Backed by Coinbase

The third aspect that makes Base unique in its positioning and its potential is that it is backed by Coinbase, one of the most trusted and prominent centralised exchanges in the United States. Being backed by Coinbase, Base has a large reach to the userbase of Coinbase by having a seamless user experience from Coinbase onto Base - and even some on-chain apps already integrated. This user experience paired with the trust, credibility and reliability of Coinbase can make all the difference in onboarding the everyday person onto a better financial system.

The reputation that Coinbase lends to Base as a chain makes it a most trusted environment for users to interact. Coinbase is highly active in the public and political spheres and for many users is representative of the industry as a whole. This reputation is extended to Base, making it one of the more trusted blockchains and L2s out there from the perspective of users. Similarly, the presence in the political landscape has shown that Coinbase aims to be regulatory compliant, which increases the trust it has already garnered. This too flows to Base, putting it on the fore-front of regulatory compliance for blockchains - further solidifying its reputation to users as a safe blockchain overall.

Complementary, the step for users from Coinbase to Base is gradually disappearing as the two are integrating more closely. Already, users are able to use the assets they have on Coinbase when interacting on-chain in the ecosystem of Base. This includes paying for gas with ETH -or in the future with USDC, or even taking out a loan using their BTC in their Coinbase accounts. Where other networks still require bridging, Base has seamless interactions with Coinbase, providing an industry-leading user experience. Currently, the gap between the decentralised network and Coinbase still exists with users having to interact on-chain. In the future, this is expected to disappear further with on-chain (Base) being integrated into the Coinbase app.

Aside from users having a much better experience on Base from the powerhouse that is Coinbase, this goes for the network as a whole too. The tight connection between Base and Coinbase results in the network of Base experiencing development capabilities of a web2 giant. Combined with benefitting from open-source development of both Ethereum developers and the Optimism Superchain, Base has a team of engineers that pushes the limits of the Base network specifically. They are continuously building on lowering the transaction fees, decreasing settlement times, and working towards “giga-gas” to further scale the capacity of the network. Similarly, this team of engineers, and its developer relations arm, is collaborating with the ecosystem to support them in their needs on documentation, support, and even grant programs to get them started.

It is undeniable that the backing of Coinbase has had a tremendous impact on the reputation and growth of Base. The vision remains to onboard the masses onto a decentralised and better financial system, and they are uniquely positioned to do exactly that.