To celebrate the much-anticipated launch of its Ethereum scaling solution, Base, Coinbase has invited renowned brands, such as Coca-Cola, Atari, OpenSea, Pixelmon, and Showtime, to be part of their “Onchain Summer” event, commencing on August 9th.
Threading a daily mint of blockchain-based collectibles into the excitement, Coinbase’s celebration brings the diverse worlds of art, music, gaming, and advocacy into focus. They’re not merely celebrating a product launch; they’re highlighting a cultural shift, underlining the potential of all sectors to drive forward in the transformative world of digital assets.
Though the mainnet launch is in the spotlight, Coinbase is also directing our attention to the creative teams building apps on Base. With over 100 Ethereum (~$183,000) being distributed as grants, Coinbase is championing not just their advancement, but the entire ecosystem’s evolution.
Back in February, Coinbase broke ground as the first publicly-listed company to reveal its plans of crafting an Ethereum scaling solution. Now, with the launch imminent, we see the fruits of their labor ready to impact the broader Ethereum network.
Characterized as a “rollup agnostic superchain,” Base enters the stage alongside its developer, Optimism. Coinbase remains steadfast in their decision against launching a token for Base, casting a contrasting light on how Optimism and its competitor, Arbitrum, originally launched their networks – sans tokens.
However, it’s important to note that Optimism has since airdropped its OP governance tokens to the early network’s adopters and Arbitrum too, has jumped on the airdrop train.
As Coinbase announces the Base testnet, it’s impossible to forget the not-so-distant past. Only six months ago, there was a hefty $6 billion worth of Ethereum on layer-2s. Fast forward to today, and we’re looking at a skyrocketed amount: $10 billion worth of Ethereum, painting a picture of potential growth and progress in the near future.
But no journey is without its hurdles. Amidst these promising developments, Coinbase drew attention from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Accusations of the company acting as an unregistered exchange, clearinghouse, and broker selling unregistered securities led to legal action.
Since the SEC’s lawsuit, considerable controversy has surfaced over the regulation’s interpretation of securities. A dispute arose over Coinbase’s assets, with SEC insinuating all assets on Coinbase, except Bitcoin, were deemed securities, and consequently required delisting. Coinbase has provided clarity on the misunderstandings born of these exchanges, re-emphasizing the lack of formal SEC requests to “delist crypto assets.”
As the dust settles on these momentous happenings, the focus remains on the impending launch of Base. With Atari, Coca-Cola and other giants entering the blockchain realm alongside them, Coinbase’s “Onchain Summer” promises to be a transformative event none of us want to miss.
