Base App Discontinues Creator Rewards Program to Prioritize Trading Focus
Following the public launch of the Base App in December, Jesse Pollak, the platform's creator, stated the team has learned "we need to do less, better."
The Base App, Coinbase's ambitious "Everything App" platform, is winding down its Creator Rewards initiative and discontinuing its Farcaster-integrated social feed as it pivots strategically toward an exclusive concentration on assets available for trading.
Initially introduced in July, the Creator Rewards program aimed to transform Ethereum layer 2 Base into a more socially-oriented ecosystem, enabling creators to convert their activity and user engagement into monetary compensation.
According to an announcement from the Base App X account on Monday, approximately $450,000 was distributed among 17,000 content creators throughout a seven-month period, with calculations showing creators received roughly $26 on average.
"As we've rolled the app out, we've realized we need to do less, better. And by focusing on tradable assets, that's exactly what we can do," Base creator Jesse Pollak said, adding:
"The app needs to have one primary focus, and that thing is trading."
The Creator Rewards program on the Base App will conclude operations on Sunday, with creators receiving their final compensation payments on Feb. 18.
Regarding Farcaster integration, Pollak acknowledged that the Base App wasn't an ideal platform for the talk feed functionality, although he emphasized his commitment to continuing support for the decentralized social network and the community of developers building on it.
"…candidly, I think the truth is that the base app was always an imperfect farcaster client," said Pollak.
"With this change, I expect those users to flow back to the farcaster app (myself included) and inject more energy into the economy there, with a best in class interface."
Base App is at the center of Coinbase's future
This strategic pivot toward tradable assets is consistent with Coinbase's overarching vision to develop an "Everything App" that encompasses spot cryptocurrency and derivatives trading, stablecoin operations, tokenization of real-world assets, prediction markets and additional services.
The Base App, which had its official public debut in December following an extended beta testing phase, serves as the self-custody wallet and comprehensive platform that facilitates a portion of this trading ecosystem.
Coinbase had also previously expressed interest in the potential introduction of a Base token. However, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Pollak have been relatively silent on that plan in recent months.
The discontinuation of the Creator Rewards program does not impact the Base App's Creator Coins offering, which enables users to generate ERC-20 tokens that are connected to their Base App profile and the decentralized social media platform Zora.