Base App: Creating a Super Gateway to the Web3 World

The Web3 world has long lacked a true super entry point, resulting in fragmented user experiences and dispersed traffic. However, a strong competitor has emerged, attempting to change this situation.

Recently, Base held the "A New Day One" launch event, announcing a significant upgrade to its ecosystem. The core of this event was not just an update of technical parameters; the real focus was on the formal upgrade and renaming of Coinbase Wallet to Base App. This marks a strategic shift for Base from purely underlying infrastructure to a "super app" that integrates users, applications, and social features.

Strategic Evolution from Layered Chains to Super Applications

Base has always emphasized that it is part of the Superchain vision, committed to becoming a reusable, scalable, and composable general-purpose Ethereum L2. However, as the L2 landscape becomes increasingly homogeneous, pure performance is no longer the only winning formula. Who can effectively capture and convert traffic, building a complete user journey, has become the key to differentiated competition.

To achieve this strategic transformation, Base has officially upgraded its brand from a single chain to an open stack, consisting of three synergistically working parts:

• Base Chain: A secure, fast, and low-cost Ethereum L2. With the launch of the Flashblocks module, its effective block time has been reduced to 200 milliseconds, increasing speed by 10 times.
• Base Build: Provides builders with the tools and support needed to create the next generation of on-chain experiences.
• Base App: Not just a wallet, it is built on open protocols and serves as the entry point and front end of the entire ecosystem.

The launch of the Base App is a key decision made by Base and Coinbase at the current stage of development. It is no longer satisfied with just being a place to deploy applications, but hopes to become the first interface users see when entering the Web3 world. By controlling both the underlying public chain and the top-level entrance, Base is building a solid moat for future industry competition.

Integrating social interaction, creation, trading, and payment

The Base App is positioned as a "universal application" aimed at breaking the current situation of fragmented functions in Web3 applications by seamlessly integrating core functionalities such as social interaction, content creation, asset trading, instant messaging, and daily payments into a unified platform.

A brand new open social network

The core of the application is an open social network built on the decentralized social protocol Farcaster. Users truly own their content and social graphs, and can freely take them to any other compatible applications. This social network has the following innovative features:

• Content is assets, creation is income: With the support of the Zora protocol, each post by users can be minted as an on-chain asset.
• Social Trading: Users can see in real-time the tokens that their friends are buying and trading in the information feed, and can follow their trades with one click.
• Participate to earn rewards: Top creators who actively engage in community interactions can receive weekly cash rewards.

Everything integrated, one-stop experience

The Base App aims to be a one-stop hub for users' on-chain activities:

• A large number of mini-applications: Hundreds of mini-apps are directly embedded in the information stream, covering various categories such as games, yield mining, and prediction markets.
• Seamless Asset Trading: The app integrates fast and smooth trading features, supporting the buying and selling of millions of on-chain tokens.
• One-click transfer: Base now supports free USDC transfers via NFC technology, and the entire transfer process takes only a few seconds.
• Personalized Space: Users have full ownership of their social profiles and can freely customize themes and appearances.
• Hold to Earn: Users simply need to hold USDC in the app to activate rewards of up to 4.1% APY.

Integration of financial activities and social scenarios

The chat functionality of the application is supported by the XMTP protocol, which implements end-to-end encryption and decentralization, ensuring the privacy and censorship resistance of communications. It deeply integrates financial activities with social scenarios:

• Community and Sharing: Users can easily create group chats, manage conversations, and share their social content in the chat.
• Interacting with AI agents: Users can converse with AI agents in the chat box using natural language, allowing them to execute trades, send funds, or even balance their portfolios on their behalf.
• Instant transfer in chat: You can send or receive Base chain-based USDC instantly and for free during conversations with friends.

The Powerful Driving Force Behind the Base App

The smooth and seamless user experience of the Base App relies on significant innovations in the underlying architecture and the construction of a developer-friendly ecosystem.

Flashblocks is live, Base speed increased by 10 times.

Base has officially launched the Flashblocks module developed in collaboration with Flashbots on the mainnet. This technological innovation avoids the traditional "high-priced transaction front-running" phenomenon through a time-sorted transaction mechanism, and segments high gas transactions for packaging, ensuring fair distribution of block resources. The most direct effect is that the effective block time of Base has decreased from 2 seconds to 200 milliseconds, an increase in speed by 10 times, making it the fastest EVM-compatible chain currently.

Base Account SDK: Universal Identity and Convenient Payment

To empower developers, the original Coinbase Wallet SDK has been upgraded to Base Account SDK. It provides developers with the powerful tools needed to build outstanding applications:

• Base Account: This is the on-chain account and identity layer that drives the Base App experience.
• Sign in with Base: Developers can easily integrate the "Sign in with Base" feature into their applications.
• Base Pay: A payment module has been added to the SDK, providing a fast checkout service called Base Pay.
• Sub Accounts: Allows applications to create independent sub-accounts for users, enabling seamless in-app transactions.

From JPMorgan to Shopify, Base Builds a Global On-Chain Economy

Base's ambition goes far beyond creating an application; its ultimate goal is to build an open, efficient, and borderless global on-chain economy. A recent series of significant collaborations is showcasing that this vision is accelerating towards reality.

JPMorgan pilots deposit tokens on Base

Banking giant JPMorgan Chase announced that it will conduct a proof of concept for its USD deposit token (JPMD) through its blockchain business unit Kinexys on Base. JPMD is backed 1:1 by USD deposits and aims to provide its institutional clients with an almost instant, low-cost, and 24/7 available on-chain payment channel.

Unlocking Commercial Payments: Deep Cooperation with Shopify

The launch of Base Pay is closely linked to the collaboration with e-commerce giant Shopify. Starting from the day of the press conference, millions of Shopify merchants can choose Base Pay as one of the payment methods for their stores, accepting USDC payments from users worldwide. For merchants, they can automatically settle the received USDC into local fiat currency without bearing foreign exchange fees. For American consumers, using USDC for payments will also enjoy a 1% cashback in the future.

Ecological cooperation is flourishing comprehensively

In addition to the two major giants mentioned above, the Base ecosystem is also rapidly expanding:

• Marketing Promotion: Base collaborates with high-end health food store Erewhon to offer free co-branded juice to users holding the Base App at designated locations.
• AI and Data: Coinbase partners with AI search engine startup Perplexity AI to provide real-time cryptocurrency data services.
• DeFi Derivatives: Coinbase has absorbed the core team of the decentralized options protocol Opyn to enhance its on-chain derivatives suite.
• Open Protocols: Deep integration with open protocols such as Farcaster, Zora, XMTP, etc., is the cornerstone of the openness of the Base App.

From everything revealed at the "A New Day One" launch event, Base is playing a big game. It integrates social, identity, applications, and payments all on top of an open underlying protocol powered by Base Chain. A more open, free, and creative global economy is no longer a distant future; it is happening on Base. Currently, users can register with their email to join the waitlist for early access to the Base App.