By
Zhivko Todorov, Head of R&D
February 18, 2026
5 minutes
Layer 2 networks are fast and cheap, but they currently have a major vulnerability: if the Sequencer goes down, your funds are trapped. We didn't like that risk, so we built a solution.
Introducing the Exit Hatch, the newest feature on our rollup.codes platform. It is a simple interface that lets you bypass the L2 Sequencer and force a withdrawal directly to Ethereum Mainnet. It ensures you can always retrieve your assets, even if the L2 network is offline, censored, or broken.
Think of it like the "hardline" in The Matrix. When the simulation freezes or turns against you, you don't ask for permission to leave—you just pick up the phone. This tool is your phone booth.
The Sequencer is the traffic controller of an L2. It orders your transactions and bundles them into blocks. But right now, on most networks, the Sequencer is centralized. It is a single point of failure.
We saw this happen realistically when AWS went down recently. Several L2s simply stopped producing blocks because their Sequencers were hosted on those servers. When the Sequencer goes offline, the network freezes. If you had funds stuck there, you were effectively trapped until the lights came back on.
Technically, there is always a back door. The code allows you to bypass the Sequencer and talk directly to Ethereum Mainnet (Layer 1) to force a withdrawal. But let’s be honest, executing that manually requires reading raw smart contract code and interacting with the smart contract through the blockchain explorer.
That didn’t feel right to us. So, we added the Exit Hatch to rollup.codes.
The Exit Hatch is a user-friendly interface for the "emergency exit" mechanism built into Optimistic Rollups. It gives retail users the power to trigger a force exit without needing to write code.
We built rollup.codes to be a comprehensive resource for L2 data, and adding the Exit Hatch was the natural next step. We believe safety shouldn't be a premium feature or a hidden developer trick. It should be the default standard.
We designed the interface to be as predictable as possible. The guide below outlines the standard procedure for OP Stack networks (like Optimism, Base, Soneium, etc.).
Note: While the concept is similar for other rollups like Arbitrum, the specific contracts and flow may have slight variations.
Here is the specific workflow for OP Stack chains:
First, you connect your wallet and select the chain you are stuck on. You click "Initiate Withdrawal."
Once initiated, you enter a waiting room. The L2 state needs to be proposed to the Ethereum Mainnet.
Now that the state is on Ethereum, you need to prove your transaction belongs there. You will click "Prove Withdrawal."
This is the part that frustrates people, but it keeps the system safe. Because these are "Optimistic Rollups," the network assumes transactions are valid unless proven otherwise. To ensure safety, there is a mandatory 7-day window where the network checks for fraud.
Once the 7 days are up, the door opens. You click "Finalize Withdrawal" and presto!
We currently support the exit mechanism for the following Optimistic Rollups:
We hope you never have to use the Exit Hatch. Ideally, L2s will decentralize their sequencers soon, and, fingers crossed, uptime will be 100%.
But in engineering, we don't build for the ideal. We build for the worst-case. This tool ensures that no matter what happens to the infrastructure providers or the cloud servers, you have a user-friendly way to walk away with your property.
Check it out here: Exit Hatch on rollup.codes
Or check out the code on GitHub: LimeChain/RollupCodes
Stay safe out there.
Ideally, Layer 2 networks function perfectly, but most currently rely on a centralized Sequencer—a single point of failure. If this Sequencer goes offline (due to technical issues like an AWS outage) or censors transactions, your funds could effectively be trapped. The Exit Hatch provides a "hardline" to Ethereum Mainnet, ensuring you can always retrieve your assets without asking for permission, even if the L2 network is frozen.
It addresses the risk of centralized "traffic controllers" on L2 networks. Without the Exit Hatch, if a Sequencer stops producing blocks, you are stuck waiting for the lights to come back on. This tool allows you to bypass that failure point entirely and interact directly with Layer 1.
No, and that is the primary reason this tool exists. While the code to bypass the Sequencer technically always exists on the blockchain, executing it manually requires reading raw smart contracts and interacting with block explorers—tasks that are difficult for most retail users. The Exit Hatch provides a simple, predictable user interface to make this "emergency exit" accessible to everyone, not just coders.
The developers believe safety should be the "default standard," not a hidden trick or a premium add-on. The tool is designed to democratize access to the security mechanisms already built into Optimistic Rollups.
This delay is a mandatory security feature of Optimistic Rollups, not a limitation of the tool itself. After you prove your withdrawal on Ethereum, there is a hard-coded 7-day "Challenge Period" where the network checks for fraud. The Exit Hatch interface is transparent about this waiting period and tracks the countdown for you, but it cannot speed up the blockchain's security model.
The process involves multiple steps with different costs:
1. Initiating Withdrawal: Standard (cheap) L2 gas costs.
2. Proving Withdrawal: Standard Ethereum (L1) gas costs.
3. Finalizing Withdrawal: A final L1 transaction to claim your funds. Note: Because you are interacting with Ethereum Mainnet, the gas fees for steps 2 and 3 will be higher than typical L2 transactions.
The tool is built to support Optimistic Rollups, specifically those using the OP Stack. Currently supported networks include Optimism, Base, Arbitrum, Blast, Ink, Soneium, and World Chain.
The engineering philosophy is to "build for the worst-case." While everyone hopes for 100% uptime and decentralized sequencers, this tool ensures that users have a reliable way to walk away with their property regardless of infrastructure failures.
