After Ethereum's Pectra Upgrade, Base Network Is Sprinting, Leveraging the Fork to Scale

This long-awaited Ethereum Pectra upgrade hit mainnet on May 7, unlocking powerful new features like EIP-7702 and increasing blob capacity to support rollup scalability.

May 7 saw the integration of the Pectra upgrade with Ethereum's mainnet, introducing new capabilities such as EIP-7702 and expanding blob capacity to support rollup scalability.

In an interview with BeInCrypto, Jesse Pollak, Head of Base and Coinbase Wallet, discussed how they are doubling down on transaction throughput and paving the way for smart wallet evolution.

Base: Doubling Throughput Through More Blobs Per Block

The long-awaited Pectra upgrade reached the mainnet on May 7, unlocking valuable new features like EIP-7702 and expanding blob capacity to support rollup scalability.

For Jesse Pollak, Creator of Base and Head of Protocols at Coinbase, this marks not only a new chapter for Ethereum but also advances Base's initiative to broaden access to the on-chain economy.

Specifically, Pollak noted that Pectra increases Ethereum's data throughput by expanding the number of blobs per block from 3–6 to 6–9. This directly impacts Base and other Layer-2 scaling solutions that rely on Ethereum for data availability.

“The Pectra upgrade will double Ethereum’s capability to secure L2 transactions, including for Base, from a previous range of 3–6 blobs/block to a new range of 6–9 blobs/block. This means the ecosystem will have the potential to process 2x more transactions per second, keeping fees low as more activity comes onchain,” Pollak stated in the interview.

Base, launched by Coinbase in 2023, has already risen to become a leading Ethereum Layer-2, recently overtaking Arbitrum as the largest optimistic rollup in terms of total value secured (TVS).

Pollak confirmed that the team is pushing aggressively toward a bold new throughput milestone.

“We set an aggressive stretch goal at the beginning of the year to scale Base to 250 Mgas/s blockspace throughput—and we’re sprinting to make that happen,” he noted.

This aligns closely with Ethereum's broader scaling roadmap. Developers like Tim Beiko have confirmed that Pectra is a stepping stone to even greater blob capacity by year-end, potentially leading to a 10x increase from the Dencun upgrade's starting point.

Pectra: Turning Wallets Smart—And Base Is Ready

Meanwhile, one of Pectra's most transformative upgrades is EIP-7702. This improvement proposal allows existing Ethereum accounts to upgrade into smart wallets without changing their addresses or losing asset history.

“Pectra’s 7702 enables smart wallet upgrades. Before, people needed to create a new smart wallet to take advantage of this tech, including gas sponsorship and smart permissions. With this upgrade, anyone can upgrade from an existing traditional wallet to a smart wallet, with all of their assets and history, and keep the same wallet address,” Pollak explained.

The Base creator further likened the experience to a seamless tech transition, like "switching from a landline to a smartphone without having to change your phone number."

Notably, Base has already been preparing for this future. In August 2024, Pollak revealed plans to launch a "dream wallet" within 6-12 months that would outperform both Web2 storage and existing on-chain solutions. As BeInCrypto reported, the dream wallet would offer 10X better security and scalability.

“I sketched out my ‘dream wallet’ that would be 10X better than anything in web2 or onchain today. Need to solve a bunch of hard challenges, but I think we can get there in the next ~6-12 months. Onchain is going to be 100X better than online,” Pollak shared in August.

With Pectra, that vision becomes significantly easier to realize. Jesse Pollak is committed to refining the product to ensure users are comfortable with the unified account experience.

“Users won’t need to start fresh with a new smart wallet and transfer assets; they’ll have the option to upgrade an existing EOA wallet, bringing along all their existing assets and identity,” he said in the interview.

Scaling Beyond Pectra: Fusaka and the Road Ahead

Further, Pollak emphasized that Pectra is just one milestone in the broader journey toward global on-chain scalability. Base, he said, is contributing directly to Ethereum's open-source, open-standards future.

"Ethereum is built on open source and open standards, and Base is actively contributing to those standards as a key part of our commitment to build in the open," the Base executive noted.

He credited the Dencun upgrade for first unlocking sub-cent transaction costs, removing a major barrier to onboarding millions more users.

With Pectra expanding blob space even further, Pollak highlighted Base's active role in the development process.

“Base contributed to this upgrade through