Base Beryl upgrade, reached the Sepolia testnet, and Base set June 25 for mainnet activation. The release adds the B20 token standard for native asset issuance. It also reduces the common Base-to-Ethereum withdrawal period from seven days to five days.
Base’s engineering team said Beryl adds B20 inside the network’s node software. The standard lets issuers create stablecoins and other assets at the protocol level. The company said the update targets the withdrawal route most bridging providers use.
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Base Beryl Upgrade Adds B20 Issuer Toolkit
The Base Beryl upgrade makes B20 compatible with the full ERC-20 specification. It also supports ERC-2612 permit functionality, which lets holders approve spending with signatures. Base said wallets, exchanges, and indexers that already handle ERC-20 tokens can integrate B20 assets without changes.
B20 tokens differ from regular ERC-20 tokens because they do not run as issuer-deployed smart contracts. The tokens work as precompiled contracts in Base’s node software. Base stated that the code of their tokens is written in Rust and runs through the protocol, not EVM bytecode.
Another addition introduced with the Base Beryl upgrade is the Issuer Toolkit for issuers of assets. It includes roles permissions, minting control, burning control, supply cap, transfer restrictions, freezing option, and seizure. Base stated that users can use either a general asset model or a stablecoin model with six decimal places of precision and a custom currency code.
According to Base, the B20 token code was audited by the team of Base itself and Spearbit. The company also plans to expand B20 in later releases. Among the planned features is the ability of issuers to pay transaction fees using the created B20 tokens instead of ETH.
Multiproofs Help Base Reduce Withdrawal Delays
The Beryl upgrade was preceded by the Azul upgrade, which is Base’s first independent network upgrade and happened in May. Azul included the Multiproofs, which are a combination of trusted execution environment proofs with zero-knowledge proofs.
Multiproofs has made possible a quick withdrawal process, which will take less than a day to complete transactions. Base claims that this method works only when two proof systems are compatible. The company noted that the adoption rate has been slow due to the costly nature of zero-knowledge proof creation.
The Base Beryl upgrade aims to improve the traditional withdrawal process. According to Base, the initial seven-day wait was due to its fault-proof system for disputed withdrawals. Multiproofs changed this function to the detection and disqualification of faulty provers, giving way to a five-day withdrawal period.
This upgrade will see the introduction of Reth V2, which is Base’s newest Rust-based execution client. The update is aimed at reducing storage requirements for full nodes, minimal nodes, and archival nodes. Base has also claimed that the update allows the system to have higher gas targets without stressing the sequencer and RPCs.
Base’s upcoming Cobalt upgrade, scheduled for September, will introduce account abstraction, smart accounts, gas sponsorship, transaction batching, additional B20 functionalities, and a unified node binary.
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