkVM currently, is designed for rollups to implement ZK security without building proprietary infrastructure. It tech secures some $4 billion in digital assets for protocols like Polygon, Mantle, Celestia, and Lido.

The move is especially significant given that Base is among the largest Layer 2s by value locked, and the most active by weekly transaction count, according to The Block’s data. Adopting ZK is a signal that the market may be moving towards Vitalik Buterin’s “endgame” for Ethereum to adopt ZK-EVMs for block validation.

Today, most value on L2s is secured by optimistic rollups, according to The Block’s data.

“Base going with SP1 is the single largest vote of confidence that ZK is indeed the endgame for Ethereum scaling,” Chief Growth Officer Brian Trunzo said. “Blockchains have always been as much about trust as decentralization, and ZK offers a compelling way for institutions to balance both.”

Notably, Base announced earlier this year that it was working to replace key parts of the Optimism tech stack it launched with using its own bespoke and unified solution.

Paradigm led Succinct’s $55 million financing round in Succinct Labs with participation from the founders of Polygon and EigenLayer, among others.

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