- Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network base is drawing closer to a mainnet launch.
- The US-based crypto exchnage has completed a series of security audits as it prepares to launch its mainnet with the aim of attracting as many as 1 million crypto users.
- There is no mention of the date when the mainnet will go live, but it is likely to be soon going by the latest news.
Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network base is drawing closer to a mainnet launch. This is after what the Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange called extensive vetting by security researchers.
A mainnet refers to a distributed, operational digital network that officially serves as the primary infrastructure for a particular cryptocurrency.
Coinbase Targets 1M New Users With the Layer 2 Network
Coinbase opened up its network code as part of an audit contest and over 100 people found no flaws after poring over it, including various parts of the network’s architecture. Coinbase mentioned in a blog post that there were no significant vulnerabilities found in their network.
The contest was conducted through code4arena spanning 14 days, with a total reward of $100,000 USDC. Participants were encouraged to look for; Node vulnerabilities, EVM equivalence vulnerabilities, Bridge vulnerabilities and Generic smart contract issues. In addition to this live audit, Coinbase’s Protocol Security team will thoroughly review findings and mitigations from past audits by spearbit and sherlock.
In a blogpost, coinbase announced that in preparation for a secure mainnet launch, they had approached security with internal and external security audits.
Coinbase also commissioned an internal audit from its Protocol Security team to further battle-test the OP Stack’s security. This security team worked closely with on-chain developers at coinbase to secure any new products or services that they build, including smart contract auditing and novel blockchain reviews.
The exchange engaged over 100 security researchers as part of this contest and was happy to report that there were no significant vulnerabilities discovered, engagement from the researchers was high and the exchange was currently reviewing the issues reported.
Coinbase’s open-source monitoring tool to bolster network security
Coinbase mentioned that they are focused on enhancing the security of the Ethereum ecosystem as a whole and the core OP Stack coinbase. In addition, they are building an open-source monitoring tool to bolster the security of the network and support other teams running chains built on the OP Stack.
The tool will provide prompt notifications of anomalies in the protocol and network such as account balance irregularities, contract events or disparities between L1 and L2 states.
Coinbase will in addition, develop tools to let builders increase their confidence in the security of the smart contracts they deploy such as a smart contract security scanning tool to help developers reduce the chances of writing a security vulnerability on their contracts. The tool will easily and quickly scan contracts and get results from multiple open-source vulnerability detection tools.
The exchange is forward-looking in its approach, knowing that attacks on networks are likely to increase and become sophisticated, they have therefore held simulated exercises to test and enhance response capabilities and overall resilience of their code in the event of a large-scale event.
Coinbase has not provided a date for when mainnet will go live, however, it will not feature a native token, unlike other layer 2 blockchains Polygon, Optimism and Arbitrum.
