Coinbase Ethereum L2 Network Base Goes Live on Testnet

Coinbase announces the launch of its own Ethereum layer 2 solution, Base.

In a company blog post on Thursday, February 23^rd, Coinbase announced the testnet launch of Base, which is touted as a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly Ethereum L2 built to bring the next billion users to web 3.

1/ 🔵 We’re excited to announce @BuildOnBase.

Base is an Ethereum L2 that offers a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly way for anyone, anywhere, to build decentralized apps.

Our goal with Base is to make onchain the next online and onboard 1B+ users into the cryptoeconomy. pic.twitter.com/RmwZFJzGGs

— Coinbase (@coinbase) February 23, 2023

Base is Powered by Optimism, But Without Native Token

According to the exchange, Coinbase Ethereum L2 network Base is built on Optimism’s open-source OP stack. Introduced in 2022, the OP stack is a codebase that features a series of modules to launch reliable L2 chains. Coinbase will also join Optimism as a core developer for the OP Stack.

Base is currently being modelled on Ethereum’s Georli testnet and will eventually connect to the main Ethereum Network. Coinbase is geared towards making Base one of the best places for developers to build on-chain. It leverages the underlying security of Ethereum and offers full EVM equivalence so that developers don’t have to make changes to their codes.

The existing suite of Coinbase developer tools will be integrated with Base. This will enable Dapps builders to integrate Coinbase products, giving them instant access to over 110 million verified Coinbase users and $80 billion worth of assets in the exchange’s ecosystem.

As per the blog post, Base is incubated within Coinbase and plans to progressively decentralize in the years ahead. Coinbase said that it is working with OP Labs to contribute to Optimism’s Superchain vision by launching Base as the second L2 network on OP stack, following Optimism’s mainnet.

In a separate announcement, Optimism welcomed Coinbase as the core developer of the OP stack. Superchain is a vision that seeks to integrate otherwise siloed L2s into a single interoperable and composable system. The aforementioned OP stack allows developers to build L2 chains that will eventually be integrated into a Superchain.

As part of this collaboration, Coinbase’s L2 Base will commit a portion of transaction fee revenue back to an Optimism Collective treasury. According to Optimism:

“In the near term, this collaboration strives to upgrade Optimism Mainnet, Base, and other L2s to an initial Superchain structure, with shared bridging and sequencing.”

The exchange noted that Base would not have a native token, and ETH would be used as a native gas token. To celebrate the launch of Base, Coinbase has enabled everyone to freely mint a commemorative NFT, named “Base, Introduced”, until Sunday, February 26.

5/ Become a part of Base history

Mint “Base, Introduced” — a commemorative NFT that celebrates the initial launch of Base. 1 per address, freely mintable on @OurZora through Sunday at midnight EST.https://t.co/zOiQilFKgH

— Coinbase (@coinbase) February 23, 2023

Coinbase said:

“We see Base as a “bridge” for users into the cryptoeconomy. It’s an easy-to-use default on-chain experience with access to products on other chains. Along with making Base interoperable with other chains, we will continue supporting as many chains as possible across Coinbase products.”