Coinbase reveals Base mainnet launch date

Coinbase has today detailed the launch date for Base – the Ethereum layer-2 blockchain set to make transactions more efficient.

From today, Base is available for bridging, with the mainnet open for everyone on 9 August. 

According to a blog post published today: “We’re committed to uplifting builders and creators – the tinkerers, the curious, the ones who live in and see the future – in real life, online, and onchain. We believe in the transformative power of that builder community: when you combine new ideas, technologies, and people, you have an unwavering force for change.

“And we believe that change is an onchain future that enables an open, global economy that increases economic freedom and puts everyone on a level playing field.

“Our next step begins today: Base is now open for bridging and Base mainnet will open for everyone and everything on August 9th. Over the next week, you’ll begin to see dapps across the onchain ecosystem turn on Base support and new ones launch.”

To mark the launch, the company also revealed Onchain Summer, “a month-long onchain festival put on by 50 of the best builders, brands, products, artists, and creators”. 

“Every day in August, they’ll be bringing you something fun thing to do onchain, highlighting art, music, gaming, advocacy, and more,” the company added.

They are also hosting a virtual hackathon – Superhack – from 4 to 18 August, which offers $125,000 in prizes.

Base, powered by Optimisim, was first detailed in February as “a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly Ethereum L2 built to bring the next billion users to web3″.

Coinbase also stated that, unlike other Ethereum scaling networks: “We have no plans to issue a new network token.”

According to Base: “Bridge to Base with any wallet, including Coinbase Wallet, Rainbow, Safe, Brave, Rabby, Frame, Exodus, Trust Wallet, rhino.fi, and Frontier.”