Coinbase has launched an L2 called Base to join the competition of Ethereum L2 scaling project, like Polygon, Arbitrum and Starknet. The launch of the Base testnet was announced by and the company advised the public that they would be launching the mainnet soon.
Twitter user Coinbase said that Base is an Ethereum L2 which allows anyone to create decentralized apps. It’s secure, affordable, and developer-friendly. Base’s goal is to make Onchain the next online platform and allow 1B+ people into the crypto economy.
Base, the cryptocurrency exchange, explained that it will be open-source and will use Optimism’s OP Stack. Coinbase also stated that it is collaborating withOptimism. Coinbase stated in a blog post that they see the toolkit as an open platform where anyone can contribute, fork and extend it to help the cryptocurrency economy scale.
Coinbase will initially have greater control. However, Base’s vision for becoming completely permissionless is being realized over time. The announcement stated that Base will move from Stage 0 to Stage 1 in 2023 and Stage 2 in 2024. The blog post also stated that Coinbase does not plan to issue new network tokens. Base will be an independent network but will be powered by Ethereum. It will also leverage the security of Ethereum.
Coinbase has also announced the creation of the Base Ecosystem Fund. This fund will support Base-related early-stage projects, provided they meet certain investment criteria. Base, like many L2 platforms will charge lower fees to transact onchain Ethereum. ETH fees this week are higher than usual. ‘s daily transaction count was outpaced by Ethereum’s L2 protocol Arbitrum which charges lower fees.
The blog post explaining the L2 Base states that Base offers EVM equivalence for a fraction of what it costs and is committed towards pushing forward the development platform. The native token of L2 scaling network Optimism (OP) rose 7.4% after the Coinbase announcement. Recently, Optimism announced that it will upgrade its network in March.
People on social media were unhappy that Coinbase’s Base testnet was launched. Roberto Bayardo , Coinbase Web3 developer, explained the problem was resolved and pointed out that many people were bridging. Bayardo updated: “We’re submitting contracts for verification now.”