The story of the birth of Base told by Coinbase's development director

Author: Jesse Pollak

Compiled by: Azuma, Odaily Planet Daily Azuma

On the evening of February 23, Beijing time, Coinbase announced the launch of the Ethereum Layer 2 network Base based on the OP Stack. This is a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly Ethereum Layer 2 designed to bring billions of new users into the Web3 world.

Shortly after the official announcement of Base, Coinbase's Head of Development (To C direction) and founding contributor of the Base project, Jesse Pollak, shared the story of Base's inception on his personal Twitter, detailing how the network transformed from an idea into reality.

The following is the content of Jesse's tweet, compiled by Odaily Planet Daily.

1. Today, I participated in the launch of Base as one of over 100 contributors. Base is built by Coinbase's builders and will serve builders around the world. I will share how Base was formed in the upcoming tweets, and you can also join our Twitter Space at 9:30 PM Pacific Time to learn more.

2. I joined Coinbase in early 2017, which is now six years ago, just six months after Brian Armstrong (Coinbase founder) wrote the "Coinbase Secret Master Plan," which mentioned that Coinbase aims to create an open financial system for the world.

3. The plan was executed in four phases:

• First, (help to) build protocols, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum;

• Second, build exchanges, which you know as Coinbase;

• Third, build user tools, such as Coinbase Wallet;

• Fourth, create Dapps that can support 1 billion users;

The ultimate vision of the plan is to enhance global economic freedom through an open Crypto economy.

4. For the past 10 years, Coinbase has been persistently executing this plan—attracting more users and helping the development of the Crypto economy. Recently, we have been focused on advancing the work of the fourth phase, which is to create Dapps that can support 1 billion users.

5. A quick note, it is important to mention that Coinbase's master plan was written in 2016. I am grateful that Brian could clearly see the future and guide Coinbase towards the direction of the Crypto economy.

6. Before we start helping builders around the world build Dapps, we need to improve from within. Until today, most Coinbase products cannot be considered Dapps; they are still just Web2 products with some Crypto features. However, we have recently begun to gradually change this situation through products like USDC, Coinbase Wallet, and cbETH.

7. Looking ahead, we hope to continue building more such products and fully leverage the capabilities of on-chain platforms. Our idea is that if we can make changes within our team, we will also be able to help other developers.

8. As our team continues to push in this direction, two simple questions arose before us:

• First, how should they build Dapps (for example, what toolkits to use)?

• Second, where should they deploy their Dapps (for example, which chain to choose)?

These are the questions developers must address before creating projects.

9. In early 2022, we tried to have Coinbase "pave the way" and find answers to these two questions.

• Regarding how to build, we chose EVM as the primary development environment;

• Regarding where to build, we believe that high-value Dapps should be built on the Ethereum mainnet, while projects with greater scalability needs should be built on Layer 2.

(Note that this does not mean that Coinbase's products will no longer support non-EVM environments or non-Ethereum networks.)

10. With the direction clarified, we began to "pave the road" in various ways as much as possible:

• First, support EIP 4844 to reduce Layer 2 fees by 10-100 times;

• Second, create a true Layer 2 model to answer the question of "which Layer 2 solution" is better.

10. Throughout 2022, we communicated with almost every team dedicated to scaling Ethereum and Layer 2. Their creativity, insights, and belief in helping Ethereum scale left us deeply impressed.

11. Through these discussions, our perspective underwent significant changes. Before the discussions, we tended to believe that a single Layer 2 would serve as the "dominant scaling network" and gradually absorb all network activity, but after the discussions, we leaned towards the idea that there would be many active Layer 2 networks that would act as "hubs" for different ecosystems and work together to scale Ethereum.

12. With this idea in mind, we couldn't help but ask ourselves—if there will be many Layer 2s in the future, can we also build one to advance Coinbase's mission and help the development of the Crypto economy?

13. Coinbase has considered launching a blockchain twice in its history (in 2018 and 2020), but both times ultimately gave up. This time, we chose to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Thus, Base was born.

14. The emergence of Base will help:

• Advance the development of Coinbase's on-chain products;

• Bring our customers into the Crypto economy;

• Increase investment in core protocol infrastructure.

10. In other words, Base will be a key component of our master plan—Phase 3.5. We believe Base will help developers from Coinbase and beyond create the next generation of Dapps and attract 1 billion users into the Crypto world.

11. When we started building Base, we found that building a blockchain is completely different from building other products that Coinbase has created in the past. The biggest difference is that it will become a "platform," while most of what we have built so far are "products."

12. Building a Crypto "platform" with decentralized characteristics and a vision for scalability means we need to inherit and promote the excellent qualities of past decentralized "platforms."

13. Therefore, we established four key principles while building Base:

• First, "build bridges, not islands";

• Second, "open source";

• Third, "decentralized";

• Fourth, "for everyone."

10. "Building bridges, not islands" means that in our design, Base will be able to securely and conveniently access Ethereum, other Layer 2s, and even Layer 1s (such as Bitcoin and Solana). Base will serve as a "bridge" for users coming from off-chain, providing them with a simple on-chain activity experience and helping them use products from anywhere.

11. "Open source" means that we believe the foundation of the Crypto economy should be open source and free. The Base system is built on Optimism's OP Stack and will join OP Labs as the second core developer, contributing to the development of public goods.

12. The meaning of "decentralized" is that although Base is built by Coinbase, we will firmly promote the decentralization of the platform.

13. "For everyone" means that Base will be an open ecosystem where Coinbase will use our products, users, and assets as seeds and then collaborate with the community to truly bring blockchain into everyday life. We are excited to see so many projects joining us on the first day.

24. Over the past six months, we have been working hard to instill these values into Base. This has been a massive team effort, and this atmosphere has gradually emerged within Coinbase, attracting more and more contributors.

25. We initially had only a few contributors, but now over 100 people from the entire company have joined in. We have commemorated each contribution through the "Base Contributor" NFT, and we hope to expand this to a broader range in the coming year.

26. We are excited to build Base together because we are committed to making Base the foundation of the Crypto economy.

27. Finally, we invite you to become a part of Base's history. Starting now until midnight Eastern Time on Sunday, every address can mint the commemorative NFT of Base, "Based, Introduced."

28. Join us and let's build Base together.