There has been a significant shift in the Layer 2 network landscape lately, with Coinbase-incubated Ethereum Layer 2 network Base rapidly gaining ground.
According to the latest findings by IntoTheBlock, Base now boasts nearly 40% more daily active addresses compared to the combined total of rival Layer 2 networks – Arbitrum and Optimism.
Base’s Increased Network Activity
The massive growth observed by the crypto analytic platform highlighted Base’s increasing dominance in the Layer 2 space, suggesting it is capturing a larger share of the Ethereum ecosystem’s off-chain transactions.
Base recorded approximately four million active addresses last week as per Dune Analytics data shared by Jesse Pollak, head of the project.
The surge in network activity coincided with Base’s ongoing “Onchain Summer” campaign, which promotes development on the platform. First introduced in 2023 to boost the adoption of its layer-2 network, the “Onchain Summer” event turned out to be a hit.
Over the course of the month-long initiative, 268,000 wallets minted more than 700,000 NFTs, and over $242 million in crypto was bridged to Base, attracting more than 130,000 unique daily users.
Building on last year’s success, Base revived the summer event for 2024, aiming to boost on-chain creativity and encourage developers to build on the blockchain. The initiative, which began in June and runs through August, has set aside 600 ETH, worth around $2 million, in rewards for participants.
Base’s On-chain Identities Solution ‘Basenames’
This week, the Base network introduced “Basenames” in a bid to simplify on-chain identities by allowing users to convert complex wallet addresses into readable names. Built on the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) infrastructure, Basenames function similarly to subdomains, where an ENS domain owner can create and manage multiple subnames.
This feature is expected to improve user interaction within the Base ecosystem. To ensure fairness, Basenames will be offered through a Dutch auction, preventing bots from dominating the name registration process and giving everyone a fair chance to secure their desired names.
