🟦
@base: FROM DAY ONE TO NOW
What they added, removed, and changed
Base started as Coinbase’s “no token, just build” Ethereum L2. Three years later the stack, the app, the social layer, the dashboard, and even the token stance all look different.
🚀 ORIGIN (2022–AUG 2023)
• Internal prototype was first called baset
• Testnet: Feb 23, 2023
• Mainnet for builders: July 2023
• Public mainnet + Onchain Summer: Aug 9, 2023
• Built on Optimism OP Stack (Superchain)
• Gas = ETH
• Official line at launch: “Base has no plans to issue a network token”
• First viral app:
Friend.tech (keys + fees, then fade)
• Early social path after that: Farcaster / Warpcast
🧱 STACK: OP STACK → BASE STACK
Then
• Shared OP Stack repos and Superchain coordination
• Sequencer revenue share with Optimism
• Node stack: op-node + op-geth
Now
• Feb 2026: move to unified base/base stack
• One repo, one release channel, faster hardforks
• Still Stage 1 rollup + extra independent Security Council signer
• Node operators switch to base-consensus + base-reth
• Own upgrades: Azul (May 2026), Beryl (June 2026 with B20 token standard + shorter withdrawals), Cobalt planned, Denim targeting Oct 2026 with 200ms native blocks
Removed / reduced
• Tight Superchain / OP Stack dependency
• Shared upgrade calendar with Optimism
🪙 TOKEN STORY: NO TOKEN → EXPLORE TOKEN
• 2023–late 2024: hard no. Tokens “distort” the product
• Nov 2024: still “no plans”
• Sep 15, 2025 at BaseCamp: “Base is beginning to explore a network token”
• No timing, design, or governance shared
• As of Sep 2026: still no official Base network token
• ETH is still gas
• B20 is a token standard on the chain, not a Base coin
• Fake “BASE” tokens exist. Those are not official
This is the arc: no token → explore token. Not launched. Door opened.
👛 WALLET / APP: COINBASE WALLET → BASE APP → COINBASE WALLET
Jul 16, 2025 — “A New Day One”
• Coinbase Wallet renamed Base App
• Pitch: everything app = trade + social feed + chat + mini apps + creator earn
• Feed powered by Farcaster
• Creator coins / content coins pushed hard
Added in that era
• Creator section in the app
• Follows / social graph
• Mini apps
• Farcaster SDK / Frames-style embeds
• Builder codes,
Base.dev registration, app leaderboards
Later removed
• Creator coins (attention spike, then dump)
• User follow / social-first feed as the core product
• Creator Rewards + Farcaster-powered social feeds (sunset announced Feb 9, 2026)
• Jesse Pollak steps back from the app in Jul 2026
Sep 8–10, 2026
• Name flips back: Base App → Coinbase Wallet
• New pitch: trade anything, anywhere
• 10+ chains including Base, Ethereum, Solana, Bitcoin, Monad, Robinhood Chain
• Perps, prediction markets, tokenized stocks
• Base stays the chain + builder brand
• Wallet is the consumer trading brand again
🧩 FARCASTER SDK: ADDED, THEN REMOVED FROM BASE APP
Added
• Mini apps inside Base App used Farcaster mini-app spec
• Neynar metadata + notifications
• FID-based auth
Removed on Apr 9, 2026
• Farcaster mini-app spec inside Base App
• Neynar-powered metadata and notifications
• Custom mini-app SDK requirement
Replaced with
• Standard web apps + wallet connect
•
Base.dev metadata
• Notifications to wallet addresses
• SIWE / wagmi / viem
• Warpcast and other Farcaster clients can still run Farcaster mini apps
• That runtime is just no longer how Base App works
Two stacks now:
• Base client = web + wallet
• Farcaster = feed + social mini apps
📊 BASE DASHBOARD /
BASE.DEV
First version
• Showed active users, opens, session time
• Then onchain tab: transacting users, first-time vs returning, gas, paymaster
Added later
• Leaderboards / most-used apps on
base.dev
• Ranked by real onchain activity + builder codes
What changed after that
• Public “most used apps” explorer surface got quieter or moved
• Headline active users + opens stats are no longer the front of the official dashboard
• Heavy metrics now live more on Dune, growthepie, Token Terminal
• Chain DAU peaked around 3.5M in June 2025, then cooled
Dashboard went from consumer scoreboard → builder tools → fewer vanity numbers on the front page.
🌱 ECOSYSTEM WAVES
•
Friend.tech 2023: boom, then gone as the face of Base
• Farcaster + DEGEN 2024: SocialFi wave
• Memes: BRETT, AERO, Clanker ecosystem
• Zora content coins 2025: huge launch spike after Base App, then cooled when creator coins were pulled back
• Smart Wallet / Base Accounts: still exist, now folded into Coinbase Wallet
• Solana bridge announced at BaseCamp 2025
✅ STILL THERE
• Base chain
• ETH as gas
• Coinbase distribution
• Explorers
• Builder grants
•
Base.dev
• Stage 1 + own upgrade cadence
• Token exploration, not a live network token
❌ GONE
• “We will never have a token” as doctrine
• OP Stack as the operating stack
• Farcaster SDK as Base App’s app runtime
• Creator coins + follow graph as the main consumer loop
• The Base App name
• Flashy public dashboard of opens / DAU / most-used apps as a homepage feature
🔄 CHANGED
• Wallet brand: Coinbase Wallet → Base App → Coinbase Wallet
• Mini apps → standard web apps in the Coinbase client
• Superchain sibling → independent Base stack that still settles to Ethereum
• Product north star: onchain social everything-app → multichain trading, with Base as the chain underneath
🧭 ONE-LINE STORY
Base launched as a tokenless OP Stack L2 to onboard Coinbase users. It became the busiest L2 on social and memes, tried to become an everything social app with creator coins and Farcaster SDKs, then cut the social layer, left OP Stack, renamed the wallet back, hid the vanity dashboard stats, and started exploring the token it once said it would not ship.