Coinbase unveils new Ethereum L2 network powered by Optimism

• Coinbase has launched the testnet version of a new Ethereum L2 network – Base
• The L2 network has been deployed on the OP Stack codebase, giving a push to OP’s price on the market

Coinbase, a leading US-based crypto exchange, announced the testnet launch of a new Ethereum layer-2 network – Base. The L2 network is powered by Optimism, another well-known Ethereum L2 blockchain. The L2 network will offer “a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly way for anyone, anywhere, to build decentralized apps or “dapps” onchain”.

Moreover, the crypto exchange clearly stated that it has no plans to offer a new token for the layer-2 network. The L2 network would deploy ETH as its native gas token.

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In a blog post, the crypto exchange said,

Base aims to be decentralized, permissionless, and open to anyone with the vision of creating a standard, modular, rollup agnostic Superchain powered by Optimism. We’re joining Optimism as a Core Dev on the open source OP Stack, and working to create a thriving community of other developers.

Notably, Coinbase stated that Base network would be interoperable with other blockchains like Solana. Moreover, the network would be decentralized, open-source, and built on MIT-license OP Stack.

Optimises rises on Coinbase’s new launch

The announcement has given a boost to Optimism’s (OP) price in the market. According to CoinMarketCap, Optimism was trading at $2.96 at press time and had registered a rise of over 4% in the past hour. Additionally, OP has seen an uptrend of over 20% in the past 24 hours and had a market cap of over $696 million. Notably, while the announcement has given a boost to OP’s price, it seems to have little to no effect on Coinbase (COIN)’s price.

In a separate blog post, Optimism stated that Base would be giving a portion of its transaction fee revenue to Optimism Collective treasury. Coinbase would also be part of OP Labs as a core developer of the OP Stack codebase. Moreover, the collaboration will work on making Optimism a chain that unites several chains into a single network called Superchain. The blog post read,

“The Superchain seeks to integrate otherwise siloed L2s into a single interoperable and composable system. We need to work towards a future where launching an L2 is as straightforward as deploying a smart contract to Ethereum is today.”

Additionally, the Coinbase Optimism alliance aims to upgrade “Optimism Mainnet, Base, and other L2s to an initial Superchain structure, with shared bridging and sequencing.” And, the Superchain would boost interoperability and create an ecosystem for shared decentralized protocols, in the long run.