Xen Baynham-Herd, Head of Global Growth at Base at Coinbase, sees on-chain infrastructure not as a niche experiment but as the foundation of the next internet. Xen Baynham-Herd, Head of Global Growth at Base at Coinbase, sees on-chain infrastructure not as a niche experiment but as the foundation of the next internet.

Xen Baynham-Herd on Building Base: From Experimental L2s to Real On-chain Adoption

Xen Baynham-Herd, Head of Global Growth at Base at Coinbase, sees on-chain infrastructure not as a niche experiment but as the foundation of the next internet.

Speaking about Base, Coinbase’s Layer-2 network, Baynham-Herd explains what success really means for Base, how the builder environment is maturing, and why user experience—not grants or hype—will determine who wins.

What Success for Base Looks Like—and What Failure Would Mean

In an interview with CryptoNews, Baynham-Herd describes Base as a key piece in unlocking an on-chain future for the internet. In three to five years, success would mean that using on-chain applications feels as natural as using any app on a smartphone.

Users shouldn’t have to think about blockchain mechanics—they should simply experience speed, safety, and familiarity, while remaining fully in control of their digital lives.

Failure, by contrast, would be an inability to make on-chain experiences intuitive and democratic. If decentralised infrastructure cannot feel open, trustworthy, and seamless at scale, it risks remaining a niche rather than becoming the default digital layer of the internet.

Where Base Refuses to Compete in the L2 Arms Race

While many Layer-2 networks compete aggressively on fees and raw throughput, Baynham-Herd says Base’s differentiation lies elsewhere. Base already offers sub-second speeds and sub-cent fees, but performance alone is not the end goal.

Instead, Base prioritises user experience, distribution, and deep product integration. Its long-term success will be measured by trust, convenience, and scale—factors that matter far more to mainstream users than marginal fee reductions.

The Biggest Mistake Builders Make on Base

According to Baynham-Herd, the most common mistake founders make is failing to obsess over user experience. The strongest teams focus relentlessly on building products that attract and retain new users—not just crypto natives, but people entering the ecosystem for the first time.

He advises founders to ignore short-term noise and focus on creating applications that genuinely delight users. Sustainable growth, he argues, comes from solving real problems, not from chasing trends.

From Experimentation to Durable On-chain Products

Over the past 12 months, Baynham-Herd has seen a shift toward more serious teams committing to long-term development on Base. These builders are no longer just testing ideas—they are designing products meant to endure.

A key change is how teams think about wallets and identity. Wallets are evolving from simple key-management tools into representations of on-chain identity—spaces where participation, creation, and connection coexist. This shift is reshaping how products are designed and how users engage on-chain.

Why Regulation and Adoption Metrics Matter More Than Token Prices

Being closely linked to a regulated company like Coinbase is, in Baynham-Herd’s view, a strategic advantage rather than a limitation. Regulation provides transparency and consumer protection, which serious builders increasingly value as on-chain products reach mainstream audiences.

He also urges observers to look beyond token price movements when assessing adoption. Real traction, he says, is reflected in user growth and app engagement—not in whether a coin is going up or down. Durable on-chain businesses are built by teams whose users show up without incentives, driven by genuine belief in the product and its long-term value.

Market Opportunity
XEN Crypto Logo
XEN Crypto Price(XEN)
$0.000000006943
$0.000000006943$0.000000006943
-2.69%
USD
XEN Crypto (XEN) Live Price Chart
Disclaimer: The articles reposted on this site are sourced from public platforms and are provided for informational purposes only. They do not necessarily reflect the views of MEXC. All rights remain with the original authors. If you believe any content infringes on third-party rights, please contact service@support.mexc.com for removal. MEXC makes no guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the content and is not responsible for any actions taken based on the information provided. The content does not constitute financial, legal, or other professional advice, nor should it be considered a recommendation or endorsement by MEXC.

You May Also Like

The Channel Factories We’ve Been Waiting For

The Channel Factories We’ve Been Waiting For

The post The Channel Factories We’ve Been Waiting For appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Visions of future technology are often prescient about the broad strokes while flubbing the details. The tablets in “2001: A Space Odyssey” do indeed look like iPads, but you never see the astronauts paying for subscriptions or wasting hours on Candy Crush.  Channel factories are one vision that arose early in the history of the Lightning Network to address some challenges that Lightning has faced from the beginning. Despite having grown to become Bitcoin’s most successful layer-2 scaling solution, with instant and low-fee payments, Lightning’s scale is limited by its reliance on payment channels. Although Lightning shifts most transactions off-chain, each payment channel still requires an on-chain transaction to open and (usually) another to close. As adoption grows, pressure on the blockchain grows with it. The need for a more scalable approach to managing channels is clear. Channel factories were supposed to meet this need, but where are they? In 2025, subnetworks are emerging that revive the impetus of channel factories with some new details that vastly increase their potential. They are natively interoperable with Lightning and achieve greater scale by allowing a group of participants to open a shared multisig UTXO and create multiple bilateral channels, which reduces the number of on-chain transactions and improves capital efficiency. Achieving greater scale by reducing complexity, Ark and Spark perform the same function as traditional channel factories with new designs and additional capabilities based on shared UTXOs.  Channel Factories 101 Channel factories have been around since the inception of Lightning. A factory is a multiparty contract where multiple users (not just two, as in a Dryja-Poon channel) cooperatively lock funds in a single multisig UTXO. They can open, close and update channels off-chain without updating the blockchain for each operation. Only when participants leave or the factory dissolves is an on-chain transaction…
Share
BitcoinEthereumNews2025/09/18 00:09
Gold Hits $3,700 as Sprott’s Wong Says Dollar’s Store-of-Value Crown May Slip

Gold Hits $3,700 as Sprott’s Wong Says Dollar’s Store-of-Value Crown May Slip

The post Gold Hits $3,700 as Sprott’s Wong Says Dollar’s Store-of-Value Crown May Slip appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Gold is strutting its way into record territory, smashing through $3,700 an ounce Wednesday morning, as Sprott Asset Management strategist Paul Wong says the yellow metal may finally snatch the dollar’s most coveted role: store of value. Wong Warns: Fiscal Dominance Puts U.S. Dollar on Notice, Gold on Top Gold prices eased slightly to $3,678.9 […] Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/gold-hits-3700-as-sprotts-wong-says-dollars-store-of-value-crown-may-slip/
Share
BitcoinEthereumNews2025/09/18 00:33
XRP Escrow Amendment Gains Momentum, Set for February 2026 Activation

XRP Escrow Amendment Gains Momentum, Set for February 2026 Activation

TLDR The XRP Ledger’s Token Escrow amendment has gained 82.35% consensus and is set for activation on February 12, 2026. This amendment allows users to escrow a
Share
Coincentral2026/01/31 01:00