CoinbaseThe second largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, Coinbase, has launched Base, an Ethereum-centric layer-2 (L2) blockchain. Coinbase initiated the Base testnet on Thursday. It is constructed as a layer 2 network using Optimism’s OP Stack, with the goal of attracting millions of new crypto users over the next several years.
So what is Base?
Coinbase has created Base to be one of the greatest venues for developers to build on-chain. It possesses the following characteristics:
It is Secured by Ethereum: Base is designed with the security and scalability required to run decentralized applications. It combines the inherent security of Ethereum with Coinbase’s best practices to allow you to confidently onramp into Base from Coinbase, Ethereum L1, and other compatible chains.
Coinbase empowers base: Base simplifies the development of decentralized applications by providing access to the exchange’s products, users, and tools. Coinbase product connectors, fiat onramps, and sophisticated acquisition tools allow developers to service over 110 million verified customers and access $80 billion in assets on the network.
It has big features and small fees: Base provides complete EVM equivalence for a tenth of the cost and is dedicated to advancing the developer platform. Build up gasless transactions for your dapps using simple developer APIs for account abstraction, and construct multichain applications with simple bridges.
The protocol is open source: Base aspires to be decentralized, permissionless, and accessible to all, with the goal of building a standard, modular, rollup-agnostic Superchain powered by Optimism. The exchange is joining Optimism as a Core Developer on the open-source OP Stack and helping to foster a flourishing developer community.
Importantly, Base developers can build on Base utilizing the RPC testnet endpoint or choose from QuickNode, Infura, and Blockdaemon as Node providers.
Coinbase shifts focus to building the crypto-economy
Coinbase seeks to attract billions of new users to the crypto economy. Moreover, dapps must be simpler, cheaper, and safer to interact with. For this to occur, crypto organizations must make it easy for developers to create these decentralized applications.
Historically, Coinbase has focused on the trading and exchange aspect of its company from a utility perspective. However, in an effort to grow deeper into the developer market, Coinbase is developing Base to make it “dead simple” for developers to create decentralized applications (dApps) and for customers to access these dApps via Coinbase products.
However, Coinbase does not intend to introduce a new network token. Testnets are settings for testing that simulate actual blockchain usage. Layer 2 refers to different blockchains built on top of layer 1 blockchains, or basic blockchains, that eliminate scaling and data bottlenecks and are typically significantly faster and less expensive.
Coinbase would permit developers to directly connect their product with Base and give fiat onramps, targeting an estimated 110 million verified customers and $80 billion in assets on the network.
We’ve made an effort to go out to everyone and bring them into this open ecosystem. What will be required of us to make this successful is to continue to double down on those values of decentralization, open source, and having this be for everyone and a bridge that connects our users into the crypto economy and brings them to places they can go that aren’t controlled by Coibase but can offer them valuable experiences.
Jesse Pollak, lead for Base and head of protocols at Coinbase
The emphasis is placed on decentralization. Decentralization is vital for the crypto-economy to stay open, global, and available to everyone, as emphasized by the exchange.
The exchange began incubating Base within Coinbase with a strong commitment to achieving full decentralization in the coming years. With the additional resources that Coinbase provides, the OP Stack. The exchange remains optimistic that Base will go from Stage 0 to Stage 1 in 2023 and then to Stage 2 in 2024.
Making it cheap and available for everyone
Pollak stated that Coinbase’s objective with Base is to create a framework for developers and users to enable newcomers. This will necessitate making Base as inexpensive as possible, as secure as possible, and as decentralized as possible, as decentralization is essential to the ecosystem’s openness.
Pollak revealed that the chain would be integrated across Coinbase’s exchange, wallet, NFT marketplace, and developer solutions and will be interoperable with other blockchains beyond Ethereum. This notion has been discussed with the teams developing Solana, Avalanche, and Polygon, among others, according to Pollak.
Pollak stated that Base is launching an ecosystem fund in collaboration with Coinbase Ventures to make mostly pre-seed investments in builders developing on Base across the crypto ecosystem. We don’t simply want to focus on financial tools, NFTs, or games; we want everyone to be able to participate.
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