In a Wednesday blog post, Coinbase shared an update on the next steps involved in the path to launching its Layer 2 network Base on the mainnet.
The first phase of Base on the mainnet will be “Mainnet Genesis,” after which developers looking to deploy apps on the Layer 2 will have a window to do so on the mainnet. During this stage, the Base core team will assist decentralized applications who will be recognized as early builders on the network.
Although the blog did not mention a timeline or specific dates as to when the network would go live on the main network, it detailed five specific criteria that will unlock during the event. Two of these criteria have already been met – the successful testnet of the Regolith hard fork and an infrastructure review with the OP Labs team.
Base is built on the same codebase as Optimism, the Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution developed by OP Labs. This link is the reason that much of Base’s development will be defined by Optimism’s own successful upgrades, including the widely anticipated “Bedrock” set to go live in June, and is next on the criteria list for Base’s mainnet launch.
After the Bedrock upgrade, Base will go through internal and external audits to confirm there are no critical issues detected and confirm the stability of its testnet.
“As a reminder, Base has no plans to issue a network token,” said the developers.
On other blockchains, native tokens are often used to incentivize development and pay for gas fees. Layer 2 networks like Optimism and Arbitrum recently rewarded their early adopters with airdrops, which drove up activity on the networks significantly before the event.
However, Coinbase Senior Director of Engineering Jesse Pollak believes that Base will achieve the same effect by building products and “making things actually useful.”
“This is a bet that we can help enable the next million dapps, which are going to bring in the next billion users,” he said to Decrypt in a February interview.
