The developers of Base and Optimism networks have jointly revealed a revenue-sharing and governance-sharing agreement, aiming to maintain decentralization. Coinbase, the parent company of Base, has also outlined "neutrality principles" to ensure Base remains decentralized. The announcement w as made through separate blog posts on August 24 by Optimism Collective, Base, and Coinbase.
As per the Optimism Collective's statement, Base's smart contracts can only be upgraded through two multisig wallet accounts, one controlled by Base and the other by the Optimism Network team. This ensures that upgrades can't occur without Optimism's cons ent. Governance will transition to a "Security Council" representing chains in the ecosystem as more networks adopt the OP Stack and join the "Superchain." Base will pay Optimism Collective 2.5% of revenue or 15% of profits, receiving OP tokens that grant it governance influence, capped at 9 % of total voting supply.
Base's representative, Jesse Pollak, committed to decentralization progress, transitioning from what Vitalik Buterin called "Phase 0" to "Phase 2" of layer 2 decentralization. The Base team aims to enhance the scalability of Optimism clients and create a new client named "op -reth." Pessimism, a cybersecurity monitoring tool, will continue development.
Coinbase, represented by Will Robinson, emphasized neutrality. Coinbase won't have custody or control over cryptocurrencies on Base, modify transaction orders, or misuse non-public information. The exchange's marketing team will rely on public data to promote products without internal advantage. Withdrawals from Base will be censorship-free. Concerns about Base's current centralized nature triggering SEC scrutiny exist, but optimism remains that it can attract new users to the Ethereum ecosystem.
