The Basic testnet, an Ethereum Layer 2 network created to offer a safe, affordable, and developer-friendly solution to create on-chain decentralized applications, was made public on February 23 by Coinbase. The next billion users must be drawn into the crypto economy, say Coinbase and Base Network. Base Network will act as both the hub for Coinbase chain products and an open ecosystem that anyone can create in order to realize this objective.
Based on its ten years of experience creating cryptocurrency products, Coinbase is currently internally incubating Base Network with the goal of eventually decentralizing the blockchain. Although developers may already learn more about building on Base Network at base.org, Base Network currently has no plans to provide network tokens.
Describe Base Network
In order to make its Base Network one of the top destinations for developers to create blockchain-based goods and services, Coinbase aspires to do this. It mainly contains the following four characteristics:
- With Ethereum's underlying security and Coinbase's best practices, Base has the security and scalability needed to run decentralized apps, enabling customers to reliably deploy from Coinbase, Ethereum L1, and other compatible blockchains into Base Network.
- Coinbase Powered: Base Network, which has access to Coinbase's users, tools, and products, makes it simple to create decentralized applications. It also seamlessly integrates with Coinbase products, has access to strong fiat currency on-ramps, and can acquire assets worth $80 billion through the Coinbase ecosystem platform.
- Powerful and inexpensive: Base is dedicated to accelerating the development of developer platforms and offers complete EVM equivalence at a very low price. Employ a straightforward developer API to configure gas transactions for account abstraction in decentralized applications, and use straightforward bridges to safely create multi-chain applications.
- Open source: Base intends to create a decentralized, license-free "Superchain" that supports standard, modular, and Rollup transactions with the help of Optimist. Base Network will collaborate with Optimism as a core developer of the open-source OP Stack and seek to establish a healthy developer community.
As of right now, Base developers have the option of using QuickNode, Infura, or Blockdaemon node providers or the Coinbase RPC testnet endpoint to build on Base.
Why was Base Network created?
Decentralized applications must be simpler, more affordable, and more secure to use in order to attract billions of consumers to the crypto economy. To do this, developers need to construct these applications more readily. Coinbase clearly followed a few guiding principles when creating Base Network, including the following:
Not an island, but a bridge
Base Network can offer quick and safe access to other L1 ecosystems, other L2 blockchains, and Ethereum L1 (such as Solana). Also, Coinbase encourages third parties to build on Base, which will act as a "bridge" for users to enter the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Base's default on-chain experience is simple to use and accessible through other on-chain products. Future Coinbase products will support as many blockchains as they can as Base Network integrates with other blockchains.
Free software
Any underlying software that underpins the global crypto economy should actually be 100 percent open source and openly accessible. To build upon the MIT-licensed OP Stack, Base Network will collaborate with Optimism. To ensure that the OP Stack is a public product that is accessible to everyone, Base Network will join the team as a second core developer.
Base will be viewed by Coinbase as an open platform where anybody may contribute, fork, and expand to aid in the expansion of the cryptocurrency industry. You can click on this link to find out more about how Base and Optimism interact.
Decentralized
If the cryptocurrency economy is to remain open and globally accessible to everyone, decentralization is crucial. Although Coinbase has started developing Base within the company, it is dedicated to achieving complete decentralization in the future. With Coinbase's increased support for OP Stack, Base is anticipated to advance from Rollup Phase 0 to Phase 1 by 2023 and conclude Phase 2 by 2024. For further information on Base's decentralization strategy, please visit the provided link.
Open ecosphere
Base's goal is to develop into an open ecosystem built on Coinbase's assets, users, and products while collaborating with a larger community to strengthen the blockchain ecosystem. Coinbase is thrilled to have a fantastic community that will support Base in building a robust ecosystem and making valuable contributions.
Underlying Ecosystem Fund
Base ecosystem fund, which finances and promotes Base Network-based early-stage startups that satisfy Coinbase's investment requirements.
There will be no currency issued, and a portion of the service price will go to the OP collective
In the near future, a portion of the Base transaction cost (perhaps 20%) will go into OP Collective in order to further support the development of OP Stack. At the moment, Base Network will not create coins and will use ETH as the network fee gas.
The connection between Base and Coinbase, as well as ecosystem projects and finances
All of Coinbase's on-chain products, developed by Coinbase and geared for Coinbase users, will run on the native blockchain network known as Base Network. Users of the platform will be encouraged by Coinbase to transfer assets to the Basic chain. Naturally, this ecosystem is open, allowing anyone to build on top of it. Developers find this to be quite appealing. After all, Coinbase has an asset size of hundreds of billions of dollars and over 100 million potential consumers.
Meanwhile, Coinbase has also revealed the initial list of Base partners, which includes roughly 50 startups, many of which we are already aware with, like Chainlink, QuikNode, Axelar, LayerZero, Gelato, and Ribbon Finance. Additionally, the Base ecosystem fund, which has been formally established, will invest in and assist early Base-based projects that satisfy the standards.
Why opt for OP stack?
Coinbase and OP Labs have collaborated since the latter half of 2022 to conduct research on EIP-4844, which is commonly referred to as proto-dank sharding. This technology has the potential to significantly decrease transaction fees on the L2 network by a factor of 10 to 100. Furthermore, Coinbase/Base Network has joined forces with the OP Stack research team, and has indicated that a portion of their transaction fees (possibly 20%) will be directed towards OP Collective to support the continued advancement of OP Stack.
How does Base feel about decentralization?
The Base L2 network will initially only have Coinbase as a sorter, but over time it will transition to a permission-free collection of sorters. The goal of OP Stack has always been decentralization. The current unique sorter is just a short-term compromise. The decentralization process will be promoted decentralized by Base and OP Labs.
Abstraction of accounts? wallet for smart contracts?
Base Network will have the ability to serve as a smart contract wallet and as account abstraction, according to the official paper description. Moreover, Gnosis Safe tweeted that it will work with Base to actualize the account abstraction function in order to achieve widespread user adoption.
After grasping the aforementioned salient elements, what remains to be clarified is the unique relevance of an L2 network base cultivated by Coinbase.
- You should be aware that Coinbase currently has a base of more than 100 million certified users, and Base also stated that it positions itself as a "bridge" for users. With an asset scale of close to 100 billion dollars, Base also stated that it positions itself as a "bridge" for users. The current user base of Coinbase is expected to be diverted to Base when combined with technologies like Coinbase Wallet and account abstraction smart wallet.
- The Coinbase user group has undergone real name authentication. Base will be linked to the mission account in the past, much as Binance's former soul-bound token BAB. Can we anticipate the emergence of more on-chain assets like RAW and on-chain credit?
- It is anticipated that, as the creator of the OP Stack technological stack, it will strengthen the case for the Rollup application chain and weaken the case for Cosmos.
What comes next?
Base Network is currently concentrating on making sure the testnet is functioning well. Following that, we will share the mainnet plan and offer more tools for developers creating Base-based applications in the next weeks.
