Original title: Unpacking the Base Narrative
Original author: David C
Original translation: Lucy, BlockBeats
Editor’s Note:
This article explores Base’s prominent place in the on-chain ecosystem and its tight integration with Coinbase. Representing its rapid growth into a major player in just one year, Base has demonstrated its uniqueness through its partnership with Coinbase, an active developer and user ecosystem, and key collaborations with key partners like Stripe. The article provides an in-depth analysis of how Base leverages its unique strengths, including technological innovation, strategic cooperation, and industry leadership, as well as Coinbase’s key role in promoting its on-chain ecosystem. This article not only highlights Base’s growth and its potential in the DeFi space, but also highlights the challenges and opportunities it may face in the future.
Coinbase's L2 solution Base has quickly become one of the most eye-catching hot spots in this round of on-chain development, firmly establishing itself as the most innovative corner of Ethereum.
Base’s rise and continued growth has become a hot investment story that’s hard to ignore.
Launched in July 2023, Base is built on the OP Stack and is designed to enable cheaper and faster Ethereum transactions, a key feature that has contributed to its success. Since its launch, Base has built a vibrant ecosystem covering DeFi, NFTs, and user-friendly applications, placing it at the forefront of all on-chain trends. It partnered with Stripe to launch stablecoin services, became a hub for launching third-layer (L3) solutions, and remained at the center of liquidity rotation that constantly triggered calls for "Base season", even surpassing Optimism in terms of on-chain TVL!
This article will explore what makes Base unique among other L2 platforms and how it is gaining momentum from Coinbase and the rumored token airdrop, all of which together make Base a can’t-miss destination on-chain. Let’s get started!
Why is Base different?
Base is notable for its deep integration into the Coinbase ecosystem and reputation as a consumer chain.
The integration of Base with Coinbase brings the exchange’s massive consumer base closer to the chain, laying the foundation for the building of a community of builders and users.
Ecosystem initiatives like Onchain Summer have helped spotlight developers and creators, making the chain a popular place for users to gather. Base continues to demonstrate its commitment to creators and foster an atmosphere of experimentation, which has led to many unique activities on the chain, including trading AI music with Crate, private conversations on friend.tech, and competing in WorldPVP.
Additionally, Coinbase provides the chain with a wealth of tools to make on-chain life more convenient, the most notable of which is their recently launched smart wallet, which simplifies the login process, ditches lengthy recovery phrases, and allows dApps to pay gas on behalf of users cost.
Together, these innovations build a supportive ecosystem that rewards builders who try new things, which in turn keeps users engaged and fosters a casual, consumer-friendly atmosphere — something all too rare in the life-and-death arena of DeFi.
Can Coinbase push Base to the top?
Coinbase’s support brings several key advantages that set Base up for success.
Trust: As one of the most recognizable and trusted names in the industry, Coinbase adds credibility to the chain, which aims to assure potential users that the chain will operate with integrity. This is not only critical to attracting Coinbase’s 110 million users, providing a friendly and safe place to venture on-chain, but also enables Base to establish important partnerships with major partners such as Stripe.
Partnership: Base’s partnership with the financial services giant will have a dual effect, making L2 a payment highway, potentially competing with Solana, which has benefited from large-scale stablecoin transactions this cycle, and showing other Web2 companies that Base is a reliable place to scale on-chain businesses. Having an established global enterprise backing it financially gives Base the ability to continue to innovate and provide its community with multiple services such as cloud access, institutional portals, and an all-in-one development platform.
Marketing: Their strong financial reserves also serve as a powerful marketing machine, bringing Base and the industry as a whole closer to the public, thanks to corporate backing that regularly features TV commercials that make your parents stop and say, “Oh, I never thought of it that way.”
Political power: Finally, no company has been as active as Coinbase in developing relationships with regulators to push for clear and productive regulation. From funding “pro-crypto” initiatives to regularly meeting with senators and congressmen, the exchange continues to represent the industry as a whole. While they themselves are currently facing lawsuits, the reputation they have gained from this could serve as a shield for Base as they face legal complexities. Additionally, it also means that the chain will be committed to improving security and compliance as an additional safeguard in case something goes wrong.
All in all, Coinbase’s partnership with Base not only provides credibility and financial backing, but also strengthens its potential with key partners, regulatory support, and broad market coverage, making it a formidable competitor on-chain.
What about the Base token?
Despite Base’s rapid growth and success, it is still a work in progress.
The platform’s anti-fraud system is still a work in progress, which means Base is not yet fully decentralized. However, the team is actively promoting the decentralization process.
Unlike other major L2 chains, Base currently does not have its own token and has not made any official announcements indicating a future token launch. Despite this, many still believe that the chain will find a way to launch a token. While this currently means there is no direct way to invest in the current success of the network, the future possibilities make using the chain more attractive. Additionally, a more direct incentive could come from Optimism's next retroactive airdrop, considering that the previous airdrop rewarded creators across Superchains, including Base.
Until then, investing in tokens launched on L2 may provide an alternative path to gain exposure to the Base ecosystem.
Advantages of Base
In just one year, Base has quickly grown into a major on-chain player thanks to its integration with Coinbase, an active developer and user ecosystem, and key collaborations with important partners such as Stripe.
Coinbase’s support not only provides Base with the credibility, financial backing, and regulatory backing that are critical to its growth and stability, it also enables it to operate initiatives like Onchain Summer, which rewards on-chain activity and experimentation, thereby ensuring there is always something new to do on the network.
Additionally, the potential future launch of Coinbase tokens adds incentive to operate on Base, an experience that is increasingly simplified with the introduction of features like Smart Wallet.
As Base expands and innovates, its user-centric approach, advanced technology, and strategic partnerships backed by Coinbase make it one of the premier destinations on-chain, perhaps even the most dominant.
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