Base Chain Leader Jesse Responds to 15 Major Questions from the Chinese Community
This article is adapted from a piece by Tako, organized, compiled, and written by Wu Shuo Blockchain.
(Background: Base Chain’s Infected Moves to Solana: A Challenge to Ethereum’s EVM, Claiming Ethereum Lacks Culture and Users for Game Development)
(Further Context: The Nation Token ($NATO) Officially Launches Its Coin, Airdrops to Base’s Million Users Making History)
Can you share more about your development plans for Asia? You previously mentioned wanting to do more there.
Last fall, I spent several weeks in Asia and spoke with a number of developers. This made me even more confident that we need to do more in the region.
Recently, we hired a national leader in the Philippines, and we currently have openings for national leaders in Indonesia and Singapore, with more positions opening in the future. We also plan to work more closely with developers in China. I understand the importance of localization for the Chinese market, so we will offer more communication channels and resources for Chinese-speaking developers, creators, and users. Stay tuned for more information later this year.
Solana has a clear positioning. What is Base’s positioning? It feels like Base is doing a bit of everything but not going as deep as Solana.
Base is a global on-chain economy. We are executing our 2025 strategy (link below) to make Base accessible to everyone, while always adhering to our core values (staying true). Specifically, this means:
- Building powerful and open tools that allow anyone to create world-class on-chain applications.
- Fostering a vibrant ecosystem that connects open on-chain applications and expands Base’s user base.
- Creating a robust on-chain account that provides seamless services for funds, identity, and management.
- Making Base the center of the on-chain economy, with high liquidity and global, always-online capital markets.
- Decentralizing and scaling Base, accelerating its development to enable participation in the on-chain economy worldwide.
I understand what you’re saying, that it’s difficult to meet everyone’s needs, but I believe we can achieve it if we execute along these lines. Finally, I have a lot of respect for the Solana team. If we want to bring 100 million people on-chain, it certainly can’t be done by any one thing alone.
What do you think is Ethereum’s biggest challenge right now? Have these challenges already affected its overall ecosystem development? What key breakthroughs has Base made within the Ethereum ecosystem? How can Base help Ethereum solve its existing problems?
@brian_armstrong often says, “Things are never as good as they look, nor as bad as they seem.” Recently, there has been a lot of negative news about ETH prices, but I feel that most of it is just noise. I focus more on using @base to solve the key problems I see, to make everything on-chain “run smoothly”:
- Fast and cheap: Transactions on Base have stayed under a cent for over a year. We recently released Flashblocks on the testnet, reducing transaction speeds to 200ms. Fast and cheap.
- Safe and simple: Smart wallets have eliminated a lot of complexity, making it easier for users unfamiliar with cryptocurrency to get started, and all they need is a browser—no extra extensions or app installations. We can also make everything “run smoothly” by subsidizing gas fees and offering recovery functions.
- Developer User Flywheel: Many people start with a token and then want to explore more functions but aren’t sure what to do next. We’re bringing Farcaster and miniapps into @CoinbaseWallet, making everything integrate smoothly and helping expand this flywheel.
Low-key and practical, we keep building.
Many original meme projects have emerged on Base, and even some community-driven “cultural events” have gained traction. Do you see memes and native culture as important components of Base’s differentiation? How will the Base team further support the development of grassroots meme culture, especially in non-English-speaking communities?
Yes, memes are definitely part of our culture and a key factor in differentiating Base from other platforms strategically. I once gave a talk on why I think memes are so important in this process. But to put it simply, I see memes as a crucial user onboarding tool, just like in Web2. The meme builders on Base are bringing us our most powerful cultural forces. Special thanks to @clankeronbase, @apedotstore, @ClizaSystems, and other platforms and communities for their efforts to make all this possible.
Additionally, I’ve been talking about “content coins.” Just like a social media post may simply be a picture but can also turn into a viral meme, content coins are also simple posts with no expected value. I believe many pieces of content will turn into memes, and many memes will create content!
How should we understand “Base is for everyone,” and why was the reference token distributed so quickly?
First, let me clarify: “Base is for everyone” is a post we released on Zora, not an official token. We’ve been releasing content on Zora for several years and are very interested in their new model for content coinage.
Why did we do this? Because unlocking tokens provides creators with a powerful tool to earn income through their creativity while also paving the way for more experimental attempts. There’s been a lot of debate about whether this is good or bad. My take is that people are used to traditional understandings of tokens, and this approach is new and different. We expected some criticism, and indeed, it was a bit intimidating. If I could go back, I would have had @base make more announcements and clarifications from the start.
Looking ahead, we will continue to mint tokens because we believe everyone should bring their content on-chain. Our goal is to lead by example and experiment in public. If you want to know more, you can listen to this great podcast.
Base’s future plan is to attract more Web2 users into Web3. I’ve seen the team engage in various levels of outreach around the world, spreading knowledge, etc. What is the main purpose behind getting users on-chain? Is it mainly for daily consumer-level usage, or is it focused on DeFi, GameFi?
Every day, I think about how to bring a billion people on-chain. The reality is that we can’t achieve this just by attracting those already interested in cryptocurrency. We need to expand the “cake,” and to do that, I believe the answer is all of the methods mentioned above. Our mission is to build a global on-chain economy that is inclusive of everyone.
Payments are a great example of how on-chain technology can improve people’s lives. When I traveled globally last year, I saw firsthand how crucial forex and international payments are to people’s access to the global economy. Stablecoins tied to local currencies and fast, cheap on-chain payments solved real problems for many people: they’re nearly instant, unlike traditional payments that take days, and the cost is less than a cent (USD), rather than the 3% or $50 or more fees.
On-chain finance, social, entertainment, music, art, gaming, content… all of these areas can improve people’s lives by putting control in the hands of developers and creators, not big corporations.
Do you believe Coinbase Wallet will evolve into the ultimate platform for handling all on-chain transactions, particularly in terms of app distribution and promotion? How far are we from this vision?
It’s coming soon! Over the past few months, we’ve been rebuilding @CoinbaseWallet from the ground up with the goal of making it 10x faster while focusing on solving discovery and distribution problems.
If they are interested in what they can do next or what applications they can try, the next steps are not intuitive. Therefore, we directly integrated Farcaster’s social dynamics with mini-applications into @CoinbaseWallet, allowing users to easily discover on-chain experiences without leaving the app.
We often see Base or you personally interacting with Zora. What reasons does the team or you personally see as promising for Zora? What special positioning and ecological value does Zora have in the Base ecosystem?
I am very optimistic about on-chain social, as it has the potential to drive viral spread, and Zora is a great example (if you haven’t downloaded it yet, be sure to try this app). In traditional social platforms, centralized companies control the content and users. In on-chain social, creators have ownership of their content and can earn income when releasing content (not just likes). Posts on Zora are automatically minted, and creators receive a portion of the transaction fees. In this way, on-chain social disrupts the traditional model and hands control back to creators. In the past week or so, I have witnessed how much potential this model has to attract new users into this space. You don’t need to understand cryptocurrency to use Zora or earn from your posts. I believe we need more applications like this to help bring a billion people on-chain. I look forward to seeing more creativity from other developers in this field!
In Base’s recently released roadmap for 2025, targets were set to achieve 25 million users, 25,000 developers, and 1 billion on-chain transactions within the year. What strategies and initiatives does Base plan to adopt to achieve these growth targets, and how are these priorities ranked?
These are what we call “macro, bold, and ambitious goals.” If we achieve 100% of our targets, it means we haven’t thought big enough, so I ask our team to set larger goals. If we want to bring a billion people on-chain, this is the strategy we must adopt. So, what are we doing to achieve this goal? We are increasing investment in more powerful and open developer tools. We are particularly focused on developers because they will build the on-chain applications that can attract a billion users.
We are rebuilding @coinbasewallet from the ground up to increase its speed by 10 times, improve usability, and enhance content discovery through the addition of Farcaster’s social dynamics, while integrating mini-applications to allow users to experience everything without leaving the app. We will continue to decentralize, expand the suite, and accelerate Base, as we believe that the only way to build a truly global economy is to construct a decentralized, open platform. In the first phase, we aim for 250 mgas/s capacity, and faster blocks.
What directions do you hope developers on Base will focus on? Are there currently any important products or categories that you feel are missing in the ecosystem?
We have just launched Base Batches (basebatches.xyz), which covers four themes: AI, stablecoins, mini-apps, and consumer applications. I am very excited to see developers build more projects in these areas; the opportunities are truly abundant. If you are a developer looking for support from zero to one, feel free to join Base Batches!
Is Farcaster considering fully embracing Chinese-speaking users? If Farcaster does not consider this, how will base/coinbase wallet cover different regions and languages?
I know that Warpcast has not yet localized for Chinese users, but I am very pleased to see clients like @tako accelerating to fill this gap. However, if we want the Chinese community to fully embrace this network, there is still much work to be done. This is very important to me and is one of the reasons I am holding this AMA, hoping to interact more directly with the Chinese community. Currently, I do not have specific features or timelines to share, but my team is hiring country leads across Asia, particularly prioritizing those who speak Chinese. We place great importance on building a more inclusive global network. Base serves everyone—this means we will invest more effort in the localization of Base, Farcaster, and the entire community in the future.
What is the roadmap for Coinbase Wallet’s integration with Farcaster? How will user behavior change when accessing social content or mini-apps through Coinbase Wallet instead of directly through c?
We are rebuilding Coinbase Wallet from the ground up, planning to include complete Farcaster social dynamics, along with mini-apps that can interact directly in the feed. This will start rolling out soon! I believe the strength of adding this feature to Coinbase Wallet lies in our ability to provide support within the existing usage scenarios of current users. This not only provides more distribution channels for the app but also helps users discover applications they might be interested in. I believe this will bring more user engagement for developers like you, and I am very excited about this.
Does Base have any plans to issue its own token in the future?
We do not plan to issue a new network token; Base uses ETH as its native asset to pay gas fees. Currently, my main focus is on building an excellent product that can serve developers (those who build applications) as well as users and enterprises (those who use these applications).
Although Base has committed to a multi-signature structure to ensure it is not influenced by Coinbase, in the eyes of the Chinese-speaking community, the label “incubated by CB” and the reason for naming it “Base” seem to imply some degree of equivalence; I would like to ask how Base plans to achieve full independence both technically and socially in the future, and completely shake off this label that affects long-term development?
Base is open and permissionless. Although we are incubating at Coinbase (just like many other networks are incubated in labs), we have a deep commitment to decentralization. Why? Because we believe that only on a decentralized platform can a global on-chain economy that fosters innovation, creativity, and freedom be built. From the beginning, Coinbase and Base reached a neutrality principle to ensure user autonomy over their crypto assets, ensure that transaction ordering on Base is unbiased, protect the discretion of non-public data, and guarantee that users can withdraw from Base without restrictions. Over the past year, we have focused on achieving the first phase of decentralization, and we will soon share more progress on this. I also believe we need to continue to work towards establishing Base as an independent brand and ecosystem, allowing it to be perceived separately from Coinbase while also leveraging all the advantages from collaboration. We will soon have some interesting content to share about this progress
What support can developers on Base receive from the official team? For example, funding, exposure, mentorship? What is the best way to obtain this support?
We are committed to supporting developers at all stages, whether you are just releasing your first on-chain experiment or expanding into a real business, we are here to provide support for you. I am very excited to introduce a brand new project—Base Batches, a global developer program designed to provide developers with everything they need to grow—funding, exposure, mentorship support, community resources, and everything in between. It is divided into several stages: first, you join a Buildathon in your region (we are hosting events all over the world). If you perform well, you have the opportunity to enter our incubator, where you will receive hands-on support from mentors, members of the Base core team, and excellent partners. Then comes Demo Day, where the best-performing teams will present to the jury, competing for up to $1 million in funding support. This is not just a one-time event—we are building a long-term support system to help you from the idea stage to gaining attention, and then to developing into a full-fledged company. We hope to provide assistance at every stage.
