Crypto News: What comes as a surprise to many, the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which has the largest user base in the United States, has now officially ventured into the Layer-2 game. During the ETHDenver event, the California-based crypto giant unveiled “Base”, a testnet version of its newly developed Ethereum Layer 2 network.
Coinbase Launches Layer-2 Network
According to Jesse Pollack, the senior director of engineering for Coinbase Global Inc., Base has been modeled after Ethereum’s Goerli testnet, and it is planned to eventually connect to the main Ethereum network sometime later. Base’s initial fees will be similar to those of Arbitrum or Optimism and will vary from 10 to 50 cents; but, over the course of the following year, those fees are expected to decrease to less than 1 cent. At the time of writing, Ethereum’s price is trading at $1,661 with a market cap of $203 billion.
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The chain is currently in the testnet phase, however, a definite launch date for the mainnet has not yet been determined. For the unaware, Testnets are environments for testing that simulate the use of a blockchain in the real world. Layer 2 blockchains are independent blockchains that are created on top of layer 1 blockchains, also known as base blockchains. These blockchains are designed to eliminate bottlenecks with scaling and data, and they are typically considerably faster and less expensive.
While speaking on the launch of Base, Pollack was quoted as saying:
Our goal with Base is to launch a platform that makes it really easy for developers to build apps that users actually want to use and then plug that into the Coinbase product suite to make it really easy for users to use those apps.
Base Misses Out On Native Token
Furthermore, Pollack has confirmed to media outlets that Base would not have its very own dedicated cryptocurrency. In addition to that, he stated that successful networks such as this one do not require tokens.
At the time of writing, the value of a certain obscure token related to Base Protocol has increased by more than 40% since the publication of this particular piece of crypto news. The token bears no resemblance to the actual Base network that is offered by Coinbase.
The open-source OP Stack, a blueprint for compatible blockchain Layer 2 networks that were developed by the Ethereum Layer 2 network Optimism, serves as the foundation for Base’s construction. As a core developer for the OP Stack, Coinbase will also be joining the Optimism team.
During the same time, Coinbase also announced that it will be launching the Base Ecosystem Fund. This fund will invest in and provide assistance for early-stage startups that will run on top of Base & meet certain investment requirements. Reacting to the news, shares of Coinbase (COIN) jumped 4.20% as the markets opened on Thursday, currently trading at $63.02.
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