Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, has launched a new Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network named Base. The network aims to provide a secure, low-cost, and developer-friendly way to build decentralized applications (dapps) on-chain for anyone globally. Coinbase intends to make on-chain the next online and onboard one billion users into the cryptoeconomy.
0/ 🔵 Hello world.
Meet Base, an Ethereum L2 that offers a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly way for anyone, anywhere, to build decentralized apps.
Our goal with Base is to make onchain the next online and onboard 1B+ users into the cryptoeconomy.https://t.co/Znuu3o3pJw
— Base (@BuildOnBase) February 23, 2023
To achieve this goal, Coinbase will be incubating Base leveraging the last decade of experience building crypto products and progressively decentralizing the chain over time. To support the path toward decentralization, the firm is building Base on Optimism’s OP Stack with the vision of creating a standard, modular, rollup agnostic Superchain powered by Optimism. Coinbase does not plan to issue a new network token.
Following Coinbase’s announcement of a partnership with Optimism, the platform’s OP token surged more than 20% immediately after. Currently, OP is trading at $3.02, only slightly lower by 5% compared to the ATH established on February 3rd, according to Coingecko.
Developers can start building on Base today at base.org. The company plans to use the network as both a home for Coinbase’s on-chain products and an open ecosystem where anyone can build.
Coinbase’s secret master plan has always been to create an open financial system that increases economic freedom globally. Over the past decade, the firm has progressed through the first three stages of what it envisions takes to get there: the protocols (Bitcoin, Ethereum), building the exchange (Coinbase Exchange) to serve as a bridge to digital currencies, and creating a mass-market interface for dapps (Coinbase & Coinbase Wallet). The firm has increasingly focused on unlocking the final stage: the apps of the open financial system.
Most Coinbase products are not written as smart contracts, and they primarily leverage the same application infrastructure used by other web2 companies. While they allow customers to access crypto, they aren’t built natively as dapps on the on-chain platform enabled by crypto. In the last few years, Coinbase has slowly changed this, with USDC, Coinbase Wallet, and cbETH being examples of natively on-chain products that drive significant activity and revenue for the firm.
As Coinbase looked towards its future, it aimed to help its teams build more products like these that leverage the full power of the on-chain environment. The company hypothesized that if it could enable its own teams to make that change, it would be well-positioned to enable other developers to do so too.
The company found that its internal teams were struggling with two seemingly simple questions: How should they build dapps? Where should they deploy dapps? These two questions were in many cases stopping teams before they started. So, in the first half of 2022, Coinbase ran an internal process to answer these questions and create a paved road for internal on-chain development. After extensive conversations with external builders and internal teams, the company aligned on three primary decisions.
First, EVM would be the primary developer platform for dapps as it’s the dominant environment with a significant majority of developers, activity, and liquidity. Second, Ethereum Layer 1 (L1) would be used for the highest value dapps as it’s the most mature, secure, and decentralized EVM chain, making it an ideal environment for deploying on-chain applications that require the most security. Third, Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) would be used for dapps that require scale. Ethereum prioritizes security and decentralization, which leads to high fees that make it unsuitable for applications aiming to reach billions of users.
Coinbase’s launch of Base will offer a secure, low-cost, and developer-friendly way to build dapps on-chain for anyone, anywhere, globally. Coinbase aims to onboard one billion users into the cryptoeconomy by making on-chain the next online. Base will serve as both a home for Coinbase’s on-chain products and an open ecosystem where anyone can build.
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