Building onchain isn’t just about shipping fast, it’s about solving real problems for real people. Here’s a quick guide that can help you spark the right idea and find a product–market fit, rooted in accessibility and Based values.

Building onchain with Base gives you powerful tools to create apps for your local community or a global audience. It helps you build with purpose and impact. Before you start, keep these points in mind.

Ownership and Transparency: Build apps where users own assets or content (e.g. NFTs, digital items) and where smart contracts execute transparent logic. Base’s low fees make frequent onchain interactions practical.

Automation and Composability: Replace traditional intermediaries with smart contracts and compose with existing DeFi and identity protocols on Base. This lets you build faster by integrating proven infrastructure.

Bridge Web2 to Onchain: Use tools like Smart Wallet and Onramp to create apps that feel Web2 but function Web3 under the hood. Think onboarding with passkeys, names like you.base, and gasless UX.

Local Solutions: Builders can solve real challenges unique to their communities. Whether it’s improving remittances, digitizing informal economies, or building social tools for underserved groups. Base’s flexibility can help you deliver tailored solutions that matter.

Use this framework to start with purpose and build for the long term.

Building onchain isn’t about being perfect, it’s about starting with clarity and creating something that lasts.

The BASELINE Questionnaire is a simple and practical tool for builders who want to create successful onchain apps. It helps you pressure test your idea by focusing on four key areas:

1. Ecosystem Fit: Does it align with how things are built on the Base ecosystem?

2. User Fit: Are you solving a real problem for a clear audience?

3. Product–Market Fit: Will people use it more than once, even without incentives?

4. Accessibility: Can someone new to crypto actually use it?

Base isn’t just infrastructure, it’s a cultural movement. 

Question to ask yourself: 

• Does it reflect any Based values?

Then, check your idea against these values:

• Onchain first: real utility and transparency

• Permissionless: no gatekeepers

• Composable: make it buildable for others

• Community powered: build with and for real people

• Positive sum: contribute to the ecosystem, don’t just extract from it

• Build for the long term: sustainable, resilient projects that grow with the ecosystem

Every great product idea begins with understanding the people it's meant to serve. Before thinking about tech or features, focus on the humans behind the use case and solving real problems for real communities.

Questions to ask yourself: 

• Who am I building for?

• What problem are they struggling with today?

• What’s painful, expensive, slow, or inaccessible in their current experience?

Helpful Tip: Look for underserved communities or workflows where onchain tools could help, especially in emerging markets.

Great ideas stick because they solve a clear, repeatable need. We build things people actually want, not just for hype.

Questions to ask yourself: 

• Is this something people will want to use more than once?

• Does it create new value, not just replicate what already exists?

• Would this still be useful if the incentives disappeared?

The global onchain economy thrives when tools are open and usable by anyone, anywhere. Default to inclusion. Build for the 99 percent.

Questions to ask yourself: Is your product

• Mobile-friendly?

• Low-fee and stablecoin-compatible?

• Simple enough for first-time users?

• Language-agnostic where possible?

If the Baseline doesn’t work for you, here are a few other techniques to unblock your creativity:

• Painstorming: Start with frustration. What’s annoying or inefficient for users today? Solve that.

• What if chain: Ask “What if X was onchain?” Then ask “What would that unlock?” Repeat 3 to 4 times.

• Day in the life mapping: Pick a real person (like an artist, student, or merchant) and map their day. Where could onchain tools help?

• Mashups: Combine two concepts that don’t usually go together (like stablecoins and education) and see what happens.

• Real world first: Think about physical world problems in your local community and imagine how onchain tech could solve them.