Coinbase's Base L2 Expands Ethereum Developer Tools
Coinbase, the second largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has launched Base, an Ethereum-focused layer-2 (L2) blockchain, Jesse Pollak, lead for Base and head of protocols at Coinbase, told TechCrunch. In the past, Coinbase has homed in on the trading and exchange side of its business, but from the utility perspective, it's still too hard for developers to build useful decentralized applications (dApps) and for users to actually use those things on-chain, Pollak said.
In an effort to expand further into the developer space, Coinbase is building Base to make it "dead easy" for developers to build dApps and for users to access those dApps through Coinbase products, Pollak said. "Our goal is to bring about phase 4 of Coinbase's master plan: to bring a billion users into the crypto economy."
The L2 is a "secure, low-cost, developer-friendly" chain that aims to help builders create dApps on-chain, the company stated. Base is built on the MIT-licensed OP Stack in collaboration with the layer-2 blockchain Optimism, which is also focused on the Ethereum chain.
A number of crypto businesses, platforms, marketplaces and infrastructure firms have committed to building on Base, a Coinbase spokesperson told TechCrunch. Those that plan to be involved include Blockdaemon, Chainlink, Etherscan, Quicknode, Aave, Animoca Brands, Dune, Nansen, Magic Eden, Pyth, Rainbow Wallet, Ribbon Finance, The Graph, Wormhole and Gelato, to name a handful.
"We've made an effort to go out to everyone and bring them into this open ecosystem," Pollak said. "What will be required of us to make this successful is to continue to double down on those values of decentralization, open source and having this be for everyone and a bridge that connects our users into the crypto economy and brings them to places they can go that aren't controlled by Coinbase but can offer them valuable experiences."
At the beginning, Base will have comparable fees to Arbitrum or Optimism in the 10- to 50-cent range, with plans for it to drop near 1 cent over the next year, Pollak said. The chain is currently in its testnet phase and doesn't have a specific launch date for mainnet, but expects it to transpire during Q2 of this year, Pollak said.
While Base is incubated inside of Coinbase, its plan is to decentralize it "in the years ahead," Pollak said. Team has done "a lot of work over the last six months" to address some of the biggest concerns from others, including how a big centralized company can engage in a decentralized way.
"It's going to be a journey, but that's why we're working with Optimism and why we're building on an open source technology stack and acting so deliberately in who those stakeholders that we bring into the ecosystem are from day one," Pollak said.
Digging into Coinbase's better-than-expected Q4 results, Coinbase's goal with Base is to also provide the foundation for developers and users to enable folks coming in, Pollak said. "That's going to require us making Base as cheap as possible, as secure as possible and as decentralized as possible because that decentralization is a key aspect to enable the openness of the ecosystem."
The chain will be integrated across Coinbase's exchange, wallet, NFT marketplace and developer products, and plans to be interoperable with other blockchains in the ecosystem beyond Ethereum, Pollak shared. Base has had conversations with teams building Solana, Avalanche, Polygon and others to work on that vision, Pollak added.
Base is also launching an ecosystem fund in partnership with Coinbase Ventures to make mainly pre-seed investments in builders developing on Base across the crypto ecosystem, Pollak said. "We don't want to just focus on financial tools, NFTs or gaming; we want it to be welcome to everyone."
Base aims to be welcome to everyone, not just focused on financial tools, NFTs or gaming. A number of crypto businesses including Blockdaemon, Chainlink, Etherscan, Quicknode, Aave, Animoca Brands, Dune, Nansen, Magic Eden, Pyth, Rainbow Wallet, Ribbon Finance, The Graph, Wormhole have committed to building on Base.
Jesse Pollak Leads Base Initiative
Pollak, who heads protocols at Coinbase, framed Base as the next logical step after the exchange's focus on trading and custody. By opening a developer-facing layer-2, Coinbase seeks to unlock utility beyond buying and selling. Pollak has been the public face of the project, talking up the vision in interviews and at industry events. His mandate includes recruiting the right talent, setting the technical direction, and deciding which projects get early access to the ecosystem fund.
Base Built on OP Stack with Optimism
Base's technical foundation is the OP Stack, the same open-source rollup framework that powers Optimism. The OP Stack is MIT-licensed, which removes typical legal barriers for companies wanting to build on top of it. By collaborating with Optimism, Coinbase can reuse battle-tested infrastructure while customizing parameters for its own rollup. This approach also signals that Base is not starting from scratch; it inherits Optimism's security model, tooling, and community patterns, then layers its own governance and economic design on top.
"Dead Easy" Developer Experience
The headline promise from Pollak is that Base makes dApp development "dead easy." To that end, the platform ships with pre-configured wallet integration, naming services, and gas-abstraction layers. A dApp can go from zero to deployed without building every plumbing piece from scratch. The goal is to lower the barrier that has kept many teams from building on Ethereum layer-2s, even as cheap as Arbitrum and Optimism already are. By bundling the most common developer needs into a single stack, Coinbase hopes to attract teams that previously found the integration overhead too steep.
Goal: Bring a Billion Users into Crypto
Pollak described Base as the vehicle for "phase 4" of Coinbase's master plan. The first phases centered on on-ramping users to the exchange, expanding the wallet's features, and supporting NFT marketplaces. Phase 4 is about volume: bringing a billion people into the crypto economy. That's an ambitious target, given that total crypto users number in the tens of millions today. The strategy leans on Base's tight integration with Coinbase products—so every new user on the exchange or wallet automatically gets a on-ramp to Base—plus a push on usability so that non-technical users can interact with dApps without touching gas manually.
Fee Model: 10-50 Cents, Targeting 1 Cent
Starting fees sit in the 10- to 50-cent range, comparable to Arbitrum and Optimism. That's already cheaper than Ethereum mainnet, where fees can spike to dollars per transaction during congestion. Pollak said the plan is to drive fees down near 1 cent within a year. Achieving that will depend on rollup throughput, data-availability cost improvements, and the decentralization shifts planned for the years ahead. If Base achieves low fees, it could become the default layer-2 for applications that require high-frequency on-chain interactions, such as gaming or micropayment systems.
Testnet Phase, Mainnet Q2 2023
Base is currently in its testnet phase. No specific mainnet launch date has been set, but Pollak said to expect it during Q2 of this year. The testnet period is meant to stress the network, gather developer feedback, and iron out bugs before real value moves. Past Ethereum layer-2 launches have shown that an extended testnet can prevent costly mainnet surprises, so Coinbase appears to be taking a cautious approach despite the commercial pressure to be first.
Decentralization Path: "In the Years Ahead"
Base is incubated inside Coinbase but intends to spin out as a decentralized entity "in the years ahead." The strategy leans on open-source tooling, an advisory board of ecosystem partners, and the OP Stack's modular design to enable governance transfer without rebuilding the stack from scratch. How and when that transition occurs will depend on community readiness, regulatory clarity, and the health of the token economics that will underpin the decentralized phase. Pollak has said the team is already laying groundwork—such as retroactive public goods funding mechanisms and on-chain voting—to make the eventual handoff smoother.
Integration Across Coinbase Products
The chain will be integrated across Coinbase's exchange, wallet, NFT marketplace and developer products. For traders, Base means a cheaper on-ramp to Ethereum-based tokens. For wallet users, it means one-click access to dApps without leaving the interface. For NFT collectors, Base offers a low-fee venue for minting and trading. And for developers, it means the same company that hosts the world's largest crypto exchange also provides the layer-2 they'll build on.
Interoperability Beyond Ethereum
Base is not positioning itself as a silo. Pollak confirmed conversations with teams building on Solana, Avalanche, and Polygon, with the aim of building bridges that let users and assets move across ecosystems. The goal is a more composable crypto stack where Base sits as one interoperable layer rather than a walled garden. If those bridges materialize, Base could become a hub in a multi-chain developer workflow, rather than the only layer-2 a team considers.
Ecosystem Fund with Coinbase Ventures
The Coinbase Ventures-backed fund will make mainly pre-seed investments in builders developing on Base. The scope explicitly extends beyond financial tools, NFTs, and gaming to include social, infrastructure, and tooling projects. The fund's stated intent is to broaden the user base and show that Base welcomes anyone who wants to build or use dApps on-chain. Early commitments already include a who's who of infrastructure and tooling firms, but Pollak said the outreach effort is ongoing and the fund will back projects that challenge the typical crypto verticals.
Welcome to Everyone: Beyond Financial Tools
One of Pollak's repeated themes is that Base should be "welcome to everyone, not just focused on financial tools, NFTs or gaming." The ecosystem fund's scope reflects that mandate: it will invest in social networks, developer tools, identity layers, and other categories that don't fit the usual crypto fundraising mold. By casting a wider net, Base hopes to avoid the pigeonholing that has limited some layer-2s to niche use cases, and instead position itself as a general-purpose Ethereum scaling solution.
Ecosystem Commitments: List of Partners
Blockdaemon, Chainlink, Etherscan, Quicknode, Aave, Animoca Brands, Dune, Nansen, Magic Eden, Pyth, Rainbow Wallet, Ribbon Finance, The Graph, Wormhole and Gelato have committed to building on Base. These partners span infrastructure (node hosting, block explorers, developer tooling), finance (lending protocols, price feeds), and consumer-facing platforms (wallets, marketplaces). Their involvement signals that Base already has the critical mass of tooling and infrastructure that developers expect from a viable layer-2. Pollak said more partners will be announced as the testnet progresses and mainnet approaches.
Author: Elena Rios
Published: February 23, 2023
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/23/coinbase-launches-blockchain-base-to-help-developers-build-dapps-on-chain
