Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has today announced the launch of Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network that will provide a low-cost, secure and developer-friendly way for anyone to build decentralized applications onchain.
Base provides the benefits of Ethereum at a fraction of the cost, with no need for code changes. It offers full EVM equivalence, making all code, tools, and infrastructure compatible. Using a rollup architecture, Base can reduce gas cost by 10 times for users.
Base has been incubated inside Coinbase and leverages the company’s experience in building crypto products over the past decade. The network has been created as a top-tier platform for onchain development, with developers having access to a comprehensive range of Coinbase’s products, users, & tools.
Base utilizes Ethereum for security and draws on Coinbase’s expertise to provide developers with a seamless onramp to the network from Coinbase, Ethereum L1, and other interoperable chains. The network provides full EVM equivalence at a reduced cost, empowering developers to establish gasless transactions for their decentralized applications using developer-friendly APIs for easy account abstraction.
The vision of Base is to enhance the developer platform, and its design aligns with the core principles of permissionlessness, decentralization, and accessibility to all developers who share the vision of creating a standard rollup-agnostic Superchain.
For this, Coinbase is collaborating with another layer 2 platform, Optimism as a Core Developer on the open-source Optimism Stack, with a shared goal of fostering a community of developers.
Coinbase’s launch of Base is aligned with the company’s goal of onboarding 1 billion users into the cryptoeconomy, as the network aims to provide users with a more accessible, affordable, and secure way to engage with decentralized applications. The network is built with a commitment to core principles, including being open source, decentralized, and accessible to everyone. Base is designed to act as a bridge between users and decentralized applications, rather than operating in isolation, and seeks to make it easier for users to safely engage with the world of crypto.
In addition to its launch of Base, Coinbase has also announced the creation of the Base Ecosystem Fund. This new fund will focus on investing in and supporting early-stage projects that are building on the Base network and meet Coinbase’s investment criteria.
Coinbase has expressed its commitment to the success of the Base network and its belief in the potential for decentralized applications built on it. By creating the Base Ecosystem Fund, Coinbase hopes to encourage and support the development of innovative projects that utilize the benefits of the Base network.
Furthermore, as Base moves closer to mainnet launch, Coinbase has stated that it will continue to provide developers with additional resources and support for building on the network. With Coinbase’s experience and reputation in the crypto industry, the launch of Base and the creation of the Base Ecosystem Fund are likely to attract significant interest from developers and investors looking to participate in the growing decentralized application space.
Coinbase has made it clear that it has no plans to introduce a new network token for Base. To test the new layer 2 network, the company is using testnets that create testing environments similar to those found in real-world blockchain usage. Layer 2 networks are designed to operate on top of layer 1 or base blockchains, reducing bottlenecks related to scaling and data, which ultimately make them more efficient and cost-effective. By allowing developers to easily integrate their products with Base and offer fiat onramps, Coinbase has the potential to reach a vast user base of 110 million verified users and $80 billion in assets within the Coinbase ecosystem.