Crypto Gloss

Base Names

Base Names is the naming system Coinbase built for Base — the moment where Coinbase’s L2 acquired its own identity layer rather than depending on Ethereum L1 ENS. While ENS (Ethereum Name Service) remains the gold standard for on-chain identity (vitalik.eth) it has a friction problem for Base users: ENS names cost $5/year for five-letter names and up to $160/year for three-letter names when using Ethereum L1, which is fine for serious users but prohibitive for the consumer-scale onboarding that Base is targeting. Base Names solves this by building on the ENS L2 Resolver architecture — each Base Name is technically a subdomain of base.eth stored on Base L2 — where gas costs are a fraction of L1, making names like alice.base.eth achievable for cents. The launch in August 2024 included a free first-year promotion (any name for users who qualified via Coinbase’s onboarding criteria) and deep integration into the Base ecosystem — Farcaster shows Base Names, Coinbase Wallet shows Base Names, and OnchainKit’s developer tools make it trivially easy to display a Base Name anywhere in a Base app.

Key Facts

  • Launched: August 2024
  • Operated by: Coinbase / Base (the L2) in partnership with ENS
  • Technical basis: ENS L2 subdomains (basenames are [name].base.eth at the protocol level)
  • Storage chain: Base (L2) — registration data stored on Base, resolved by ENS L2 Resolver on Ethereum
  • Cost: Free for qualifying users in launch promotion; ~$0.10-5/year ongoing depending on name length
  • Supported names: alice.base.eth (resolves on ENS) and alice.base (Base-native shorthand)
  • Integrated into: Coinbase Wallet, Farcaster, OnchainKit, Base Block Explorer
  • Name lengths: 3+ characters; shorter names reserved or premium-priced
  • Profile data: Name, avatar, bio, Farcaster handle, website, verification links
  • Compatible with: Any ENS-resolving application (via L2 CCIP-Read standard)

The ENS L2 Architecture

The protocol is built around the following components.

How L2 Names Work

Base Names use ENS’s CCIP-Read (Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol) standard for L2 name resolution:

Resolution flow for alice.base.eth:

  1. App queries ENS Registry on Ethereum L1 for alice.base.eth
  2. ENS Registry returns the address of the Base L2 Resolver (a special resolver that points off-chain)
  3. The resolver says “call this URL on Base to get the actual resolution” (CCIP-Read off-chain lookup)
  4. The app queries Base’s name registry contract with the name
  5. Base registry returns Alice’s wallet address (and any other profile data)
  6. App displays alice.base.eth → Alice’s address

Why this is significant: ENS already works on any chain; the CCIP-Read standard makes it possible to store names on cheap L2s while maintaining resolution through the canonical L1 ENS ecosystem. Base Names is the first major consumer-facing deployment of this architecture.

Cost implication: The L2 storage makes name registration 100-1000x cheaper than L1 ENS:

  • 5-letter ENS name on L1: $5/year + ~$10-20 gas to register → total ~$15-25 first year
  • 5-letter Base Name on Base: ~$1/year + ~$0.01 gas to register → total ~$1 first year

Identity Profile System

Base Names are more than routing identifiers — they include profile data stored on-chain:

Profile Field Example
Display name “Alice Chen”
Bio “DeFi researcher at Delphi”
Avatar IPFS-hosted image or linked NFT
Website https://alice.xyz
Farcaster @alice (resolved via Farcaster Hub)
Verification ENS Primary Name + EAS attestation links

On-chain storage: Profile data is stored as ENS text records on Base — a mapping of key → value string pairs that any application can query. This is the same standard ENS text records system used on L1, meaning any app that knows how to read ENS text records also knows how to read Base Names profile data.

Linked profiles: When a user sets farcaster text record to their Farcaster FID, applications can display a single unified profile combining:

  • Base Names profile data
  • Farcaster social data (followers, casts, connected accounts)
  • On-chain identity data (NFT holdings, DeFi activity, attestations)

Integration with Base Ecosystem

The following sections cover this in detail.

Coinbase Wallet

Coinbase Wallet displays Base Names as the primary identity for users:

  • Transaction history shows “you sent to alice.base.eth” instead of 0x1234...5678
  • Receiving via Coinbase Wallet shows Base Name in QR code if registered
  • Wallet creation flow includes a prompt to register a Base Name

Farcaster

Base Names are displayed in Farcaster when a user’s connected address has a registered Base Name:

  • Profile: “mikey.base.eth | @mikey” (showing both Farcaster handle and Base Name)
  • Casts: Addresses shown with their Base Name when interacting with DeFi topics
  • Base Name + Farcaster account = strong on-chain identity signal for the Base ecosystem

OnchainKit

The Name component in OnchainKit fetches and displays Base Names:

“`jsx

import { Name } from ‘@coinbase/onchainkit/identity’;

// Displays “alice.base.eth” if registered, “0x1234…5678” otherwise

“`

Developer benefit: Any Base app using OnchainKit automatically shows user-friendly names throughout the UI without any additional backend infrastructure — the resolution is handled by the OnchainKit library calling Base’s L2 Resolver.

Launch Mechanics and Adoption

The following sections cover this in detail.

Free Name Promotion (August 2024)

The Base Names launch included a free first-year name promotion:

  • Coinbase verified users received a free Base Name of their choice (first year)
  • Active Base on-chain users above an activity threshold received free registration
  • The promotion drove significant day-one registrations (hundreds of thousands of names registered in the first week)

Namespace Design

Base Names uses a flat namespace (not hierarchical like some Web3 naming attempts):

  • All names are [name].base.eth — no subcategories, no prefixes
  • Short names (3-4 characters) are reserved or premium-priced to prevent squatting
  • .base shorthand is also supported in the Base in-ecosystem (apps know to resolve .base → .base.eth within the Base context)

Base Names vs. ENS vs. Lens Handles

System Network Cost Ecosystem integration
ENS (.eth) Ethereum L1 $$-$$$$ Universal (all EVM apps)
Base Names (.base.eth) Base L2 $ Base ecosystem apps + ENS-compatible apps
Lens Handles Polygon/Lens Free-$ Lens Protocol apps
Farcaster Names (.farcaster) Farcaster Free (Fname) Farcaster apps only

Key positioning: Base Names occupies the “affordable, ecosystem-native, ENS-compatible” niche — cheaper than L1 ENS for Base users, more universally supported than Lens handles, and more persistent than Farcaster Fname usernames.

Social Media Sentiment

Base Names maintains a community presence typical of DeFi protocols in its niche. CT sentiment is generally sentiment-neutral, with discussion largely among existing users around protocol mechanics, yield opportunities, and security incidents. Token price action drives periodic community activity.

Last updated: 2026-04

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