Vitalik Buterin takes shot at Coinbase’s corporate control of Base which dominates 60% of layer 2 income

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin signaled a shift away from the "branded shard" era, arguing that the previous "rollup-centric" vision is outdated due to faster mainnet scaling and slow decentralization among major rollups. This critique directly impacts Coinbase-backed Base, which dominates Layer-2 revenue, capturing nearly 60% of the sector's income despite paying minimal fees to Ethereum for data posting. Buterin's new roadmap emphasizes that Layer-2s must do more than just scale, urging them to meet higher maturity stages and prioritize interoperability, rather than relying on centralized sequencing and corporate control mechanisms like multisig wallets. Base, currently classified as a Stage 1 rollup, faces a dilemma: retaining centralized control (like security councils) for regulatory compliance, as required by Coinbase, conflicts with Buterin's call for trustless scaling and credible exit guarantees. Furthermore, Ethereum's own efforts to lower data costs through upgrades like the Dencun hard fork threaten Base's high-margin revenue model based on rent extraction. While Base's lead developer acknowledges the need to pivot toward unique products and use cases (like social and gaming) to survive, the long-term threat remains if the market begins valuing rollups primarily on their degree of decentralization.

(Source：CryptoSlate)