When Coinbase launched its layer-2 blockchain Base in August 2023, few could have predicted that one of its earliest viral sensations would be a memecoin poking fun at the crypto exchange’s follically-challenged CEO Brian Armstrong. But according to Base’s creator Jesse Pollak, the rise of the BALD token demonstrates an important point – Base is more open and decentralized than critics allege.
“BALD caught us all by surprise,” Pollak recounted in an interview at the recent Devcon conference in Bangkok. “This was before the public launch of Base, when it was just open for developers. I remember waking up on Saturday morning and being like, what is going on? It was not in our plan, and it happened.”
Leaning Into the Unpredictable
For Pollak, the spontaneous emergence of BALD right before Base’s official debut served as a stark reminder of just how unpredictable the cryptocurrency space can be. Rather than trying to exert total control, sometimes protocol developers need to simply embrace the chaos and figure out how to spin unexpected events to their advantage.
“Bald showed that Base wasn’t going to be this place that was fully manicured, curated, controlled, and centralized. I think that was actually a really, really powerful welcoming for the rest of the ecosystem to embrace Base as an open economy where they could participate.”
– Jesse Pollak, Base Creator
Of course, BALD ultimately turned out to be a rugpull scam, much to the chagrin of those hoping it could become a more lighthearted version of Dogecoin on Base. But Pollak maintains this unfortunate outcome actually bolsters the argument for Base’s decentralization.
“If Bald can happen on Base with such incredible expressiveness that the Base team had no control over, it proves the platform’s openness,” he argued. As a permissionless layer-2 protocol, Base is designed so that “anyone, anywhere can fork the code, know what’s running, and see that it’s actually doing the thing they wanted to.”
More Than Just Memes
Still, Pollak doesn’t want Base to be defined solely by its memecoins, no matter how viral they may go. He’s been on a global tour promoting the protocol to developers, with a focus on emerging markets like Southeast Asia, Kenya and India. In these regions, Pollak sees huge demand for secure, stable financial services enabled by blockchain technology.
“On-chain data shows that Base is quickly catching up to Solana – a much older and more established blockchain – in stablecoin issuance,” Pollak noted. According to DeFiLlama, the dollar value of stablecoins on Base now exceeds $3.5 billion, ranking it sixth among all blockchains.
Addressing Centralization Concerns
As for persistent worries about Base’s ties to Coinbase leading to dangerous centralization, Pollak points to recent upgrades like the implementation of fault proofs. Now, any of Base’s over 750,000 active wallet addresses can validate and challenge transactions, rather than relying on Coinbase or other central authorities.
“There are seamless ways to get in and out of Base, so even if Coinbase completely disappeared, people would still be able to transact.”
– Jesse Pollak
Ultimately, Pollak believes Base’s strong growth in both quirky cultural experiments and mission-critical DeFi infrastructure shows the platform is on the right track. By building on Ethereum’s security and leaning into decentralization, he’s confident Base can outlive Coinbase itself and become a pillar of web3.
Whether it’s serving as a launchpad for joke coins or a bedrock for the developing world’s economic future, Base aims to be a blockchain for the people – even if its creator wasn’t expecting his boss to become an unwitting memecoin mascot quite so soon.
