🔵 🔵 🔵
☝️ These are blue dots.
But it’s what Coinbase used to give the crypto community blue balls last week. ☺️
Coinbase built up anticipation for a big launch on February 23, by tweeting “🔵”
🤣
Seriously tho, this cool new project is something Coinbase has been working on for over 5 years.
On February 23, Coinbase launched BASE, a layer-2 blockchain built on Ethereum.
Yes, Coinbase just removed the “Coin” from its name and jumped into the blockchain wars.
But Base isn’t like most blockchains.
Here are some key differences:
🔴 Built on Optimism
Base is built on OP Stack, the development stack that’s behind Optimism another Ethereum L2.
This ☝️ means 2 things:
- Base will use optimistic rollups as a scaling solution
- Base will compete directly against – Optimism and Arbitrum
Coinbase wanted to launch an L1 in 2018 and 2020 but decided to scrap it because the technology wasn't quite right.
But then in 2021 — the Ethereum Merge made transactions cheaper + rollups became far more efficient as a scaling solution.
That’s why Brian Armstrong and Co. decided to say ‘F IT, let’s do it’ and went with an L2 on Ethereum over building its own chain.
🤝 Completely interoperable
When exchanges launch chains, they keep it operable with the main exchange and not with other public blockchains.
Base ain’t like this. ✊
Despite being an L2, Base will be interoperable with:
1️⃣ The Ethereum L1
2️⃣ Other Ethereum L2s
3️⃣ Other alternative L1 blockchains
In the announcement blog, Coinbase explicitly said Base will be interoperable with Solana. 💡
Large exchanges (like Coinbase) already serve as an interoperable and token-swapping bridge between blockchains. But they do this in a CeFi sense.
Now, with Base, Coinbase can do this in a truly DeFi sense.
🪙 No TOKEN
Base will have no native token to pay for transactions.
It will use the native token of the Ethereum L1 → ETH.
Arbitrum, another Ethereum L2, operates in the same way by using ETH as the token to pay gas fees. Although, it’s rumoured to drop a token soon. 👀
But seriously tho, Coinbase probably didn’t go with a native token because:
- The SEC is watching them 👀
- Coinbase is a publicly traded company 😲
If they launched a native token for their blockchain, Gary Gensler would come down on them harder than they came down on SBF when FTX blow up. OH WAIT!!
🏪 For Products
One of the cool things about Base (well apart from the dope name ofc) is that it’s a blockchain that’s built for:
- devs, and
- consumers
Most blockchains are built keeping in mind the developers and buildings (because they’re the first ones to use it)
Then it goes to the consumers.
And by this time, the:
- UI/UX is like a desktop from the 90s
- transactions are slow AF
- fees are soaring
But Base isn’t going to be like this.
And that’s not just me talking, it’s from the guy that built it!
Jesse Pollock (no relation to Jackson Pollock the dude who makes whacky 🎨 paintings) the senior director of engineering at Coinbase and the dude behind Base said that the blockchain will have “a suite of products” for devs and consumers.
This is HUGE for protocols building consumer-first applications on BASE.
Based or not?
We think Base is based af 👌
Coinbase didn’t go down the route of Binance, or OKX, or Crypto com by launching its own L1 blockchain.
Instead, it decided to —
✅ wait for Ethereum to be more usable and then deploy on a tested L2.
✅ said ‘F this’ to a token and will use ETH as the native token
✅ build for consumers and developers
✅ use Coinbase’s last 4 letters
Pretty cool ngl!
What do you think about Coinbase launching its own L2?
Other interesting reads in our blog:
Aakash Athawasya
Nelli Orlova
