Base launches Cobalt upgrade with conditional transactions and B20 asset functions

Base's third mainnet upgrade, Cobalt, went live on Wednesday. The Coinbase-incubated Ethereum Layer 2 designed the upgrade to give traders greater control over transaction conditions and expand its B20 token standard. Base said Validity Transactions let users submit time-bound transactions that remain dormant until specified conditions are met. A swap could become eligible only if a pool price reaches a specified USDC value before a specified block, Base said. Base could include that transaction if the condition is met in time; otherwise, the transaction would never be included. Base said the API keeps advanced traders' submissions private until they land. The B20 token standard went live with Base's Beryl upgrade in June. Base said Cobalt's Composite Policies let asset issuers combine existing allowlists and blocklists using OR or AND logic. Base said issuers can reuse policies such as KYC allowlists and sanctions blocklists without copying member lists or synchronizing them offchain. A fund could require a recipient to appear on both a KYC list and an accreditation list. A transfer would fail if the recipient were removed from either list. Base said Schedule Multiplier Updates align the B20 Asset multiplier with the ERC-8056 standard. The updates let issuers schedule changes to how an asset balance is displayed, such as changes for a stock split. Base said existing Beryl integrations will continue to work, while new integrations can adopt the updated standard over time. Cobalt also adds a seizeWithMemo function for B20 assets and stablecoins. The function lets authorized administrators reassign a holder's balance where seizure is enabled. In Base's example, an administrator moves shares from a frozen account to a recovery wallet. The transaction records the source, destination, amount and a memo onchain. Base plans to reduce block times from 2 seconds to 200 milliseconds over the coming months. Base also plans to make smart accounts native at the protocol level with gas sponsorship and transaction batching. Base plans to support a subset of EVM improvements from Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade.