On Thursday, the largest crypto exchange in the US by trading volume, Coinbase, announced plans to release its Base platform. The Base platform is a new layer 2 networks centered on the Coinbase platform.

The team behind Base confirmed that the launching of the new platform is in the final phase. The developers are planning on conducting the final criteria test to proceed with the mainnet launch of the Base protocol.

Importance of Base Platform

According to the June 29 announcement, the Coinbase team mentioned that the Base platform had undergone a six-month security audit. The new platform will be positioned on the Optimism platform and utilize the Ethereum network to improve the security of the Base protocol. The Coinbase team has expressed optimism that the Base platform will become the next big thing in developing decentralized applications.

Based on the announcement, Base developers confirmed conducting internal and external audits for the new platform. Per the criteria requirements, the completed security audits are the second last stage before the launch.

In a statement, the Base project team confirmed fully complied with the security audit requirement. The Base team stated that the criteria for mainnet launch are currently ⅘ towards completion of the project. 

From the completed audits, the developers confirmed that no code bugs were observed. This implies that the developers could proceed with the final stage, which involves the mainnet launch.

Overview of Base Criteria Tests

Before then, the Base team had completed the criteria test for Regolith, which involved launching the hard fork on the testnet. The second criterion requirement is infrastructure assessment, which Optimism Labs conducted. In contrast, the first criterion involved the Bedrock upgrade on Optimism.

On February 23, the Coinbase team launched Base to provide users with a cost-effective, secure network. During the launch, the crypto exchange aimed at creating a user-friendly network for developers to create decentralized applications (dAPPs).

Reacting to the news, the community anticipates that the launch of the Base platform will enable the crypto exchange to onboard more investors and companies to the Ethereum network.

From the completed audits, the crypto exchange confirmed to invest in conducting internal audits. This audit aimed at enabling the protocol team to spot any system vulnerability that could be present on the Layer 1 or Layer 2 networks. An internal audit was also conducted on the bridges for security purposes.

Besides the internal audits, the crypto exchange launched a public smart contract audit through the Code4rena platform. At this stage, the community was privileged to interact with the Optimism tech stack and identify any system failure.

The Coinbase team announced that the community security audit test was conducted from May 27 to June 10. To motivate the participants, the Coinbase team launched a compensation system to recognize the best bounty hunters.

When Will Coinbase Launch Base?

Earlier, the Base team confirmed to conduct more than 100 studies on securities to support the audits. From the study findings, the community and the Base team found no critical vulnerability. 

The objective of the completed security studies aimed to assess vulnerabilities on the Optimism’s node application, smart contracts, bridges, and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Meanwhile, the Base team plans to conduct the final criteria test, which will involve testing the stability of the testnet. After the completion of testnet stability, the Base team completes the mainnet launch.

According to the post, the Base team failed to provide further details on how the final criteria will be conducted. However, the Base team confirmed to review the 100 researchs conducted during the public intelligent contract audit dubbed “Spearbit and Sherlock.”

After completing the final criteria phase, the Base team revealed plans to launch Pessimism, an open-source device that will be used to monitor developers’ activities on the protocol. Through the Pessimism protocol, the Base team can track any account balance irregularities and changes between the Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks, among others.