Base, the Ethereum layer 2 network incubated by Coinbase, has officially launched its fourth major upgrade, Denim, on the mainnet. This release follows a testing phase conducted on the Sepolia network last month.
The core improvement of the Denim upgrade is a tenfold reduction in block times, which have decreased from two seconds to 200 milliseconds. This change replaces the previous Flashblocks system with five canonical blocks per second, ensuring that transactions are confirmed immediately upon inclusion in a block.
By removing the need for separate Flashblocks subscriptions, the upgrade simplifies development for trading and payment applications. Developers can now utilize standard RPC methods to access the faster state, which is designed to support high-speed settlement for tokenized assets and other financial instruments.
Denim also introduces BaseTime, a feature providing millisecond-level precision for smart contracts. This allows decentralized finance protocols, such as lending platforms and exchanges, to execute functions like liquidations and order expirations with greater accuracy based on more frequent market updates.
The upgrade updates the B20 token standard with three specific changes. Issuers can now use a NOT operator to invert compliance policies, apply transfer-executor rules to all transaction methods, and prevent accidental token locks by blocking transfers to the contract’s own address.
