Original Article Title: Creating on Base Before BASE

Original Article Author: William M. Peaster, Bankless

Original Article Translation: Ismay, BlockBeats

Six months ago, I wrote that the argument for Base's value had never been easier. Now, after witnessing last week's milestone announcement at Base Camp and seeing this chain steadily execute across various dimensions, that statement seems a bit outdated.

With Coinbase's endorsement, Base continues to expand L2's design space to fulfill its overarching mission of being "the on-ramp to the chain for people," demonstrating the potential of being a new form of the internet. With Base Camp announcing the launch of a native Solana cross-chain bridge and network token exploration, now is the perfect time to reexamine this chain and its ecosystem. I also sat down with Base's creator, Jesse Pollak, to delve into the latest developments and future stages.

Base Chain

Since the spring, Base's on-chain evolution has been remarkable. Since March, the total value locked in DeFi has nearly doubled to $5 billion, with protocols like Morpho and Aave seeing their TVL triple.

Furthermore, looking deeper, Morpho, as the largest on-chain protocol, has seen a tenfold increase in Bitcoin collateralized borrowing product usage, with the total borrowed amount surpassing $720 million. The product's integration with Coinbase has been seamless, allowing users to borrow directly against their Bitcoin collateral. The depth of integration continues to grow, with Coinbase now enabling users to directly deposit USDC into Morpho's vaults, earning returns significantly higher than the traditional 4%—a clever timing choice given the upcoming rate cuts and the imminent drop in existing yields.

As the ecosystem expands, the underlying technology is also iterating rapidly:

Flashblocks officially launched on July 16, reducing block time from 2 seconds to 200 milliseconds. As Jesse puts it, this has entered the "instantaneous" range, particularly beneficial for transactional applications like Avantis and Aerodrome.

Phase One of Decentralization: In April, Base entered the first phase of decentralization, launching a permissionless proof-of-stake mechanism and establishing a security council, significantly enhancing the chain's security and reducing the trust assumption. Looking back today, this step also laid the groundwork for the "native network token exploration" announced at Base Camp.

Exploring Network Tokens

Jesse made it clear that the wording of this announcement aligns perfectly with the current stage — they are merely exploring and have not yet entered the issuance process. However, he provided some examples to illustrate how excellent token design can drive ecosystem growth:

Zora and Virtuals' Flywheel Effect: the former pairs creator tokens with ZORA, while the latter ties smart agent to VIRTUAL, forming a self-reinforcing cycle;

SYND's recent issuance: when launched on Aerodrome, it did not rely on a third-party market maker but instead fully relied on community-driven incentive mechanisms to nurture token liquidity.

Mechanisms like these embed tokens into a real productive economy, significantly enhancing the effects of growth and collaboration. If Base were to issue a token in the future, it would likely have a similar goal: furthering decentralization of the network while strengthening the alignment of incentives between builders and users.

Base <> Solana Cross-Chain Bridge

Another major announcement from Base Camp is the development of a native Solana cross-chain bridge. It will enable users to deposit and use SOL in any of Base's applications, migrate any Solana assets, or transfer Base assets to Solana.

Jesse also emphasized that this is not just asset-level interoperability — the cross-chain bridge will fully support cross-chain interactions between the two ecosystems, meaning transactions on one chain can directly trigger transactions on another chain.

Base App

While the growth of the chain's ecosystem and infrastructure has been impressive, the significance of the Base App is even more ambitious: it aims to make the entire on-chain experience more social and user-friendly.

Launched in July, the Base App has replaced Coinbase Wallet and is rapidly becoming the "heart" of the Base ecosystem. Here, people can chat, trade, post (and earn rewards), discover or distribute on-chain applications. By the time of Base Camp, creator revenue has exceeded $500,000, with over 50% of posting users able to earn rewards.

Some may wonder: if it's so successful, why is there still a waitlist? Jesse explains that this is a deliberate move by the team. The primary goal is to polish the best experience for 100,000 "core Base users," establish a true enthusiast circular economy, and then gradually scale up. Additionally, the detailed polishing required for the introduction of a large number of users is still ongoing. However, even in the early stages, the Base App has demonstrated its value as a distribution mechanism: it enables developers to launch small applications and allows creators to profit from interactions. Information-driven distribution, chat functionality to promote connections, and small apps providing shared tools — all wrapped in a familiar social interface — provide new users with an on-chain entry point and a continuously updated channel.

Building the "Builder Economy"

In my view, perhaps Base's most distinctive feature is its builder-centric growth philosophy. It has abandoned the lengthy and cumbersome governance committees typical of traditional grant projects and instead built a set of tools and support programs around "rewarding those who are building."

This philosophy is reflected in several initiatives:

Developer plug-and-play tools: Base has already built seamless integration solutions for everyday use cases. For example, Base Pay allows users to quickly check out with USDC and receive 1% cashback on platforms like Shopify; Sign on with Base streamlines the account creation process; and the upcoming Flywheel protocol will help developers easily design user reward programs to enhance user loyalty.

Base Build: For developers building small applications on Base App, this development console provides real-time data analysis to help them grow from day one through real-time data and have the opportunity to monetize through "builder rewards."

Base Batches: This is a program aimed at global builders, allowing early-stage talent to compete in various tracks such as AI, stablecoins, consumer apps, and providing incubation from 0 to 1 with the possibility of obtaining an incubator slot and real venture capital-level funding support.

Overall, Base's standout feature is that it did not take the "governance theater" path but instead, through a series of tools and plans, made on-chain development accessible and truly practical. For those already building on-chain, Base still offers grant programs, but these grants are post facto rewards: the Base core team identifies impactful projects in their day-to-day, nominates them in internal Slack channels, and then swiftly disburses support.

The Best Is Yet to Come?

Over the past six months, Base's evolution has shown that it has surpassed the typical limitations of an L2.

Technically advanced Flashblocks upgrade, the maturity of the DeFi ecosystem, and the social infrastructure provided by Base App have together created a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Each part reinforces the others: faster transaction speeds improve the on-chain experience, cross-chain bridges expand liquidity options, and social features welcome new users in a familiar feed format and bring more vibrancy to existing users.

As Jesse reflected in the conversation, perhaps Base's greatest achievement is its ability to stay focused on its mission while blocking out the noise. Despite the external world being filled with controversies over creator tokens, speculative hype, and the never-ending crypto news cycle, the team has nurtured enough "cultural immunity": every major announcement triggers discussions about growth rather than speculative frenzy.

As the network moves into the next stage, this solid foundation will be crucial—it is not only the "connective tissue" between different ecosystems, but also the social layer of on-chain activities, and a playground for builders and users in the crypto world, rather than speculators.

As Jesse has emphasized, for Base, this is still just the "day one." But given the current momentum, this "day one" is nurturing a far grander future.

What are the current options for participating in airdrops?

Currently, no specific plans have been confirmed by the official team, but unsurprisingly, the market is eagerly starting to position itself for the potential arrival of the $BASE token.

Some may choose a "double-dipping" strategy: using applications on Base that have not yet issued tokens, thereby queueing up for multiple different airdrop opportunities simultaneously. However, a more direct path is also worth considering, which is the creator strategy.

"Create, and you will be rewarded." —said Jesse Pollak, head of Base.

This is not only the core concept of Base at the moment, but it could also be a strategy to increase your $BASE allocation in the future, as the team is highly likely to reserve a considerable amount of tokens for on-chain creators.

So, what's next? There is a wide range of applications on Base, and your choice depends on your interests. Do what you love, on the platform you enjoy, and consider everything else as a bonus. For example—

You can create NFTs on Base:

· Rodeo: A very nice entry-level platform, with an interface similar to Instagram, where you can turn your posts into digital collectibles.

· TITLES: An on-chain AI remixing app, where you can directly generate and mint works using community-trained AI art models. I've also deployed a model there, worth a try.

· Manifold: Suitable for a DIY-style NFT release, especially for those who want to customize the issuance process.

· thirdweb: Provides pre-built smart contracts; if you want to quickly deploy a customized NFT series, this is a good choice.

· vibe.market (currently in the testing phase): A new direction to explore, allowing you to issue tearable digital packs.

You Can Also Issue Tokens on Base:

· Clanker: The most popular ERC-20 token issuance tool on Base, which can be used through the website or Farcaster commands. The latest V4 version brings more flexibility.

· Flaunch: My favorite token issuance platform, also on Base. It offers a full suite of features, from fixed-price fair launches to revenue sharing with token holders.

· fxhash: Pioneered the concept of "Art Coins," binding ERC-20 to generated art collections, supporting minting, remixing, locking, and evolution, perfect for creative programmers.

· retake.tv: Similar to an on-chain Twitch, where streamers can issue their own Streamer Coin and integrate it into the community.

· Zora: A popular on-chain social network on Base, with a style reminiscent of Instagram. Here, you can issue creator tokens and pair them with all tokenized posts.

You Can Even Just Publish Content on Base:

· Base App: Derived from Coinbase Wallet, essentially a Farcaster client integrated with Zora. You can post directly or tokenize your posts. Currently in the waitlist phase, but invitations have been gradually opened.

· Paragraph: an on-chain publishing platform, great for long-form content creation. The team recently launched "Coins," allowing authors to tokenize their articles to receive reader support. Now you can even bind articles to Zora creator tokens.

The above is just a part of the current gameplay on Base, but it has already demonstrated several straightforward paths to enhance your activity on Layer 2.

If the issuance of $BASE is inevitable, then starting to create here now may be the wisest way to prepare.

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