Coinbase Launches Blockchain Base To Help Developers Build dApps On-chain

Coinbase, the second largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has launched Base, an Ethereum-focused layer-2 (L2) blockchain, said Jesse Pollak, lead for Base and head of protocols at Coinbase. From a report: In the past, Coinbase has homed in on the trading and exchange side of its business, but from the utility perspective, it's still too hard for developers to build useful decentralized applications (dApps) and for users to actually use those things on-chain, Pollak said. In an effort to expand further into the developer space, Coinbase is building Base to make it "dead easy" for developers to build dApps and for users to access those dApps through Coinbase products, Pollak said. "Our goal is to bring about phase 4 of Coinbase's master plan: to bring a billion users into the crypto economy."

The L2 is a "secure, low-cost, developer-friendly" chain that aims to help builders create dApps on-chain, the company stated. Base is built on the MIT-licensed OP Stack in collaboration with the layer-2 blockchain Optimism, which is also focused on the Ethereum chain. A number of crypto businesses, platforms, marketplaces and infrastructure firms have committed to building on Base, a Coinbase spokesperson told TechCrunch. Those that plan to be involved include Blockdaemon, Chainlink, Etherscan, Quicknode, Aave, Animoca Brands, Dune, Nansen, Magic Eden, Pyth, Rainbow Wallet, Ribbon Finance, The Graph, Wormhole and Gelato, to name a handful.

Craptocoins

[flyingfsck]

I am amazed that there are still crapto suckers out there.

Re:

[Nrrqshrr]

Maybe one day someone will find a use case!

Re:

[TheMiddleRoad]

Well, tulips do decorate gardens, so... Perhaps crypto coins will decorate... umm... online spaces?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, such insightful and original comments.

Re:

[yoloono]

You know how they say, for every crap there will be a sucker to smell it.

Re:

[gosso920]

Coinbase wants to prove the adage, "You can fool some of the people all of the time."

Re:

[tlhIngan]

I am amazed that there are still crapto suckers out there.

Well, if you can't make money selling fake money to people, you can certainly do it by being a middleman and collecting on the transaction fees.

After all, ETH's "gas" fees do vary based on how busy the network is, and several "games" that ran on ETH had turns that costed a couple of thousand dollars.

It would not surprise me if Coinbase was simply trying to become a middleman and taking a cut of the gas fees so they could generate some ETH blockchain

All The Apps!

[coop247]

Think of the possibilities! An app that trades magic jelly beans! An app that loans jelly beans! An app that loans jelly beans at 10 to 1 leverage!

And, uhhh, I mean, I guess there must be more even tho nobody has come up with any but I'M SURE THEY REALLY REALLY EXIST.

Here are three use cases

[DeplorableCodeMonkey]

1. Tokenized securities. Who are you going to believe: neckbeards on Slashdot or the CEO of Blackrock [fintechnews.org] who has gone on record saying he wants tokenized (ie securities-on-blockchain) securities? Various parties are already work on this and have working solutions.

2. Completely decentralized and resellable authorization to play games or add features. Instead of a serial number, you get a NFT in your wallet that is your activation code. It survives the company, can be resold (heck, doesn't even need the company'

Re:Here are three use cases

[znrt]

Who are you going to believe: neckbeards on Slashdot or the CEO of Blackrock [fintechnews.org]

really nobody, but in a pinch i think i would take the neckbeard over your golden prophet, thanks. i agree he might indeed know something, but being trustworthy is a wholly different thing.

also, dude ... the fad about nft being actually useful is not just an infantile solution to an invented problem, it died months ago already.

Re:

[TheMiddleRoad]

Neckbeards on slashdot, 1,000,000 to 1.

Re:

[alexgieg]

1. Tokenized securities.

That actually makes sense, since blockchains are basically WORM (write once read many) accounting databases, so using them for accounting is the one legit use case they have.

2. Completely decentralized and resellable authorization to play games or add features. (...) 3. Allowing movie studios to sell platform-independent access to movies.

Now, these are BS. A decentralized authorization database is merely a slower version of a centralized distributed database.

Besides, it isn't like anyone runs a block-chain on their phone or watch (who wants to download multi-gigabyte databases over and over and over and over again to do anything?), they all access it through 3rd party s

Re:

[BranMan]

Wouldn't case 2 just be a blockchain version of a negotiable bearer bond? Like the "Silver Certificate" dollar bills of old? I could see that also being a legitimate use case.

Re:

[alexgieg]

Wouldn't case 2 just be a blockchain version of a negotiable bearer bond?

In a way they already are, in the sense that's what ransomware paid in Bitcoin does.

But for the purpose of game authorization imagine the practicalities involved. A distributed game running on a phone that wanted to check whether user A is authorized to use asset X would need to download the entire blockchain, that is, gigabytes of data (approaching terabytes eventually) before starting up just to make sure he didn't sell asset X to user B. This isn't going to happen, so the next best thing is the game to h

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

You forgot the most obvious use case: an efficient, decentralized replacement for Visa/Mastercard (or even Swift).

Re:

[AmazingRuss]

It's a video game. Nobody plays those.

My continuing post from now on...

[Torodung]

Blockchain is not the revolution everyone thought it was. It is a processing pig that is unbelievably wasteful, and the processing power uses energy.

That's a useless waste. Until we're properly on renewables, it also contributes to climate change.

Quantum computers, should they be successful, may render the whole thing useless.

This is NOT the wave of the future. It's a dead end.

Confusing BlockChain with Crypto?

[thesjaakspoiler]

That happens to the best of us.
And you can bet your crypto coins that the blockhchain hype will continue with ChatGPT on quantum computers as well!

People still care about this nonsense?

[rlwinm]

Outside of some specialist decentralized document signature applications the idea of a "digital currency" is lunacy. The idea that access to your money to make a purchase is dependent on Internet access is nuts. I guess there is one born every minute though...

Re:

[AmazingRuss]

10% of purchases are cash. The rest goes over the internet. Paper bills are relevant as fax machines. This is how it is now. Sure, you can carry around your sweaty paper if it makes you feel good, but you're the nut in this scenario.

Re:

[TheMiddleRoad]

You mean document signatures taken where there's no internet connection but everything must be absolutely secure and no trust exists? I suppose that happens, but really, who gives a fuck? In the end, trust is what makes everything work, not crypto scammers.

Just stop.

[Fly Swatter]

You can't be decentralized if everything is based off of one single blockchain.

Re:

[TheRealMindChild]

You are an idiot

it was just a matter of time ...

[znrt]

... that crypto scamming became a script-kiddie thing.

Blockchain app ...

[JasterBobaMereel]

...that is immutable and you cannot change, and once you do it will take time to propagate to all nodes ...

Realistically, what are the uses for a blockchain?

[ctilsie242]

IMHO, a blockchain is a solution in search of a problem. There are ways to handle things without having to need to have an immutable ledger that always has to be stored somewhere, in a distributed manner. There are just so many other data structures that are far better for various jobs.

Even cryptocurrencies don't need an unlimited length blockchain. Some data structure that has some way of pruning data in a secure manner would be a lot more efficient than having to keep hundreds of gigabytes of the BTC blockchain around to ensure you are not double-spent. Ideally, there should be a way for transactions, once settled to drop off, so that a MAD Magazine purchase made with cryptocurrency won't be ruining someone's life 20 years from now.

Overall, I respect people learning applied cryptography, but not trying to think their hammer turns all data structure concepts into nails.

Re:

[TheMiddleRoad]

A solution looking for a problem isn't a solution. It's just a scam.

Re:

[alexgieg]

Ledging is literally the only application that comes to mind. Block-chains are literally specialized, No-SQL WORM accounting databases, and nothing more. If one wants tamper-resistant uneraseable accounting books, it provides that. Other than that though, there's no use.

Which makes of cryptobros people who visited a stationery, saw all those pretty black cover accounting notebooks, and said to themselves: "THIS IS IT! This is what will save the world!!!" And lo and behold, ahead they went, enacting their so

This day of week ends in 'y'

[SethJohnson]

You can be certain this is a day of the week ending in the letter 'y' because Slashdot has a post about crypto.

You can also surmise that today is not a day whose name ends in 'z' because only on those days we would see a Slashdot post about Elon Musk firing employees.

Build a dApp to track crypto crashes

[thesjaakspoiler]

Problem was that the underlying Luna blockchain also crashed so gone was my blockchain for my decentralized app.
I should have made my own blockchain to deal with all these competing standards.