Coinbase Launches Testnet for its Base Layer-2 Network
- Coinbase has launched the testnet for its own layer-2 network Base, which was designed to be low-cost, open-source, and provide a developer-friendly environment.
- The exchange also revealed it will be joining Optimism as a core developer on the open-source “OP Stack”, which Base was built on top of.
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Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has launched the testnet for Base, its own Ethereum layer-2 network that was built using Optimis’s OP Stack, the company said in a blog post on 23 February.
According to the announcement, the Base network will not issue its own token and was designed to act as a bridge for users into the crypto economy, giving them easy and secure to interact with other layer-2 networks such Optimism, and even providing them with access to other layer-1 ecosystems like Solana. Base will also make it easy to build decentralized apps (dApps) with access to Coinbase’s products, users, and tools. Coinbase’s VP of engineering, Will Robinson, said in the blog post:
“Today, we’re excited to announce the testnet launch of Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network offering a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly way for anyone, anywhere, to build decentralized apps or “dapps” onchain. Our goal with Base is to make onchain the next online and onboard 1B+ users into the cryptoeconomy. In pursuit of this goal, Base will serve as both a home for Coinbase’s onchain products and an open ecosystem where anyone can build.”
Coinbase also revealed that it will be joining Optimism as a core developer on the open-source OP Stack — a developer toolking for compatible blockchain layer-2 networks created by Optimism — which Base was built on top of. Coinbase noted that it joined the OP Stack core dev team to ensure that the Base network will be “fully open source and freely available” to everyone. Altough the network will start off as highly centralized, Coinbase released detailed plans on how Base will be decentralized over time.
The goal of Base is to become an easy-to-use network that will encourage new crypto users to “start on Base, but go everywhere”. In order to attract new developers to Base, Coinbase and Coinbase Ventures will also launch the Base Ecosystem Fund that will provide investments and support early-stage projects that build on Base and meet predetermined criteria.
- A little over $13 million in altcoins were sent to crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase in the past 24 hours, which is in accordance with a September court order.
- The court ordered a phased liquidation process, which allows the bankruptcy estate to sell $3.4 billion worth of digital assets over a certain period of time.
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- Although it was launched in beta on 10 August, the platform has already entered the list of top three fee generating crypto projects by earning $1.42 million in 24 hours.
- Friend.tech is a social app integrated with X (formerly Twitter) that allows users to sell and buy tokenized shares of their social network, gaining access to exclusive content and private chat rooms.
- Coinbase’s Base blockchain was made available to the public on Wednesday, featuring over 100 dApps and services as part of its ecosystem.
- In order to show its capabilities and promote its mainnet partners, Base has also launched an event called “Onchain Summer” that will allow users to mint exclusive NFTs on the network.