Base Abandons Social Direction, Founder Admits Strategic Failure
Base, the Ethereum Layer-2 network often called the "L2 King," has formally ended its three-year "exploration era," with co-founder Jesse Pollak admitting its strategic focus on social applications was a mistake. In a recent statement, Pollak acknowledged that bets on social platforms like Farcaster and Zora, creator coins, and mini-apps failed to drive mainstream crypto adoption, leaving Base behind competitors in areas like perpetual contracts and payment solutions. He confirmed that Base's flagship app will now be managed by Cobie, a community leader, under Coinbase's oversight.
Pollak's review highlighted Base's past struggles: leadership overemphasized a "creator economy" with limited real earnings for creators, development often followed trends set by Solana or BNB Chain, and a significant portion of on-chain activity was reportedly inflated. The vision of using social media to onboard billions to crypto clashed with the dominance of established Web2 platforms.
Moving forward, Base will pivot to three core areas, as outlined by both Pollak and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong: **trading** (including tokenized stocks and memecoins), **payments** (leveraging global stablecoins), and **AI Agent services** (preparing for a machine-driven economy using crypto as native currency). This shift is seen as a return to crypto's fundamental strengths—finance and transactions.
The strategic change coincides with personnel shifts at Coinbase, including the departure of executives like the Chief Legal Officer. Notably, Pollak himself has returned to hands-on coding. Furthermore, Coinbase reports that over 95% of its code is now AI-generated or assisted, with AI agents already performing work equivalent to about 1,200 employees—a trend expected to grow significantly, signaling how AI is reshaping the company's own operations as Base prepares to serve a future AI Agent economy.
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