Base hits 1M daily active addresses as Basenames takes off

August 27, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Coinbase open sources code for layer-2 network Base

October 20, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Layer-2 network Base has announced the open sourcing of its code repositories and smart contracts as part of its quest to build "in the open.”

Coinbase layer-2 network Base has announced it has open-sourced its code repositories and smart contracts to increase transparency and accountability while simultaneously allowing public contributions to the project.

In an Oct. 19 blog post, Base announced that as of today, developers would be granted full access to the network’s codebase.

One of Base’s core values is building in the open

We believe this is foundational to building an onchain ecosystem, creating accountability, and enabling collaboration

In this spirit, we’ve open sourced our smart contract and GitHub reposhttps://t.co/UOgGpNXyFL
— Base ️ (@BuildOnBase) October 19, 2023

“By sharing our work openly, we enable the community to track our progress and ensure that we're living up to our commitments.”

“Open source is a win-win for our onchain future. Builders get access to a trove of knowledge, improve on what’s already been done, and in turn inspire others in the space,” Base added.

A core part of the decision to open-source its code is the goal of providing developers with increased transparency into the project’s development. Base said all of its smart contracts and scripts are now publicly available on GitHub.

This means that developers are now able to assess and experiment with the code responsible for deposits and withdrawals on Base, allowing access to increased tools for developers looking to spin up similar functions.

*Base network’s code and smart contract repository. Source: GitHub*

Open-source development is an integral part of the crypto ethos. By making code public, anyone in the community is able to audit the code, which hypothetically, allows for vulnerabilities and potential exploits to be noticed and patched more quickly than if it were kept in-house.

It’s also worth noting that open-source code also means that nefarious actors could spot vulnerabilities and exploit them before another more noble developer has the opportunity to flag the issue.

In light of this concern, Coinbase has encouraged “security-minded” developers to sieve through the layer-2’s code and keep a close eye out for any vulnerabilities, offering a bounty of up to $1 million for the discovery of bugs.

As well as open-sourcing its repositories and smart contracts, Base also open-sourced its web properties, including base.org, docs.base.org, and bridge.base.org.

Base has been one of the most active layer-2 networks in the crypto ecosystem, with a large wave of activity being driven by the rise of Friend.tech, a decentralized social finance application built on top of the network.

On Sept. 21, Coinbase legal counsel Paul Grewal raised eyebrows when he told Decrypt that Coinbase had not “ruled out entirely” the idea of issuing a native token for the layer-2 network.

Magazine: Are DAOs overhyped and unworkable? Lessons from the front lines

Pond0x DEX claims $100M in trading volume as critics allege it’s a scam

September 29, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Pond0x DEX claims 0M in trading volume as critics allege it’s a scam

base network

Pond0x reported that its DEX reached $100 million in cumulative volume, citing a Dune dashboard as evidence.

The Pond0X decentralized exchange (DEX) has reached more than $100 million in total trading volume, according to a September 28 social media post from its official channel. Investors previously lost over $2 million in the launch of the exchange’s native token, PNDX, when the coin turned out to have a transfer function that allowed anyone to transfer it without the owner's permission. But supporters claim these losses were not the fault of the developer.

$108,000,000 Trade Volume ✅

And counting.

What comes next…?

pic.twitter.com/lpetFqJAkq
— Pond Coin (@Pond0x) September 28, 2023

As evidence for Pond0X DEX’s trading volume, the official channel cited a Dune dashboard created by user mogie, which shows over $111 million in all-time trading volume as of September 29.

*Total volume metric for Pond0X. Source: @mogie Dune channel*

The PNDX token launched on July 28. At the time, critics accused the project of being a “rug-pull” or exit scam. At issue was the unorthodox way that the project’s founder, Jeremy Cahen (also known as “Pauly”), launched the coin. In the launch post on X (formerly Twitter), Cahen posted the URL to an app that allowed people to deposit a fixed amount of Ether (ETH) to receive a fixed amount of PNDX. He also posted the contract address for the token.

In response, some investors started buying the coin on Uniswap, using its contract address to identify it, while others deposited ETH into the app to receive PNDX. The price on Uniswap quickly rose above that of the ETH needed to mint PNDX, so minters started selling their coins into the market at a profit. Critics claimed that this process transferred over $2 million of wealth from those who bought the coin on Uniswap to those who minted it using the app. The ETH deposited through the app went into a contract that contained no means of reclaiming the funds, leading critics to allege that the whole project was intended to drain funds from investors and send it to Cahen.

In addition, coding experts began claiming that the token lacked a normal transfer function. Instead of only allowing the token owner to transfer it, PNDX allowed anyone to transfer tokens. This meant that each PNDX owner could lose their tokens at any moment, since any programmer could “steal” their PNDX using developer tools. On July 29, Solidity enthusiast and blogger sm-stack claimed they ran a test in Foundry that proved this point.

However, more than two months after the project’s launch, it continues to garner hundreds of supporters on Twitter, with replies to official posts routinely saying such things as “FEELS GOOD MAN” and “Best DEX, don’t see a reason for people to use other tbh.”

Best DEX, don’t see a reason for people to use other tbh
— Lemur (@OGLemur) September 28, 2023

On July 29, crypto trader and blogger Antony Williams claimed to have read the app’s smart contract code and determined how it works. According to him, Pond0x is “fundamentally an LP Farm” and not a complete scam. The app issues each user an ID that determines the user’s share of a pool of Pepe (PEPE) tokens. Users can increase the Pepe rewards they are entitled to by calling the “BribeforLevelUp” function. To call this function, the user must deposit 0.26 ETH. This ETH is used to purchase Pepe tokens, which then get deposited into the pool to pay out rewards. The exchange also issues a “Score” to each user. Higher scores represent more potential rewards from trading fees collected, all other factors being held constant.

Williams did not say these rewards could be claimed immediately, but asserted that the developer “likely” has the intention to pay them out at some point in the future. He also claims that the PNDX token “is essentially valueless,” which may have been created ithis way “to avoid legal complications.”

The project launched its decentralized exchange on September 1. According to the Dune dashboard cited above, this DEX has now reached over $100 million in trading volume, showing that at least some traders are undeterred by Pond0X criticism.

A Based week: Looking back at the first 7 days of Onchain Summer

August 17, 2023 Coin Telegraph

BASE

In just one week, Base has attracted hundreds of thousands of new users, attention from mainstay brands and artists, and unfortunately, scammers as well.

It’s been an eventful week since Coinbase launched its new layer-2 network Base to the public, bringing with it a frenzy of activity from everyday crypto users, major brands, and more unfortunately, some bad actors as well.

Coinbases’ Onchain Summer festival — a three-week-long campaign celebrating the launch of Base — has seemingly attracted a flock of new users to the ecosystem.

As of Aug. 16, more than 700,000 new users have joined the Base network, and have since bridged a total of $242 million to the network, according to data from Dune Analytics. Activity on the chain peaked on Aug. 10 with more than 136,000 daily active users.

*Total number of daily active users on Base. Source: Dune Analytics*

In total, the flurry of activity on the network has generated a staggering $2.8 million in fees and has seen the total value locked (TVL) climb to $170.5 million, according to data from DeFiLlama.

The network also announced involvement from one of the world's biggest soft drinks brands, Coca-Cola, which released its own non-fungible token (NFT) collection on the network.

ᴏɴᴄʜᴀɪɴ ꜱᴜᴍᴍᴇʀ@CocaCola is bringing their Global Masterpiece campaign onchain with iconic works from leading artists.

Mint now: https://t.co/xTWyI3O7IW pic.twitter.com/9wxFgt8qOh
— Coinbase ️ (@coinbase) August 13, 2023

Crypto-native organizations are also making their way to network. On Aug. 16, DeFi derivatives protocol Synthetix revealed that a motion for it to be deployed on the Base network had been unanimously passed by members of its governing DAO, the Spartan Council.

@BuildOnBase

SIP 336: Deploy Synthetix V3 on Base has been approved by the Spartan Council.

It's only a matter of time. pic.twitter.com/CIEM0is69y
— Synthetix ⚔️ (@synthetix_io) August 16, 2023

One of the most notable product launches on Base was the decentralized social (DeSo) network Friend.tech, which allows crypto users to tokenize their social network, by buying and selling “shares” of their friends. Since its launch on Aug. 11, the social media platform has seen some 7,736 Ether (ETH) in trading volume, according to data from Dune Analytics.

https://t.co/L11mNJZgY3 is built by @0xRacerAlt, a crypto OG.

He was the lead dev of @TweetDAO - an NFT which granted access to posting from a shared Twitter account.

The project went viral before devolving. It was one of the first forays into decentralized social media. pic.twitter.com/3wGo0aQ2Ip
— yuga.eth (@yugacohler) August 11, 2023

Music NFT platform anotherblock launched on Aug. 14, featuring never-before-heard on-chain releases from electronic music producers Boys Noize and Laidback Luke.

Binance-owned self-custody service Trust Wallet and enterprise-grade digital asset platform Fireblocks have also added support for the Base Network since its public launch.

Ethereum advocate Anthony Sassano shared his praise for the broader move towards decentralized applications and on-chain activities, predicting that centralized exchanges will eventually become nothing more than fiat ramps.

That would be a silly lawsuit imo

If done right, Base can be a huge growth driver for Coinbase as it acts as the best "front door" for Base

My long-term thesis is that pretty much all CEXs will be relegated to just being fiat ramps - onchain will replace the other things
— sassal.eth (@sassal0x) August 12, 2023

Bad actors find new base

Despite the general tone of enthusiasm from the wider crypto community, the launch of the network has also drawn the attention of nefarious actors, with a number of exploits and rug pulls since its public launch.

On Aug. 14, one of the top decentralized exchanges (DEX), RocketSwap revealed that they had suffered an exploit, with an estimated $865,000 being stolen from the protocol.

The most recent incident came on Aug. 17 when crypto lender SwirlLend carried out an “exit scam” — otherwise known as a rug pull.

Update: SwirlLend rugged both on #Base and #Linea. The scammer has already bridged ~94 $ETH from #Linea to #Ethereum via Orbiter Finance: Bridge and and is currently in the process of transferring the stolen funds from #Base to #Ethereum

The current balance of the scammer's… pic.twitter.com/zexiNuFVhs
— PeckShieldAlert (@PeckShieldAlert) August 16, 2023

After wiping its social media accounts and deleting its website, SwirlLend reportedly transferred roughly $290,000 worth of cryptocurrency from Base, as well as an additional $1.7 million from Linea. It then laundered a total of 253.2 ETH through the Tornado Cash crypto mixer.

Bad actors have however been circling the network since its mainnet launch for developers. On July 31, when a Brian Amrstrong-themed memecoin dubbed “BALD” lost 85% of its value after the developer suddenly withdrew $1.9 million in liquidity from the token’s pools. The developer has denied orchestrating a rug pull.

The following day, Base’s then-largest decentralized exchange (DEX) LeetSwap announced that some of its liquidity pools had been compromised with losses topping $600,000.

Deposit risk: What do crypto exchanges really do with your money?

BALD token developer denies rug pull as price falls 85% post-launch

July 31, 2023 Coin Telegraph

bald

The BALD memecoin collapsed in price as collectors alleged an exit scam, but the developer claims not to have sold any coins.

A new memecoin on Coinbase’s Base network fell 85% after its developer allegedly pulled 1,034 Ether in liquidity, worth approximately $1.9 million, from the market, according to social media reports and blockchain data. The developer for Bald (BALD) denied making any market sales of the coin, stating, “[I] just added/removed 2 sided liquidity and bought.”

Watching the $BALD chart pic.twitter.com/2lc0HEVlNu
— Whale (@WhaleChart) July 31, 2023

Coinbase’s Base network was launched for builders on July 13. However, its development team has urged ordinary users not to use the network, as it lacks a functioning user interface (UI) for its bridge. The team plans to officially release the network to users in August, at which point a bridge UI will be made available.

Despite these warnings, some investors have sought early returns by buying up assets on the network before it is officially launched. They’ve done so by using development tools to bridge Ether (ETH) from Ethereum to Base without a UI.

On July 29, a pseudonymous developer with the Twitter handle “Bald” announced the launch of the BALD token on Base at address 0x27D2DECb4bFC9C76F0309b8E88dec3a601Fe25a8.

The token gained 289,000% within the first 14 hours of trading. But on July 31, Twitter users began reporting that the token’s deployer account had removed 1,034 ETH in liquidity, causing its price to fall to nearly zero.

$BALD deployer just removed 1034 ETH from Liquidity

Others removed 6,800 eth and 1800 ETH from liq as well https://t.co/A2357QUF0H pic.twitter.com/4lH8LHxv2v
— notEezzy (@notEezzy) July 31, 2023

In a social media post, the BALD developer denied selling tokens through a market order, stating, “I didn’t sell a single token at any point since deployment. Just added/removed 2 sided liquidity and bought.” In response, one coin collector argued that adding two-sided liquidity is, in fact, selling tokens, to which the BALD developer replied, “correct.”

Blockchain data reveals that the BALD token was deployed by account 0xccfa0530b9d52f970d1a2daea670ce58e4176389, which removed 1,009.41 Wrapped Ether (WETH) in liquidity at 12:13 pm UTC on July 31.

Investors have lost significant sums from failed memecoin launches recently. On July 26, over $2 million was lost following the launch of Pond0x, which allegedly contained a faulty transfer function that allowed any user to transfer another user’s tokens without consent.

base network

Bad actors find new base

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