- Coinbase has made history by introducing its Base blockchain, the first from a publicly traded company.
- This launch could offer Coinbase a dual revenue stream: from both the blockchain itself and the apps developed on it.
Coinbase’s Bold Leap into Blockchain Ownership
Coinbase, a leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, has officially brought its Base blockchain into the limelight. It’s a momentous step forward, marking the dawn of publicly traded corporations steering their individual decentralized networks.
Having been available for developers’ testing, Base transitioned to public accessibility precisely at 12 p.m. ET on Wednesday. As a result, Coinbase, which already commands significant attention for its crypto stocks, finds itself on the cusp of a transformative revenue landscape. The inception of this blockchain could not only generate income through its operations but also herald a richer revenue conduit via applications conceptualized and built on it.
Back in 2016, Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, detailed in his visionary “secret master plan” that the company’s fourth developmental phase would pivot around “decentralized apps” or dapps. He envisioned these dapps resonating with a billion-strong audience. Keeping in line with such ambitions, Coinbase made its shares public via a direct listing on Nasdaq in April 2021. Fast forward to the present, and Jesse Pollak, the guiding force behind Base as Coinbase’s protocol chief, disclosed in an exclusive interview that a whopping 100 dapps are either operational or poised for launch on this fresh network.
Pollak asserted, “Crypto’s potential, until now, has remained somewhat circumscribed, largely veering towards speculation. But for the vision Coinbase harbors, and indeed for the broader crypto universe to manifest its full potential, it’s pivotal that we transition from mere speculative undertakings to integrating crypto into the very fabric of our everyday lives.”
Synchronized with the debut of Base, Coinbase unveiled its “Onchain Summer” initiative. This strategic collaboration, involving major corporate entities like Coca-Cola, is geared towards showcasing the prowess of their new blockchain project.
Base L2’s Distinction in the Blockchain Realm
In technical terms, Base is a “layer 2” blockchain, meticulously crafted on the foundational Ethereum blockchain, incorporating the OP Stack software hailing from another prominent layer 2 network, Optimism. Even before its public introduction, Base had already secured a staggering $139 million in deposits across various applications and protocols. As per insights from L2Beat, a reputed crypto analytics entity, this volume of “total value locked” (TVL) – a key metric employed to gauge blockchains and protocols – positions Base as the fifth preeminent layer-2 blockchain.
