{"id":49117,"date":"2025-09-23T17:46:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T17:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=49117"},"modified":"2025-09-23T17:46:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T17:46:31","slug":"ethereum-founder-buterin-defends-coinbase-amid-fierce-debate-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=49117","title":{"rendered":"Ethereum Founder Buterin Defends Coinbase Amid Fierce Debate: Here\u2019s Why"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has waded directly into a fast-escalating dispute over the role and risk profile of Coinbase\u2019s Layer-2 (L2) network, Base, arguing that critics are conflating core concepts and overlooking concrete guarantees that protect users on modern L2s. \u201cBase is doing things the right way: an L2 on top of Ethereum, that uses its centralized features to provide stronger UX features, while still being tied into Ethereum\u2019s decentralized base layer for security,\u201d Buterin wrote, adding that L2s like Base \u201care non-custodial\u2026 not glorified servers that happen to submit hashes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethereum\u2019s Buterin Clarifies L2 Security<\/h2>\n

Buterin\u2019s post<\/a> arrived after Coinbase\u2019s chief legal officer Paul Grewal<\/a> pushed back on commentary likening L2 sequencers to \u201cexchanges,\u201d and Base creator Jesse Pollak published a detailed thread explaining what a sequencer actually does. Pollak described Base\u2019s sequencer as a system that \u201ccollects user transactions, orders them on a first-in\/first-out basis, computes the resulting state changes, and batches them to Ethereum\u2019s L1 for final settlement that\u2019s faster and cheaper than transacting on L1.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his words, sequencers \u201cdo NOT act as \u2018matching services\u2019 or engines like those in traditional exchanges\u2026 the sequencer ensures these transactions are executed in a consistent, ordered manner, but it doesn\u2019t decide matches or control trade logic. That\u2019s up to the code.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crux of the controversy is custody and control: if an L2 can re-order, censor, or halt<\/a>, does that make it functionally similar to a centralized intermediary? Buterin\u2019s answer is that the Ethereum base layer ultimately governs user funds and provides the escape hatches that matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cBase does not have custody over your funds, they cannot steal funds or stop you from withdrawing funds (this is part of the L2beat stage 1 definition),\u201d he wrote, pointing readers to L2BEAT\u2019s taxonomy and to concrete examples of \u201cforce-exit\u201d and anti-censorship pathways implemented at the L1 contract layer. He emphasized that these are not theoretical niceties: \u201cThere are concrete pathways implemented in smart contract logic on Ethereum L1\u2026 that ensure that the L2 users\u2019 funds are ultimately controlled by L1, they cannot be stolen or blocked by the L2 operator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buterin also addressed a recurring point of confusion: the notion that L2BEAT is some kind of ideological gatekeeper rather than a scorecard of objective assurances. \u201cMany people have been confused by recent cynicism and think that things like L2beat are a weird sort of nerd-sharia compliance authority. This is NOT what is going on. The security that L2s provide, that L2beat measures, reflects concrete properties that protect you as a user from being rugged.\u201d<\/p>\n

To illustrate, he linked to a walkthrough of user withdrawals when an L2 shuts down, and to a censorship-resistance incident earlier this year where an L2\u2019s design allowed transactions to bypass an uncooperative operator\u2014examples meant to make the guarantees tangible.<\/p>\n

The \u201cstage-1\u201d designation, often cited to critique Base\u2019s current decentralization, was another flashpoint Buterin tackled head-on. \u201cYes stage 1 means that a security council with a 75% vote can override the onchain code,\u201d he conceded. \u201cHowever, stage 1 also requires that a quorum-blocking (>=26%) portion of the council sits outside the org that is managing the L1. Hence, the org cannot unilaterally censor or steal via a security council vote, so they are not a custodian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Base Is Eying \u2018Stage 2\u2019<\/h2>\n

The Ethereum co-founder again pointed readers to his framework for when and how projects should progress to \u201cstage-2,\u201d where even a unanimous council cannot override functioning on-chain logic. The policy implication is explicit: the presence of an emergency-brake governance layer does not, in itself, transform an L2 into a custodian<\/a> under normal operation, provided minority independence and L1-enforced exits are real.<\/p>\n

For Base, Pollak sketched a roadmap that aligns with that trajectory. \u201cWe\u2019ve progressed Base to stage 1 decentralization over the last 2 years and enabled permissionless block proposals. Today, we\u2019re actively working towards stage 2 and investing in further decentralizing block building. Still day one.\u201d Framed this way, the debate is not whether Base is an exchange\u2014Pollak was blunt: \u201cso no, @base isn\u2019t an unlicensed securities exchange\u201d\u2014but how quickly and credibly it can reduce governance and operator powers while preserving the UX advantages that made L2s popular.<\/p>\n

Underneath the rhetoric are two technical assurances that determine whether users are actually protected. First is inclusion: even if a sequencer refuses a transaction, L2s like Base expose direct submission routes through Ethereum L1, letting users force their transactions into the rollup and inherit the censorship-resistance of the L1 validator set.<\/p>\n

Second is exit: if an L2 halts or misbehaves, users can initiate withdrawals enforced by L1 contracts\u2014without the operator\u2019s cooperation. Buterin\u2019s point is that these are \u201cconcrete properties,\u201d and both L2BEAT\u2019s framework and recent real-world incidents exist to verify that they work in practice.<\/p>\n

The stakes are larger than a single network. How regulators and market participants interpret \u201csequencer,\u201d \u201ccustody,\u201d and \u201cdecentralization stage\u201d will shape the next phase of Ethereum scaling.<\/p>\n

Buterin\u2019s intervention was, at core, an attempt to reset definitions to what the code guarantees.\u201cThis is what we mean when we say that L2s are non-custodial, they are extensions of ethereum\u2026 There are concrete pathways\u2026 that ensure that the L2 users\u2019 funds are ultimately controlled by L1.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether that reframing cools the fevered discourse\u2014or accelerates Base\u2019s push to stage-2\u2014now rests on how convincingly these assurances are demonstrated in production and audited by neutral frameworks.<\/p>\n

At press time, ETH traded at $4,193.<\/p>\n

\"Ethereum<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has waded directly into a fast-escalating dispute over the role and risk profile of Coinbase\u2019s Layer-2 (L2) network, Base, arguing that critics are conflating core concepts and overlooking concrete guarantees that protect users on modern L2s. \u201cBase is doing things the right way: an L2 on top of Ethereum, that uses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-49117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}