BANGKOK – Coinbase’s Base blockchain launched in August 2023, and grew with the power of memecoins like BALD, a reference to CEO Brian Armstrong’s bare scalp. But the protocol’s creator says there’s more to the story than silliness.
“BALD caught us all by surprise. You know, this was before the public launch of Base. It was when it was just open for developers,” Jesse Pollak said during an interview on the sidelines of Devcon in Bangkok. “I remember waking up on Saturday morning and being like, what is going on? It was not in our plan, and it happened.”
BALD was a salient reminder before Base’s public launch that the crypto space can be unpredictable, and sometimes, rather than trying to control everything, the stewards of a protocol simply need to lean into the chaos and figure out how to turn unexpected situations into something great, Pollak said.
Something that’s not a rugpull, which Bald unfortunately ended up being.
Even…
