Coinbase’s layer 2 blockchain Base has rebranded as “Basechain,” with a major technical upgrade called Flashblocks that reduces block times to 200 milliseconds.
Base creator Jesse Pollak unveiled the upgrade at the “A New Day One” conference, sharing that the ultra-fast transaction confirmations would make Basechain up to ten times faster.
The Coinbase Wallet has also been morphed into the Base App, positioned as an all-in-one platform that integrates wallet, trading, payments, and a broad array of social features.
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The app merges wallet management, crypto trading, payments (including in-person NFC tap-to-pay using USDC), social media, messaging, content discovery, and the ability to run mini applications within a single interface.
It comes with two major foundational features: Base Account, for unified, onchain identity and cross-app sign-in, and Base Pay, for fast, fee-free USDC payments.
Social features use the decentralized Farcaster protocol, allowing creators to earn directly from their posts – each post is represented as a tradable token powered by the Zora protocol.