Base ecological novelty product roundup: Onchain Summer wave is coming

Author: Wenser, Odaily Planet Daily

As an L2 network with the grand vision of "leading 1 billion users into the on-chain society," the Base ecosystem undoubtedly ranks among the top tier in terms of inclusivity for various application products in the industry.

On June 14th, at midnight Beijing time, the Base official account hinted at a collaboration with the world-class sports brand Adidas, sparking renewed speculation about a new round of Base Onchain Summer, which has once again become the focus of market attention. In this article, Odaily Planet Daily will briefly review some representative products of the Base ecosystem for readers' reference.

Social Applications

As an L2 ecosystem that has birthed two well-known social protocols, Friend.tech and Farcaster, the enhancement of social products on Base is evident. Moreover, Farcaster, as a social protocol, provides a fertile ground and development environment for various types of social products. Therefore, for a long time, social products will remain a significant component of the Base ecosystem. Although these products may not necessarily bring high TVL or profits to the Base ecosystem, they can continuously attract new users and traffic, which is precisely what countless L1/L2 blockchain networks dream of. Here are some representative products:

AlfaFrens

Warpcast followers: 29,000;

AlfaFrens is a new SocialFi application built on the Base ecosystem and Farcaster protocol, developed by the startup Superfluid, which supports on-chain asset flows. It allows users to subscribe to KOLs using DEGEN tokens and access exclusive chat rooms, and can be seen as a "copycat product" of Friend.tech. Currently, it has not issued a token.

Snapshot of the AlfaFrens product interface

Gemz

A social project that Base protocol lead Jesse Pollak is interested in, which previously sparked a "social viral trend" in April but later transformed into a Tap2Earn social viral game project, possibly inspired by the TON ecosystem game project Notcoin. Currently, the official Telegram channel has around 520,000 members, and the official account has about 430,000 followers. It has not issued a token yet.

Drakula

Previously mentioned, this product can be viewed as a "Web3 version of TikTok," a short video social platform that has received an ecological incentive award pool of 20 million DEGEN tokens. It is still open to many creators with a creator fund valued at 1 million dollars, and the platform also draws from the token fan economy model of Friend.tech. It has not issued a token yet.

Bountycaster

This is a task program created by LindaXie (former co-founder of Scalar Capital, Coinbase product manager), also built on the Farcaster protocol. Users can publish tasks by tagging @Bountybot when sending content on clients like Warpcast, and other users can claim corresponding tasks to receive rewards. It has not issued a token yet.

Build

According to the official Warpcast channel, this is a social game designed to incentivize construction on the Base ecosystem. As indicated by a pinned tweet from its official account quoting Jesse, this is an incentive project aimed at builders in the Base ecosystem, developed by the team behind the on-chain social marketplace TalentProtocol. Users can nominate relevant candidates, and the first season of BUILD token airdrop has already taken place.

BUILD official website interface

It is worth mentioning that influenced by the Farcaster protocol, many social products in the Base ecosystem, in addition to client applications like Warpcast, Recaster, and Launchcaster, are also built on the Farcaster Frame mini-program framework. This not only provided some support for the projects in their early stages but also somewhat limited the initial traffic pool for project development. It must be said that from a growth perspective, this is quite regrettable, but it also represents a unique landscape of the Base ecosystem.

Consumer Applications

Unlike social products, consumer applications are a significant component of the Base ecosystem with more imaginative potential. After all, it has the advantage of being backed by Coinbase, a publicly listed compliant exchange, and can utilize its convenient payment interfaces like Coinbase Commerce. The main means to achieve "1 billion users entering the on-chain world" is through various consumer applications with different functions and styles. Here are a few well-known applications.

BlackBird

As a Web3 loyalty platform that completed a $11 million seed round in October 2022 and a $24 million Series A round in October 2023, BlackBird has received strong support from well-known institutions such as Union Square Ventures, Shine Capital, Multicoin Capital, Variant, Circle Ventures, IAC, as well as a16z Crypto, Amex Ventures, and QED Investors. The founder Ben Leventhal has nearly 20 years of rich experience in the food and beverage industry, having founded the food and local restaurant media Eater in 2005 and the well-known restaurant reservation website Resy, which was sold to American Express in 2019. Regardless, Blackbird's market positioning of building a bridge between restaurants, hotels, and users, along with plans like FLY loyalty points to serve users, has made it one of the few "consumer-friendly applications" in Web3 and the Base ecosystem.

Unlonely

This is an on-chain live streaming platform based on the Base ecosystem, which has previously received investments from institutions like Multicoin Capital and Coinbase Ventures. The application innovatively creates a unique viewing experience for users by integrating gamified on-chain features into live streaming. For example, hosts can create temporary tokens, and the trading function can only be activated when the token reaches a certain price within a specified time. Previously, the application's founder Brian Guan successfully achieved a trading volume of $160,000 through this feature and received $6,000 in creator incentives. Additionally, the application allows viewers to interact through betting, voting, private chatting, and using the platform's native tokens, adding a certain level of fun to the usage.

In February of this year, a live dating event called "Love On Leverage" on the platform caused a sensation. When male and female guests interacted, viewers could bet on whether they would go on a second date. If the supporting amount exceeded the preset threshold, they would go on a date. Conversely, if the opponents were in the majority, new participants would be introduced. Ultimately, the event attracted over 10,000 views and generated over $20,000 in token transactions, which can be seen as opening a new track for "Web3 consumer applications" based on Web2 entertainment live streaming.

Wrapshop

This is a shopping store application similar to a "WeChat mini-program mall," built on the Farcaster ecosystem. Users can set up their own "Farcaster ecosystem mini-mall" in just a few simple steps to sell some of their physical or virtual products, including clothing, artwork, etc. This is also the work of independent developer Colin. The V1 version is currently open for free to some eligible users.

Wrapshop website interface

Payflow

This is a payment application product created by independent developer @0x Sinaver. Users can complete on-chain social payments across ecosystems like Farcaster, Lens, and ENS through this application. As its account introduction states—"It's like Venmo/Cash App for web3 social and linktree."

It is evident that although it is still in its early stages, consumer application products in the Base ecosystem have gradually begun to develop. With Jesse and more builders in the Base ecosystem's strong appeal and influence, coupled with Coinbase's ongoing support for consumer applications in the Base ecosystem, development in this area remains promising.

The recent collaboration between Adidas and Base may unfold in this aspect.

Meme Coin Applications

Finally, when mentioning the Base ecosystem, memes and meme coins are naturally an unavoidable part. Here are a few applications related to meme coins, which are not significantly related to speculative trading, so they are for reference only.

Bolide

Previously awarded the 10th round of Base ecosystem Builder Grants, Bolide is an interactive meme product. According to its official documentation, "The Bolide application is a smart self-custodial Web3 application that leverages Web2 user experience to unleash the power of Web3, allowing users to hold, track, and trade their crypto assets and access all 'Bolide Earn' features. The Bolide application is designed to be simple, accessible even to those without DeFi experience, and built securely and reliably using the latest industry security standards. It aims to build the next version of current neobank solutions for future market adoption while combining the latest technologies from decentralized markets with a simplified user experience, such as automatic returns on crypto assets (by combining top DeFi market lending protocols and DEX's proprietary earning solutions), easy transfers between friends and 'saved' contacts, margin trading, retail payments, on/off ramps, and NFT trading."

It must be said that the goals are quite ambitious, and whether they can be achieved remains to be seen with a conservative outlook.

GAME

The BASE ecosystem meme project GAME previously announced that it would launch the first Meme Game in the MemeFi track, providing a gamified social experience for meme holders. Players can engage in Meme PVP battles in the game and earn GAME tokens. The first collaboration is with the RUNE ecosystem project DOG, where players can use DOG to play the game and receive GAME airdrops. As a result, GAME's token price surged by 40% at one point.

Paragraph

An on-chain news and publishing platform in the Base ecosystem, it is also the main platform tool for the Base official account to release news. This platform allows creators to mint their works as NFTs, send newsletters directly to wallet addresses, or earn income through subscriptions. In addition, it has integrated with social protocols like Farcaster, Lens, and XMTP, enabling token-based channel creation and creating interactive channels similar to "knowledge planets" for fan communities. Moreover, Paragraph has even "taken down" the former "track leader and competitor" Mirror and completed its acquisition. After receiving $5 million in investment from Union Square and Coinbase Ventures, Paragraph has, in some ways, become the "only content player" related to meme content.

Overall, after stripping away the rapidly decaying speculative elements of meme coin trading, the development of meme coin-related projects in the Base ecosystem remains prosperous.

Conclusion: A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step

According to Dune data, the number of users in the Base ecosystem is on the rise. As of June 13th, the total user count reached 11,782,696, meaning that the number of users in the Base ecosystem has surpassed 11.78 million, which is equivalent to achieving one percent of the goal of "1 billion on-chain users." Moreover, it is still less than a year since the launch of the Base mainnet.

It can be said that Base has created a "miracle" in the L2 network and even the cryptocurrency industry—being the L2 network to break through $5 billion in TVL the fastest; the L2 network with the fastest TVL growth rate; and ranking among the top in terms of user numbers and daily active addresses, etc.

And this is just the first step in Base's journey of a thousand miles.