February 2023 marked an unexpected turn in crypto infrastructure. Coinbase, the $87 billion exchange that had spent years building proprietary technology, announced Base, but with a twist. Instead of deploying another closed-system blockchain, it built on Optimism's open-source OP Stack Chain. This step shocked many people.
What would a company such as Coinbase, which clearly has the resources and engineers, want to build on a foundation created by others?
The answer reveals something fundamental about where blockchain infrastructure is heading. Base wasn't just another Layer 2 launch, it was the flagship demonstration of what an OP Stack Optimism chain could become at scale. This move is a classic case study in positioning and how even giant players are rethinking their models of where to build and where to leverage. Six months into mainnet, Base was supporting over 3.5 million daily transactions and had onboarded more than 500 apps. The speed of that growth wasn't accidental, it was engineered through careful infrastructure choices that other teams building their own OP Stack chain can learn from.
Lesson 1: Build vs. Fork: Why Coinbase Didn't Start from Scratch
Coinbase's technical team could have built a Layer 2 from first principles. It had the capital, the talent, and the regulatory expertise to go it alone. But Jesse Pollak, Base's creator, made a different call: fork the OP Stack Optimism codebase and focus engineering resources elsewhere.
The calculation behind this decision gets interesting when you break it down. Building a production-ready Layer 2 from scratch requires assembling a protocol team, which means competing for the same 50-100 engineers globally who have shipped rollup infrastructure. Salary packages for senior protocol engineers easily hit $500K-$1M annually. Then factor in 18-24 months of development time, multiple security audits at $200K-$500K each, and the opportunity cost of delayed launch in a fast-moving market.
Compare that to leveraging an existing OP Stack chain architecture. Optimism had already absorbed those costs across multiple years and iterations. Their infrastructure had processed over $10 billion in transaction volume. The code had been battle-tested through various market conditions, including the stress tests that came during NFT mints and DeFi volatility. Coinbase inherited that resilience immediately.
However, the real advantage wasn't just about cost savings, it was about focus. Coinbase could deploy its engineering resources on problems that actually differentiated Base. It includes seamless fiat on-ramps, institutional-grade compliance tooling, and consumer experience that didn't feel like crypto. Friend.tech, which launched exclusively on Base and generated $50 million in fees during its first few months, succeeded partly because Base had nailed the user experience layer rather than getting lost in protocol optimization.
There's also a talent allocation argument here that doesn't get discussed enough. Protocol development is a specialized skill. Consumer product development is a different specialized skill. Coinbase already had world-class consumer product teams. Why retrain it on rollup architecture when you could have the skilled professionals building the actual applications and experiences users want?
The maintenance dynamics matter too. The infrastructure of blockchain cannot be set and forget. It needs constant updates to remain functional and compatible. When Ethereum came up with EIP-4844 in March 2024, it resulted in 10x cost reduction of Layer 2 data. Base was automatically updated due to the hard work put in by the core teams of OP Stack Optimism. Others would struggle or be rendered economically unviable.
Lesson 2: EVM Equivalence: The Migration Advantage
The cold start problem kills most new blockchains. You need developers to build applications, but developers won't build without users. You need users to create demand, but users won't show up without applications. It's a kind of chicken-and-egg deadlock that may be resolved only after a few years.
Base short-circuited this entirely through EVM equivalence, one of the core strengths of the OP Stack Optimism architecture. The framework doesn't just support Solidity, it runs Ethereum bytecode directly with minimal modifications.
What does that mean practically?
Uniswap V3, which took months to develop and millions to audit, deployed on Base in an afternoon. Same contract addresses, same interface, same battle-tested code. Developers changed an RPC endpoint and were live.
The velocity this created was remarkable. Within 30 days of mainnet launch, Base had attracted Aerodrome (a major DEX), Seamless Protocol (lending), and Moonwell (cross-chain DeFi). These weren't startups building from scratch. They were established protocols with liquidity and users who could migrate because the technical friction was nearly zero.
Look at the TVL trajectory. Base hit $400 million in total value locked within 60 days. Arbitrum, launching in a similar market environment, took six months to reach comparable levels despite strong technical execution. The difference wasn't product quality, it was migration friction. When deployment is a configuration change rather than a development project, ecosystems can move fast.
The tooling compatibility multiplied this effect. Developers didn't need to learn new frameworks or debugging tools. Hardhat, Foundry and Remix worked. Every tutorial written for Ethereum applied to Base with minimal adjustment. For teams already stretched thin, this removed a massive barrier. You weren't asking developers to learn a new stack, you were giving them a faster, cheaper place to run the stack they already knew.
Wallet integration happened instantly for the same reason. MetaMask, Rainbow, Coinbase Wallet, and others supported Base on day one because they already supported Ethereum's RPC interface. Users didn't need to download new software or manage separate key pairs. They added Base as a network option and continued using familiar tools.
There's a network effect hiding in here too. Every major Ethereum developer tool that adds a feature, such as better debugging, improved testing, enhanced security scanning, automatically benefits Base and every other OP Stack chain. The ecosystem investment that flows into Ethereum tooling, which runs into hundreds of millions annually across grants and venture funding, cascades down to every EVM-equivalent chain. Base essentially gets free R&D from the entire Ethereum ecosystem.
Lesson 3: Betting on the Superchain Vision
The Superchain concept is where Coinbase's strategy gets genuinely forward-thinking. Instead, they positioned Base as a founding member in an interoperable network of OP Stack chains rather than building it out as an isolated network. This is a fundamental bet: the future of blockchain isn't about thousands of isolated chains that are all competing for users; instead, it's interconnected networks where security and liquidity are shared, yet each network specializes in various different use cases.
Think about how traditional infrastructure scaled. The internet didn't succeed because one company built the best proprietary network. It succeeded because open protocols allowed independent networks to interconnect seamlessly. The Superchain applies this principle to Layer 2 networks. Base, Optimism, Zora, and other OP Stack Optimism-based networks can communicate natively through shared messaging infrastructure, making cross-chain interactions feel local.
The immediate practical benefit was connectivity to Optimism's existing ecosystem. Base launched with built-in access to Optimism's bridges, its decentralized sequencer roadmap, and its governance participation. When you bridge assets between Base and Optimism, you're not using a third-party bridge with its own security assumptions, you're using infrastructure that's part of the protocol itself.
The economic alignment worked elegantly. Base also commits a share of revenue from the sequencer into the Optimism Collective. The Optimism Collective funds the development of the OP Stack. At the end of 2024, Base is contributing significant funds back into the infrastructure layer that Base relies on. This is not charity; it is investing. Every improvement to the OP Stack Chain benefits Base directly.
Governance participation matters more than it might seem. Coinbase isn't just a user of the OP Stack Optimism its a stakeholder in its evolution. When decisions get made about technical direction, fee structures, or upgrade timelines, Base has a seat at the table. This influence ensures the infrastructure develops in directions that serve Base's needs.
The competitive positioning is subtle but powerful. Anyone can fork the OP Stack Optimism codebase, it's open source. But being part of the official Superchain provides legitimacy and support that independent forks struggle to match. Base relies on Optimism's security partnerships, Infrastructural relationships, and prestige within the Ethereum community. This synergies as the ecosystem develops.
Looking ahead, the Superchain architecture gives Base optionality. Need a high-throughput chain for gaming? Spin up a specialized OP Stack chain with faster block times. Need a privacy-focused chain for institutional use cases? Deploy one with confidential computing features. The chains are natively interoperable with Base, creating a modular architecture where different requirements can be adapted to without fragmenting liquidity or user experience.
Key Takeaways
Coinbase's Base strategy proves that competitive advantage comes from executing on infrastructure, not reinventing it. Base became the second-largest Layer 2 by transaction volume within months by choosing the OP Stack Optimism framework.
Three principles made this work: focus on differentiation over reinvention, minimize migration friction through compatibility, and participate in ecosystems rather than build walled gardens.
For those considering launching their own OP Stack chain, the lesson is clear. Competition has shifted to the application layer. The question isn't "can you build a blockchain?" anymore, it's "what unique value do you create for users?"
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