The Base App is fully open, how is the experience?

Written by: KarenZ, Foresight News

On December 18, the Base App launched by Coinbase officially announced the end of its Beta testing phase, fully opening to users in over 140 countries and regions worldwide. This is a key step for Coinbase in building an on-chain ecological entry and realizing the vision of Web3 popularization.

Evolving from the early purely tool-based "Coinbase Wallet" to the current "Base App," this product is attempting to define a new form of on-chain "super app"—deeply integrating social, trading, payment, and complex on-chain interactions.

Its core vision, as stated by Base leader Jesse Pollak, is: "Make on-chain interactions as simple as online ones."

The All-in-One Landscape of Base App

The Base App is no longer limited to traditional asset management but is a comprehensive platform that integrates social, payment, and chat functionalities.

I previously provided a detailed introduction to the Base App in the article "Base Upgrade: Coinbase's Blockchain Ambition" during the A New Day One event hosted by Base on July 2025. The Base App has the following four core features:

• A closed loop of social and creator economy: Integrating Farcaster and Zora protocols. Every post made by users can be transformed into tradable digital assets through Zora, achieving true "posting equals monetization." At the same time, selected trading dynamics are directly integrated into social interactions, making "on-chain discovery" intuitive and social.
• On-chain functionality and payment experience: Supports buying and selling cryptocurrencies, exploring built-in Mini apps (such as trading platforms, prediction markets, lending platforms, games, and content tipping platforms), and also supports free and instant USDC transfers using NFC, with the ability to earn yields by holding USDC.
• Ecologically interconnected Mini Apps: Similar to WeChat Mini Programs, the Base App includes mini applications covering DeFi, prediction markets, games, and more.
• Smart wallets and quick payments: Users automatically receive a Base account (supporting multi-chain smart wallet identity) and Base Pay (a quick payment method based on USDC) upon registration.
• Private communication and AI collaboration: The chat function is based on the XMTP encryption protocol, ensuring privacy and security. Users can not only send and receive USDC directly in conversations or form communities of up to 250 people but also call on AI Agents to assist in executing complex combination trades or portfolio management.

How is the Experience? What Kind of App is This?

In practice, the UI design of the Base App is extremely minimalist, and the interactions are relatively smooth.

"Seamless" Onboarding: Say Goodbye to Mnemonic Anxiety

For newcomers, the most convenient aspect is the absence of mnemonic phrases and the need to back up 12 words. Private key management is entirely handled by Passkeys, allowing users to create on-chain accounts in seconds. This experience is almost indistinguishable from registering a regular Web2 social account, significantly lowering the entry barrier for non-crypto users.

Seamless Integration of Social and Finance

In the main feed of the trading section, a real-time market button appears below the content posts where creators start earning, allowing one-click navigation to the trading page.

The platform also highlights large transactions or concentrated buying behaviors, making it easier for users to follow trades. Additionally, there is a convenient "hidden operation"—double-tapping on an interesting post or creator coin allows for quick purchases at a preset amount.

The discussion section focuses on pure content information streams that have not yet started earning.

According to official descriptions, the feed algorithm will personalize recommendations based on user interactions (likes, comments, follows), interest test results, as well as content timeliness, relevance, and diversity. Users can also directly interact with links or Mini Apps shared by others in the feed.

On-chain Identity Centered on "People"

When you open the Base App, you no longer see a cold string of 0x… codes but rather Basenames. The Base App is deeply integrated with the on-chain identity system, making transfers as simple as sending red packets to WeChat friends. Names are no longer just symbols but serve as a "digital ID card" that traverses the entire ecosystem.

Transactions: Gas Sponsorship

To achieve an ultimate experience, the Base App adopts a "Gas sponsorship" model in many scenarios, with network fees covered by the official. However, it is important to note that this convenience is not entirely free: when exchanging tokens (Swap) or performing cross-chain operations within the app, a fee of about 1% must still be paid (on Base).

Rich Mini Apps

The "Search" section of the Base App encompasses all integrated Mini Apps, covering applications in trading, gaming, creator platforms, DeFi platforms, prediction markets, music, and more. The Mini Apps homepage currently features selected applications such as the derivatives protocol Avantis, the Web3 fantasy football game Football.Fun, the DeFi protocol Gauntlet, and the lending protocols Morpho and Moonwell.

Weekly Automatic Distribution of USDC Holding Earnings

The wallet page of the Base App supports one-click activation of USDC earnings, currently with an APY of about 3.35% (adjusted by Coinbase), with rewards accumulated daily and distributed weekly (U.S. users need to link their Coinbase accounts).

What Challenges Exist?

As an emerging platform, the Base App still faces some obvious pain points or challenges in actual use:

• The "Island Effect" of Social Features: For a product positioned as an "on-chain super app," user scale is its lifeline. If the user base of the Base App is insufficient, it will directly lead to its core functions falling into a "negative cycle." If active users are few, content updates in the information stream will be slow, and retention rates will gradually decline.
• Quality of Information Stream Needs Optimization: The current social feed algorithm is still opaque, and the content pool is filled with speculative content and useless information, with a relative lack of quality deep interactions.
• "Liquidity Trap" of On-chain Transactions: Its social trading section relies on showcasing "concentrated purchases" to guide following trades. If the user base is too small, this trend detection loses statistical significance, and users may only see random actions from a few individuals.
• Boundaries of Security Defense: Convenience also brings risks. Phishing links disguised under beautiful social dynamics still exist, and for novice users accustomed to Web2 security protections, misoperations may lead to authorization leaks, which remains a severe challenge in the on-chain world.

Of course, for the current stage of the Base App, its biggest challenge is not the lack of powerful features but how to efficiently convert Coinbase's hundreds of millions of users and stabilize retention rates.

Conclusion

The full opening of the Base App marks a shift in the focus of the Base ecosystem from "building roads and bridges" to "stock competition" and "user onboarding."

By integrating wallets, trading, social, creator economy, payments, mini-program ecology, and earnings, it has built a powerful on-chain traffic entry. For developers, the Mini Apps framework provides a shortcut to directly reach Coinbase's vast user base.

Although there is still a long way to go in content governance and user attraction, the Base App undoubtedly provides a clear template: the future of Web3 should not be isolated wallets but rather an on-chain society that is warm, interactive, and profitable.

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