After Base's blog post came out, people started spreading rumors like 'Base is leaving Ethereum to go solo.' That’s not true. First of all, Base is still an Ethereum L2. But it’s different from the previous L2s. Base was originally built using Optimism's OP Stack tech stack, but now it’s moving to a new stack called the 'Unified Stack,' which is basically shifting from 'borrowing someone else’s framework' to 'fully controlling its own code.' Base will maintain its own codebase (based on open-source tools like Reth, etc.). The benefit? Full control, faster upgrades, better security, and no longer being entirely dependent on Optimism’s updates. That said, they’ll still collaborate with Optimism on some key support. To sum up: Base is still an Ethereum L2, and its data will still ultimately be submitted to the Ethereum mainnet (L1) for settlement. Right now, it’s a 'Stage 1 decentralized rollup.' In the future, they’ll add ZK proofs, faster withdrawals, etc., but fundamentally, it’s still an L2—not becoming an independent new mainchain. https://blog.base.dev/next-chapter-for-base-chain-1