It has been almost six weeks since the Ethereum Layer-2 (L2) scaling solution backed by Coinbase, Base, was launched. Its bridge had posted 2090 transactions, according to a media report and data sourced from DefiLlama.
The data also revealed that Base’s transaction is more than those registered by the Ethereum—Arbitrum and one other zkEVM bridge, which had 1,642 and 860 transactions, respectively. However, at press time, Base bridge reached the eleventh place in most active as per the transaction count.
Additionally, the Stargate Bridge topped the chart ranked by the number of processed transactions. It must be noted that Stargate Bridge connects to multiple blockchains and L2 platforms including Solana and Avalanche. At press time, Stargate had processed over 16,000 transactions.
Is Ethereum Base Showing Growth?
According to a media outlet report, “the expansion in transaction count in the Ethereum to Base Bridge is quite remarkable. It pales compared to that processed by the zkSync Era Bridge.” The recent data also shows that the bridge, which only connects to Ethereum, had processed 29,970 transactions. It is over 14X that in the Ethereum to Base bridge.
The growth to prominence of Base is noteworthy considering the timing of its launch and how it has to compete with other established Layer-2 networks, including Arbitrum and OP Mainnet, formerly Optimism.
On the other hand, Ethereum still remains the most popular smart contract platform. Its native currency ETH is the second most valuable only after Bitcoin (BTC), but the base layer is struggling with scalability. At peak, the platform can only process almost 15 Transactions Per Second (TPS).
Popularity of Ethereum L2 Solutions
Forbes stated in its September 13, 2023 report that Ethereum may be killing the ‘Ethereum Killers’ with its L2 solutions incorporated into the Ethereum system over the last year and a half.
The L2 blockchains like Base and Optimism were designed in a way that an Ethereum application can be duplicated and deployed to an L2 blockchain like Base. It makes it very easy for Decentralized Application (dApp) developers to launch on those blockchain platforms.
There is a key issue with Ethereum alternatives like Polkadot and Solana and newer additions like Sui and Aptos. As they all “provide marginal improvements in terms of speed or have a different consensus mechanism for approving transactions.”
Awa Sun Yin, Co-Founder of Anoma, an L1 blockchain, said that “L2’s make Ethereum applications cheaper for users, so it’s easy for developers to deploy what they have already built on Ethereum, and community-wise it lets them keep an anchor on Ethereum. It brings different options for developers to build applications that cannot be built on Ethereum.”
Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast and believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2023/09/22/ethereum-base-hits-a-new-peak-in-terms-of-daily-transactions/