Jesse Pollak, who leads the development team for Base, the Ethereum Layer 2 network incubated by Coinbase, is stepping up to lead the cryptocurrency exchange’s web3 Coinbase Wallet.
Pollak posted late Monday that Base and Coinbase Wallet “share the same North Star.” It aims to make it simple for people to get on-chain and connect to web3 apps across the ecosystem. “I’m very excited to work more closely with the Wallet team and continue to lead the Base team,” he said. “Now we can work even more closely together to make this happen.”
Base “will continue to uphold our core values of being for everyone, bridges not islands, decentralization, and open source,” the Coinbase protocol lead noted. “Coinbase Wallet will continue to operate across the entire on-chain economy, and we will begin work to implement other Base values in even more ways,” he added.
Released in August 2023, Base is an optimistic rollup that processes transactions on the native Ethereum blockchain and publishes transaction data to the chain regularly, increasing throughput and reducing costs. Last week, Base’s overall valuation surpassed $2 billion for the first time, making it the second-largest bullish rollup by deposits, behind Arbitrum.
Originally called Toshi when it launched in 2017, Coinbase Wallet is a non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet that allows users to directly manage and store their digital assets. Initially focused on the Ethereum ecosystem, it has since expanded to multiple blockchain networks, including Bitcoin, Solana, and the BNB chain.
Pollak also joined Coinbase’s executive team, the company confirmed on Monday. “I’m really excited to take on this new mission and accelerate our mission to connect 1 billion people and 1 million builders on-chain,” he said.
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