Coinbase Announces Public Launch of 'Base' Layer 2 Blockchain Next Week

Coinbase, the largest publicly-traded cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, has unveiled that Base, its layer-2 blockchain developed using Optimism's OP Stack, is set to be made accessible to the public on August 9th.

Base was launched for developers in July, allowing them to conduct application testing on the cutting-edge network. In a recent blog post, Coinbase announced that from Thursday onwards, users will have the exciting opportunity to bridge their ether (ETH) to Base.

The announcement coincides with Coinbase's upcoming second-quarter earnings report and marks the commencement of "Onchain Summer," a series of exciting events inviting creators and developers to unleash their artistic talents and build innovative applications on the Base platform. Prominent companies, such as the beverage giant Coca-Cola, gaming powerhouse Atari, and the non-fungible token platform OpenSea, are actively participating in this initiative.

The Coinbase Wallet's X account (previously known as Twitter account) highlighted that even before the Base mainnet becomes accessible to the general public, it is already feasible to deposit ETH into Base.

CoinDesk's recent report revealed that an impressive sum of over $68 million worth of ether was successfully bridged to the network last weekend, based on blockchain data from Dune.

Similar to Coinbase, the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has harnessed the power of the OP Stack and is set to launch its own layer 2 rollup, named Magi.

“Since we announced Base, our mission has been clear and consistent: bring the next billion users and next million builders on chain,” Jesse Pollak, the creator of Base and head of protocols at Coinbase, said in a press release sent to CoinDesk. “Today, we’re thrilled to announce our next step in that journey.”

Source Coindesk