Stablecoins Are Future Of Commerce, Says Base's Tom Vieira

Stablecoins are the future of commerce, according to Tom Vieira, Head of Product for Base, Coinbase's COIN Ethereum ETH/USD Layer-2 network. He highlighted on Friday their role in driving a global on-chain economy.

What Happened: Speaking with Benzinga in an interview, Vieira pointed to stablecoins' utility in payments as a key example of real-world cryptocurrency adoption, alongside gaming and social applications, as Base scales to meet consumer needs with recent performance boosts.

Vieira elaborated on stablecoins' practicality within Base's ecosystem, emphasizing their potential to enable local currency transactions worldwide.

"Stablecoins really are the future of commerce and we are passionate," he said, detailing a vision where every country could have its own stablecoin, preserving local economic preferences over dollarization.

He cited Base's "Based Around the World" tour last year—spanning Kenya, India, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines—as evidence of this push, bolstered by a testnet upgrade cutting transaction times to 200 milliseconds from two seconds, with mainnet rollout pending.

Beyond payments, Vieira highlighted gaming and social platforms as additional on-chain successes. In gaming, apps like Blocklord's Dynasty and Super Champs allow players to own and earn from digital collectibles, unlike Web2 models such as Fortnite.

Also Read: Bitcoin’s 24% Correction ‘Mostly Technical’ Say Experts

Socially, "Apps like Farcaster, Zora, and Rodeo are really innovating to help connect fans closer with creators so that creators earn more," he said, noting higher creator take rates compared to traditional media.

These use cases, he argued, demonstrate adoption beyond speculation, supported by Base's focus on builder sustainability through grants and build-a-thons, including last year's $1 million ETH giveaway.

Vieira tied Base's efforts to broader Ethereum scaling, with contributions like blob space enhancements, while addressing decentralization.

"We want to make sure that we strike the right balance of a performance sequencer that is fast, affordable block space, but that still maintains the good critical properties of blockchain," he said, referencing fault proofs launched last quarter and a 2025 stage-one decentralization goal.

Base's smart wallet, now with sub-accounts, aims to ease onboarding, a bottleneck he sees as critical to mainstream adoption.

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