Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced the deployment of Base, a layer-two (L2) scaling network for Ethereum, after developers launched the Base testnet on Thursday. The company said that it is incubating Base within Coinbase and that the L2 chain will progressively decentralize over time.
Coinbase’s L2 Scaling Platform Aims to Help Scale the Crypto Economy
Coinbase joins the competition from Ethereum L2 scaling projects such as Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Loopring, Starknet and others by launching an L2 called Base. The company Announced the Base testnet launch on Thursday and advised the public to keep an eye out for the next mainnet launch.
On Twitter, Coinbase fixed, “Base is an Ethereum L2 offering a secure, low-cost, and easy-to-use way for anyone, anywhere to build decentralized applications. Our goal with Base is to chain the next 1B+ users online and embedded in the crypto economy.”
The cryptocurrency exchange explained that Base will be open source and will take advantage of Optimism’s OP Stack. Coinbase explained that it is also collaborating optimistically. “We view this toolkit as an open platform that anyone can contribute to, fork, and extend to help scale the crypto economy,” the Coinbase blog post said.
Initially, Coinbase will have more control, but Base’s vision is to become totally without permission over time. “The foundation will progress from a Stage 0 to Stage 1 rollup in 2023 and a Stage 2 rollup in 2024,” the announcement noted. Furthermore, the blog post emphasizes that Coinbase “has no plans to issue a new network token.” While Base will be a separate network, it will be powered by Ethereum and will take advantage of Ethereum’s underlying security.
Coinbase also announced the launch of a Base Ecosystem Fund to support early-stage projects working with Base, as long as they meet the company’s investment criteria. Like many L2 platforms, Base will offer fees that are lower than the cost of transacting on-chain with Ethereum. This week ETH fees are higher than usual, and the L2 Arbitrum protocol, which offers lower fees, surpassed Ethereum’s daily transaction count.
“Base offers full EVM equivalency at a fraction of the cost and is committed to powering the development platform,” explains the blog post describing L2 Base. Following Coinbase’s announcement, scaling network L2 Optimism’s native token OP was up 7.4% against the US dollar. Optimism has recently revealed its plans to upgrade its network in March.
When Coinbase launched the Base testnet, people on social media She complained about a bumpy start. Coinbase Web3 Developer Roberto Bayardo explained that the problem was fixed and he noticed that many people were connecting. ‘We are submitting the contracts for verification now’, Bayardo aggregate.
What do you think about Coinbase’s entry into the Ethereum L2 scaling space with the release of Base? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.
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