Jesse Pollak, known for his key role in the Base project the Ethereum layer2 blockchain launched by Coinbase, is a leading figure in the cryptocurrency world.
His vision and work have helped redefine the blockchain and cryptocurrency landscape.
In this short article, we will explore Pollak's philosophy and his most significant initiatives.
Coinbase and the onchain transition
Pollak began his career at Coinbase, one of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges focusing on cryptocurrencies after 5 years as 'Killer Passwords' in other projects.
However, his impact goes beyond just running an exchange.
Pollak and his team have brought Coinbase "on-chain," demonstrating how a centralized exchange can become a blockchain builder.
This shift has opened up new revenue sources for Coinbase and expanded its operations beyond just cryptocurrency trading.
Jesse is involved in the "onchain movement," which includes other layer2s such as Base, Zora, and Optimism.
These projects are pushing the boundaries of what is possible on blockchain, with the common goal of creating a decentralized and democratized digital future.
His long-term vision leads him to believe that by 2030 there will be mass use cases for cryptocurrencies and that a million developers will enter on-chain.
Change is already happening faster than one might expect.
Finally, Pollak believes that cryptocurrencies are the infrastructure on which global financial structures will be rewritten in the next 10 years.
This rewriting offers the opportunity to increase economic opportunity and level the playing field for all centered on creating a more inclusive and decentralized financial system.
We also recently enjoyed him through mainstream media appearing on BloombergTv nd he joins Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz and hosts Tim Stenovec and Sonali Basak on "Bloomberg Crypto" to discuss how big Base could get.
How is the chain doing nearly two years after its launch under Jesse's management?
According to data collected by tokenterminal.com in the last 7 days a total of 113,000 distributors have been active and 58,000 of them have chosen to implement/exploit the Base network
Despite the bearish market, it is encouraging to see many devs continue to continuously build and select Base as their chain.
A clear and significant sign that the future of the chain is expanding across all onchain metrics.
For example, in the past few days jessepollak highlighted the impressive growth and progress in this onchain summer compared to last year.
He noted that the number of builders has increased 10 times, products are 10 times better, onboarding is 10 times easier, and power is 10 times more electric.
He encouraged everyone to ignore prices, keep building, stay rooted, and add a new person to the chain every day.
In addition, the second Onchain Summer once again highlighted the interest and buzz for Coinbase layer2 with over 5,000 builders creating 1,255 apps on base in 30 days during the onchain summer buildathon http://onchain-summer.devfolio.co/projects