Base Launches Azul Multiproofs as $7.5B Options Expiry Pressures Ethereum Near $2K
Ethereum Base Launches Azul Multiproofs as $7.5B Options Expiry Pressures Ethereum Near $2K Bitcoin Ethereum News Ethereum News Coinbase-incubated layer 2 Base activated its Azul upgrade on mainnet this week, pushing the network closer to full decentralization. The release introduces a multiproof system that pairs trusted execution environment proofs with zero-knowledge proofs, allowing either type to finalize state independently. When both agree, withdrawal finality can compress to a single day. Critically, permissionless ZK proofs can override permissioned TEE proofs if the two diverge — a design intended to harden censorship resistance and move Base toward Stage 2 status. The change marks one of the more meaningful architectural shifts for a major Ethereum scaling network this quarter. Azul also consolidates Base onto a single execution client called base-reth-node and introduces base-consensus, a fresh consensus mechanism client built on OP Kona. It is the first independent upgrade Base has executed without piggybacking on broader Optimism stack releases. The new client architecture has already cut empty block production by roughly 99%, dropping from around 200 per day to about two, and sustained multiple bursts of 5,000 transactions per second under live conditions. The release additionally enables the CLZ opcode and aligns the chain with Ethereums Osaka execution-layer repricing