Coinbase’s layer-2 community Base might quickly launch a local token, creator Jesse Pollak mentioned on the BaseCamp occasion.
In line with Base, the brand new token may assist decentralization and increase alternatives for builders and creators. “We’re within the early phases of our exploration, and don’t have any specifics to share round timing, design, or governance,” the community mentioned Monday.
Base is a layer-2 blockchain constructed on Ethereum and incubated by Coinbase. It processes transactions offchain earlier than settling them on Ethereum.
Launched in 2023, the community has develop into probably the most extensively used Ethereum layer-2 blockchain, with information from Token Terminal displaying about 20.8 million month-to-month energetic addresses over the previous 12 months.
Talking on the BaseCamp occasion, Pollak additionally introduced the launch of an open-source bridge to Solana, permitting customers to maneuver belongings between the 2 chains and enabling builders to faucet right into a broader liquidity pool.
Pollak mentioned Base was designed to be a “bridge, not an island,” including that the aim is to strengthen the complete ecosystem by making it open and interoperable. “For a greater international economic system to work, we want it to be interoperable and related.”
Base outlines why it’s now contemplating a token
Base’s transfer to discover a local token marks a shift from earlier statements. As just lately as November 2024, Pollak mentioned in an X thread, the place he praised Hyperliquid for prioritizing product improvement over token incentives, that there have been no plans for a Base community token.
“We’re centered on constructing. And we need to resolve actual issues that allow you to construct higher,” Pollak wrote.
Nevertheless, the potential Base token seems to be an evolution of the community reasonably than a flip-flop.
“Initially, contemplating launching a token wasn’t a precedence for us, as a result of we felt we wanted to deal with the core product first,” a spokesperson for Base advised Cointelegraph.
“Now that we’ve achieved sub-second, sub-cent transactions and expanded into an open stack, we’re exploring a community token to additional decentralize and make the ecosystem extra open, accessible, and community-driven,” Base mentioned.
The spokesperson additionally linked token issuance to its decentralization objectives. “Base is for everybody, and a community token may assist extra folks participate in Base’s onchain economic system.”
