Based Rollups Feel Different

Based rollups are growing on me. The concept is radical. Instead of running your own sequencer, you let Ethereum L1 proposers handle sequencing. Your rollup inherits L1's decentralization directly.

Most rollups today run centralized sequencers. Single points of failure, censorship vectors, trust assumptions. They promise to decentralize eventually but that's always tomorrow's problem.

Based rollups skip the intermediate step. Day one decentralization. No sequencer to fail, no operator to trust. Just L1 validators doing what they already do.

The tradeoff is flexibility. Centralized sequencers can offer preconfirmations, custom ordering, lower latency. Based rollups are bound to L1 block times. You give up speed for security.

What interests me is the economic alignment. Based rollups pay for inclusion just like L1 transactions. No separate token needed. The L1/L2 relationship becomes much cleaner.

I think we'll see both models coexist. Apps that need speed will use traditional rollups. Apps that prioritize trustlessness will go based. The market will decide what matters more.