February 23 Coinbase crypto exchange he announced the launch of Base — the Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network. The company claimed that this new network will offer a low-cost, secure and developer environment for building decentralized applications (dApps) on the blockchain.
According to Coinbase, Base is designed to be a bridge for users into the crypto economy, offering access to other L1 ecosystems like Solana and making it interoperable with other chains. It will also provide access to Coinbase products, users and tools, as well as easy fiat onramps and powerful acquisition tools. The company has no plans to issue a new network token.
1/ We are happy to announce @BuildOnBase.
Base is an Ethereum L2 that offers a secure, low-cost, and developer-friendly way for anyone, anywhere to build decentralized applications.
Our goal with Base is to make onchain the next online and onboard 1B+ user into the crypto economy. pic.twitter.com/RmwZFJzGGs
— Coinbase (@coinbase) February 23, 2023
The base will be built on the “OP Stack” used by Optimism. It will start out highly centralized, although Coinbase does released a detailed plan for how the network will decentralize over time.
In its announcement on the Coinbase blog, it said Base will be “fully open source and freely available.” The company said it is joining OP Stack’s core development team to “ensure it’s a public good available to everyone.”
According to the announcement, Coinbase will continue to integrate as a hub with other networks, and Base itself will be “a bridge, not an island.” Coinbase intends Base to be an easy-to-use network for its customers to learn about using cryptocurrencies. However, Coinbase encourages users to “start at the base but go everywhere.”
In its decentralization plan, Coinbase said it is working with Op Labs and the Optimism Collective to decentralize the Optimism ecosystem by creating a “Superchain” of interconnection networks built on the OP Stack. The company considers the current version of Optimism to be a “phase 0 summary”, quote Vitalik Buterin’s post on decentralizing rollups. By the end of 2023, Coinbase has announced that it plans to advance from the base to “Stage 1”.
