Editor’s Note

Welcome to Bedrock.

Bedrock is a publication about the future of the onchain economy. Each week, we’ll explore the builders and ideas at the frontier, paving the way for a digital world that increases innovation, creativity, and freedom.

We believe that Base is establishing the cultural foundations—the bedrock—for an onchain renaissance: a new economy that fully leverages what the internet and Ethereum have to offer.

We’re kicking off at a pivotal time. Markets are rough. Trump’s tariffs have wreaked absolute havoc on global markets, leaving people shaking in their boots – at least those that don’t believe in something.

Austin Marrazza

@realitywarp

i've realized that when there isn't a new narrative to believe in, people need solid ground they can reliably retreat to

lacking a foundation is how so many become jaded about crypto's underlying purpose

people aren't "returning to fundamentals," people are returning to their

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1:04 AM • Apr 10, 2025

Our goal is to give you solid ground to stand on. To build a better world, you must believe in something, and you’ve got to keep a pulse on the world around you. Let’s see what the world is up to.

Base is for Now

Our inagural essay, Base is for Now, was penned by Base's Head of Global Builders, Xen Baynham-Herd. "When you choose where to build, you're not just selecting a tech stack. You're joining a network." Xen then dives into what makes Base technically great:

"With Flashblocks delivering 200ms transaction speeds, simplified developer tools like MiniKit and OnchainKit, and Smart Wallet enabling minutes-to-transaction user onboarding, Base combines technical excellence with genuine community purpose. As expansion continues through initiatives like Base East Africa and plans for 20+ country launches this year, Base isn't just building infrastructure—it's cultivating a movement where builders worldwide can create sustainable value in an economy designed for everyone."

At its core, Base offers what serious builders need most: technical excellence serving an ambitious purpose. It is an environment where anyone can plug in and get the resources they need to pursue this vision.

Exciting times ahead. Base is for now.

Stablecoins are having an Oprah moment

It seems like everyone’s jumping into the stablecoin race, and it’s no surprise—not only is USDC adoption chugging higher, but local stablecoins are stealing the spotlight. The Base team is making sure that these currencies are getting a front-row seat in the new Coinbase Wallet. Financial systems that once locked out entire regions are losing their grip, opening doors to seamless trade, remittances, and wealth-building for people everywhere.

“Onboarding the masses” doesn’t mean that everyone will start using the onchain economy all at once – local stablecoins are also a useful, practical way, to onboard users one set of citizens at a time.

There’s a psychological component here as well. Economic sovereignty matters. Local stablecoins offer everyday users the psychological comfort of familiarity while simultaneously introducing them to blockchain's capabilities. Local stablecoins act as translation layers between existing financial mental models and the onchain economy.

As adoption grows, we may see regional economic corridors emerge around complementary local stablecoins, creating new trade relationships that bypass traditional financial gatekeepers entirely. That’s fundamentally reimagining what “banking” means in a world where currency can be both locally relevant and globally connected.

Exciting times.

Fix the Money

Everyone’s favorite Ethereum Intern posted an ad for the onchain economy last week, and it resonated heavy. Why transact onchain? Because its cheaper, more rewarding, and impossible to censor. It works like the internet does.

If I were to create a global ad campaign for Ethereum, this feels directionally correct. Money is broken. The internet has changed the lives of every single person on Earth – our financial systems must evolve as well.

By positioning Ethereum alongside the internet—a technology we've collectively internalized as essential—it sidesteps the entire "crypto bro" narrative. There’s also the subtle shift from asking users to rebel against institutions to simply making the rational choice for themselves. It's not ideological; it's practical. This framing avoids the libertarian baggage that alienates mainstream adoption while still delivering its core value proposition.

Just as no one today debates whether the internet was worthwhile, the ad suggests the same inevitability for the onchain economy.

Intern followed up with another one: "Stop using banks."

"Ethereum is the internet of money," they said. "You get zero payment limits, near-zero fees and keep total custody of your own money."

Some teams seemed to resonate. Splits, for example, argued that their product Teams is "your interface to the Bank of Ethereum."

I'm a bigger fan of the initial ad, but I hope to see this experimentation with messaging continue.

Cohort Futures

I often return to this post from Brian Dell and Tom Critchlow called “Cohort Futures.”

Cohorts compound focus. When a group of people working on separate endeavors all focus on the same frame, the entire group benefits.

The primary difference between a community and a cohort is that the first is oriented around the relationships between the collective members, and the second is oriented around the progress of each individual. In short, communities are built to connect, cohorts are built to progress.

From early social DAOs to global hackathons to Farcaster's builder scene today, both formal and informal 'cohorts' have been critical to crypto's development thus far.

What makes cohorts uniquely powerful is their capacity to create high-bandwidth knowledge transfer networks. Unlike formal documentation or scattered Twitter threads, cohorts transmit tacit knowledge—the unwritten rules, mental models, and technical intuitions that accelerate innovation. Insights that might take months to diffuse through traditional channels spread within hours.

This explains why certain scenes seem to consistently produce breakthroughs—they're drawing on accumulated social capital and shared context from previous cohort experiences.

With this in mind, some awesome cohort experiments launched or shared updates this week.

Atrium Academy blends three powerful elements: the curation of an accelerator, the spirit of a hackathon, and the intensity of a bootcamp. Currently focused on Uniswap v4 Hooks, the team looks to expand to other protocols as they help software infra teams onboard and activate developers.

Individual companies ran this playbook as well. Tapestry's Solana Social Accelerator demonstrates how focused attention on a small group of builders can connect teams, creators, and community to integrate new features and build better UX fast.

Most recently, Base announced both Base Batches, which moves the best teams from a global hackathon to a focused incubator with its own Demo Day where builders compete for cash. The tight feedback loop between buildathon and incubator makes Batches a unique opportunity.

Finally, Alliance is teaming up with Base on a $500k hackathon in SF, with the winners getting immediate admission into the next Alliance accelerator. Alliance is another great example of a time-bounded, high-context environments that compress years of learning into weeks through intensive collaboration.

The most resilient tech isn't just technically sound—it's socially embedded within these overlapping cohort networks, where innovation diffuses at speeds traditional structures can't match.

Morsels

• Jonathan Mann created Hugh Mann: an autonomous songwriting AI that checks the news, talks with himself, writes a song, and makes a music video — all with no human prompts — every day. Forever.

• Flipp launched: an easy-to-use crypto app that lets you watch, track and swap any coins.

• Blackbird – the onchain restaurant loyalty app – raised $50M in a new funding round.

• Base Launch Playbook: everything you need to go from zero → onchain.

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