trace_transaction

trace_transaction returns the OpenEthereum/Nethermind-style call tree for a historical transaction on Base, showing every internal call, contract creation, and self-destruct action it produced. Base is the OP Stack optimistic rollup built by Coinbase, with ETH as the gas token and settlement to Ethereum L1, so its trace output follows the familiar Parity-derived format. Pass the transaction hash to https://base.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY (chain ID 8453, hex 0x2105) and the node returns a flat array of trace objects, each with a traceAddress path that tells you where it sits in the call tree. Unlike debug_traceTransaction, this gives you the higher-level action view rather than opcode-by-opcode detail, which is exactly what you want for following internal value flow.

Use cases

• Enumerate every internal ETH transfer inside a Base transaction, including the ones that never surface as event logs, by reading the value on each call action.
• Trace fund flows across multiple contracts in a Base DeFi interaction — for example a swap that hops through Aerodrome and Uniswap pools.
• Identify which sub-call caused a revert in a multi-hop Base transaction by following the traceAddress path to the failing action.
• Index internal transactions on Base for a block explorer, reconstructing the same data BaseScan surfaces under a transaction's internal-transactions tab.

Parameters

Response

Example request

1curl https://base.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY \
2  -X POST \
3  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
4  -d '{
5    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
6    "method": "trace_transaction",
7    "params": ["0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"],
8    "id": 1
9  }'

Try it live in the Base playground.

Errors & troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• It needs a trace-enabled archive node (Geth with archive mode and the trace API, or Erigon/Nethermind with their trace flags); a plain Base light or full node will return method-not-found.
• The output format differs from debug_traceTransaction — there is no opcode-level data here, only call, create, and self-destruct actions, so use the debug method when you need stack or memory detail.
• A failed Base transaction yields a truncated trace up to the revert point, so you see the actions that ran before the failure but not what would have followed.

Supported networks

• Mainnet — Chain ID: 8453
• Sepolia — Chain ID: 84532

See also

• trace_replayTransaction
• trace_block
• trace_filter
• debug_traceTransaction

1curl https://base.therpc.io/YOUR_API_KEY \
2  -X POST \
3  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
4  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"trace_transaction","params":["0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000"]}'