Base Opens Mainnet To All Users

Base, the highly anticipated Layer 2 network from Coinbase, has opened its doors to all users.

More than 100 dApps, protocols, and brands are already live on the network, including Coca-Cola — which will issue digital collectibles on the network, OpenSea, and Aave. Base is promoting the launch with its “Onchain Summer” campaign, featuring daily NFT drops for users and other rewards for exploring the network’s DeFi ecosystem.

“We’re thrilled to announce that Base mainnet is now live and available for everyone,” Base said in an announcement. “Base was created with a clear vision: bring the next million builders and billion users on-chain.”

Base’s general access launch comes as competition to scale Ethereum is heating up, with Layer 2s now representing an all-time high total value locked (TVL) of more than $10.6B, according to L2beat.

Ethereum’s next upgrade, Dencun, is expected to significantly improve the scalability of Layer 2 networks by introducing EIP-4844, which replaces blockspace-intensive calldata with ‘blobs.’

Degens Front-run Public Launch

Base allowed developers to begin tinkering on the network in mid-July to prepare for its public launch, with the team enabling Ether transfers for technically savvy users at the time.

The prelaunch phase precipitated a chaotic week of growth for Base, with traders racing to speculate on new memecoins on the LeetSwap decentralized exchange. Base ranked as the third-largest Layer 2 with a throughput of 7.6 transactions per second (TPS) on July 30 as traders piled onto the network.

However, the party ended as quickly as it began. Many of the tokens hosted on LeetSwap went on to face rug-pull allegations after plummeting in price. LeetSwap also suffered an exploit on Aug. 2 and has since pledged to return only a portion of the funds retrieved by white-hat hackers to its affected pools.

Prior to its general access launch, Base’s daily transaction throughput had dropped to around 4 TPS. Base is already the fifth-largest Layer 2 with a TVL of $137M.

Base To Join Optimism ‘Superchain’

Base was built using Optimism’s OP Stack, a modular tech stack for launching Layer 2s released in early June. Base plans to be part of Optimism’s Superchain, an interconnected ecosystem of OP Stack-based chains.

Meanwhile, rival Ethereum scaling teams are looking to foster their own ecosystems. zkSync responded with the release of its own open-source ZK Stack, while Polygon Labs is converging its scaling solutions into the forthcoming Polygon 2.0 ecosystem.

Andy Bromberg, the CEO of Beam, a Base-based crypto wallet, said the Superchain offers a “compelling ecosystem for scaling Ethereum.”