Flashblocks, appchains and smart wallets: how Base takes on Solana

Launched in 2023 with backing from Coinbase, the Base platform has rapidly gained popularity. Despite lacking a native token, the ecosystem outperforms many L2 solutions by TVL and transaction activity.

Even so, the “single-layer” Solana is well ahead on the above and many other metrics, despite a certain cooling of memecoin hype, elevated inflation, periodic outages and mounting criticism. Enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting the Firedancer upgrade, which promises to radically improve the network’s performance and reliability.

For their part, Base developers have implemented Flashblocks on testnet, cutting block time from two seconds to 200 milliseconds. The team also unveiled two other tools — Appchains and Smart Wallet Sub Accounts — designed to make the system even more performant and user‑friendly.

Who will gain the upper hand? Can “Ethereum on steroids” surpass the “people’s” Solana in popularity? ForkLog unpacks the forthcoming Base overhaul and the prospects for both giants.

Flashblocks — a tenfold acceleration

The technology was developed jointly with Flashbots, known for Ethereum tooling and MEV.

Flashblocks boosts transaction processing by streaming pre‑confirmed blocks every 200 milliseconds. This reduces the risk of reversions. Earlier, Uniswap adopted the approach, cutting block time on Unichain to 0.25 seconds.

The architecture draws inspiration from state‑of‑the‑art block propagation and execution techniques — such as “shreds” in Solana and “data squares” in Celestia.

“At the same time, new optimisations are being introduced in the context of rollups,” — representatives of Base stressed.

Specifically, Rollup Boost — an addition to the Optimism stack — enables “external block building”.

“The fastest EVM today,” — stressed the developers.

Their stated mission is to build a global onchain economy that catalyses innovation, creativity and freedom. The team says it will keep improving the network to make it more powerful, convenient and fast.

Mainnet release is expected in the second quarter of 2025.

Base appchains — a step towards scalable L3s

These are configurable blockchains built atop Base’s “second floor” using the OP Stack. They function as layer‑three (L3) networks, providing dedicated blockspace to scale applications.

The solutions support customisation — including bespoke gas tokens and fee logic — and target high‑load applications.

In the team’s view, appchains are a “natural evolution” for resource‑intensive applications, making Base an even more powerful tool.

The new components are built for scale and use op-enclave, which enables instant state attestation via AWS S3 and AWS Nitro. Each appchain is backed by “enterprise‑grade infrastructure”, including fully managed sequencers and nodes, plus observability and upgrades.

Op‑enclave is a modification of the OP Stack that uses AWS Nitro Enclaves as a trusted execution environment to immediately attest state and relay state roots to the base chain. This removes the seven‑day challenge period and enables instant withdrawals.

Appchains are managed via the CDP with developer‑oriented pricing, alongside Base tools such as Smart Wallet and CDP Paymaster.

The new technology is already used by:

• gaming projects Blocklords, Super Champs and Metacade;
• tokenisation platforms Proof 8 and MVL;
• the Decentralized Pictures service;
• the privacy‑focused platform Horizen.

Smart Wallet Sub Accounts — a new era for UX

Smart Wallet Sub Accounts let users interact with multiple wallets through a single interface, removing the need to manually manage assets across apps.

The result is a smoother onchain experience: fewer signatures, fewer pop‑ups and a simplified UI.

“Smart Wallet Sub Accounts work on our new account framework, which unifies spending rights, hierarchical account ownership and a new ERC developed by the Base team,” the developers noted.

Mainnet launch is expected in the second quarter.

A focus on privacy

Coinbase has signed an agreement with the Iron Fish team. The developers of the PoW blockchain are now helping build Base‑based layer‑two solutions with an emphasis on privacy and scalability.

This is not the purchase of a zk‑SNARK‑based system or token, but an integration of expertise.

Coinbase outlined the aims of the deal:

• for the industry — the company sets a new standard by integrating robust privacy mechanisms into an L2, helping build a “safe, transparent and user‑friendly onchain future”;
• for developers — Base’s scalability and privacy will open the way to the next generation of private, secure dapps that comply with regulations;
• for users — privacy tools will become more accessible, giving greater control over data while keeping transactions fast and inexpensive. This will enable secure deals and onchain participation with personal‑information protection.

Iron Fish remains independent and is not becoming part of Coinbase or Base. Co‑founder Elena Nadolinski will continue to serve on the foundation’s board, and the governance structure is unchanged.

“Ethereum on steroids”

Base is an Ethereum L2 built on Optimism’s OP Stack architecture.

With mainnet launching in the summer of 2023, a wave of memecoins swept the network. Some delivered hundreds of times in gains, turning Base into a hotspot for crypto speculation.

The network sits within the Superchain ecosystem — a unified OP Stack infrastructure geared to scalability, compatibility and rapid deployment.

As a “second floor”, the L2 inherits Ethereum’s security. It is fully EVM‑equivalent, allowing developers to launch apps without rewriting code, using familiar tools like Foundry, Hardhat and Truffle.

At the time of writing, the Base‑based dapp ecosystem ranks seventh on DeFi Llama with TVL of $2.74bn.

Solana’s comparable figure is $7.1bn. The ecosystem ranks second, behind only Ethereum.

By transaction activity, Base comfortably outpaces other optimistic rollups, including Arbitrum and Optimism.

There is also a large gap in active addresses:

Despite outpacing many networks on onchain activity, the average DEX‑swap fee on Base remains affordable for everyday users — around ~$0.06. That is lower than Optimism ($0.08).

By comparison, the same operation on Ethereum costs nearly ten times more.

On speed, Base is a sports car to Ethereum’s family minivan:

For ease of comparison, the data in a table:

And what of Solana?

Analysts at Bernstein are convinced that Solana will lead the race for mass adoption of onchain payments. The view is shared by Colosseum co‑founder and former Solana Foundation head of growth, Matty Taylor. According to him, the “parallelised” blockchain will overtake Ethereum by the number of consumer Web3 applications — and will do so by a considerable margin.

To make that leap, since August 2022 Jump Crypto and the Solana Foundation have been working on the validator client Firedancer — a project meant to lift Solana’s decentralisation and performance to a new level.

Scalability is the currency of the future, Messari analysts argue. They note that Firedancer is not just an upgrade but a direct challenge to the modular approach now much in vogue in crypto.

In testing, TPS reached 1m.

In September, an early version of Firedancer dubbed Frankendancer was launched on the Solana mainnet. The exact date of the full mainnet release has not yet been announced.

Amid memecoin fever, Solana’s daily transaction count touched 300m. After the fiasco with LIBRA, the token touted as endorsed by Argentina’s president Javier Milei, the “funny coins” hype subsided and onchain metrics cooled.

The active‑address chart confirms the downtrend:

The number of new Solana addresses has been steadily falling since last November’s peak:

Total fees show a similar pattern:

Even so, Solana remains fundamentally strong and materially ahead of Base on several important measures.

The numbers in a table:

Solana outpaces Base on speed: it processes more transactions and does so faster thanks to high throughput and short block times.

The gap in average transaction fees is also stark — roughly tenfold:

Conclusions

Base benefits from stability by leaning on Ethereum’s security. Yet that same dependence makes it vulnerable to the mainnet’s infrastructure constraints. Its focus on EVM compatibility eases project migration from L1s — a sort of lift into the Ethereum ecosystem.

Solana bets on low fees and high throughput — valuable for users who do not prioritise decentralisation and fault tolerance. Its architecture is tuned for high‑load dapps, from micropayments to onchain games.

In short, Solana is about speed and ultra‑cheap transactions, while Base is about security, compatibility and tight integration with Ethereum. Both offer compelling value, with different priorities.

The duel between the two ecosystems will be especially worth watching — large upgrades are already on the horizon.