There’s something of a buzz rippling across the cryptocurrency arena, and it’s all about Coinbase’s layer 2 blockchain, Base, seeing its daily transactions achieve record-level highs. The figures on Thursday reached a staggering 1.88 million; a number surpassing the combined total of layer 2 competitors, Arbitrum and Optimism, elicting ample interest in the potential of tech mammoth, Coinbase.
Now, you might think layer 2 big names like Decentralized Finance (DeFi) applications or non-fungible token marketplaces are behind this transactional surge. Not quite. The significant transactional wave we’re seeing is primarily due to a fresh social application named FriendTech. Notably, this decentralized social network platform is built on Base and brands itself as “the marketplace for your friends.”
Since its manifestation, FriendTech has increased user engagement, with its daily transactions soaring to the all-time high of 529,000. This escalation wasn’t arbitrary. Piloted by a points-driven airdrop feature, IntoTheBlock suggests that FriendTech’s user activity drove the daily record numbers witnessed by Base in early August. Fueled by Friends.Tech popularity, Base also celebrated by topping a record average rate of 15.88 transactions per second at launch. A figure leaving behind Ethereum and other layer 2 blockchain challengers such as Arbitrum and Optimism.
With such flying numbers, we’d only expect a consistent upward trend, but FriendTech’s transactions dipped significantly in late August from 525,000 to 51,000, with the same downtrend mirrored by Base’s daily transactions. However, the recent rekindled activity on Base suggests that Ethereum’s layer 2 ecosystems are hardly flatlining and, juxtaposingly, maturing with participants finding their particular “niche.”
Successful even in its infancy, Base, with its extensive range of unique addresses and transactions, has swiftly become the favourite child of layer 2, powered by Coinbase’s broad influence. This strong foundation paves the way for social applications like FriendTech to flourish. Besides, FriendTech has remained unfazed by the congestion and fees that notoriously plague Ethereum during frenzies. A potential evidence hints that fostering supplemental “layer-2” networks, like Coinbase’s novel Base, could be the markets’ silver lining for future sustainable growth.
Source: Coindesk
