Base to Earn Around 118 Million OP Tokens Over the Next 6 Years

Coinbase’s Base and Optimism have agreed on a transaction fee split and token grants as part of their long-term collaboration.

Crypto exchange Coinbase released a set of “neutrality principles”’ for its Layer 2 network Base, built on Optmism’s OP Stack.

In a blog post on Thursday, Coinbase said it intended to uphold five principles to make sure Base operates as a decentralized network, despite being launched by a centralized, publicly traded crypto exchange.

The paramount neutrality principle would be the “Law of Chains”, which establishes a common set of standards for all OP Stack blockchains, ensuring builders and users can access a neutral and open blockspace. Base developers worked closely with the Optimism team to form the initial draft of the Law of Chains, Coinbase said in the blog post. 

The Optimism team also published a blog post on the collaboration with Base, outlining the proposed framework for protocol management with the Law of Chains, as well as the structure of its proposed economics and governance.

The two parties agreed to a fee split that would direct transaction proceeds from Base to the Optimism collective through an on-chain contract.

“Specifically, the greater of (a) 2.5% of Base’s total sequencer revenue, or (b) 15% of Base’s net on-chain sequencer revenue (L2 transaction revenue minus L1 data submission costs) will go to the Collective,” stated Optimism.

The Optimism Foundation will also provide Base users with the opportunity to earn up to approximately 118 million OP tokens over the next six years. At the time of writing, these tokens are valued at around $183 million.

However, there will be a cap on the amount of these tokens that Base will be allowed to use to vote or delegate more than 9% of votable supply. The Optimism developers noted that the purpose of the grant was to reward Base’s contributions to scaling Ethereum and the OP Stack, and give the protocol a meaningful voice in Optimism’s governance system.