Coinbase’s Base Network Launches UI, Grants for Onchain Summer

According to an August 3 announcement, the Base network of Coinbase has published a user interface (UI) for its official bridge, allowing end users to onboard for the first time without using developer tools. The crew has set Base’s “official” release date for August 9.

As part of a month-long launch event titled “Onchain Summer,” the team will award developers and content creators grants worth over 100 Ether, or approximately $184,000.

The Base mainnet went live for developers on July 13, but it lacked a functional user interface for its Ethereum bridge. At the time, the only method to utilize the network was to use command-line developer tools to connect ETH to Ethereum’s layer 1.

The crew announced on August 3 that the bridge UI is now operational. However, some of Base’s initial Web3 applications may not be accessible until the official launch on August 9th.

The user interface for Base network’s Ethereum bridge. Source: Base

Additionally, the team announced a month-long “Onchain Summer” celebration. Daily developers will “bring you something entertaining to do on chain, highlighting art, music, gaming, advocacy, and more,” according to the announcement.

Between August 9 and September 13, the team will award ETH grants to individuals or groups that create Base-related websites, artwork, or videos or who deploy new network protocols.

The team will provide non-fungible Base tokens and ETH to users who connect to the network or complete educational “quests.”

Some investors lost millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency while attempting to use Base when it was “launched for builders” and not available to the general public.

The Pond0x (PNDX) memecoin was released for Base on July 28, and investors who knew how to bridge without a user interface invested over $2 million into the project, only to see the token’s price plummet to near zero after a bug in its transfer function was discovered.

When the developer of another Base Memcoin, Bald (BALD), withdrew liquidity from the exchange it was trading on, approximately $1.9 million in losses were incurred.