We're Leaving Base. Here's Why.

Hey everyone,

We've got some important news to share: Universal Page will no longer support the Base blockchain. This wasn't an easy decision, but we believe it's the right one for us, and we want to be open and honest about why we're making this move.

Why We Chose Base in the First Place

When we first integrated Base, we were thrilled about the possibilities. We thought that by adding support for another blockchain, we'd make Universal Page more accessible and attract more creators. We envisioned artists minting NFTs 2.0, engaging with a broader ecosystem, and effortlessly moving between LUKSO and Base. We put a lot of time and effort into making this happen—making NFTs 2.0 backwards compatible, building tools for cross-chain Universal Profiles, and creating smooth pathways between Base and LUKSO.

The Challenges We Encountered

1. Competing with Base's Smart Wallet

Not long after we started working on Base, they launched their own Smart Wallet. In many ways, their Smart Wallet directly competes with Universal Profiles, which put us in a tricky spot. We tried to make it work by integrating their Smart Wallet as a controller for a Universal Profile, but we kept the profiles at the heart of our platform. Meaning you still make the transactions with your profile, need funds in your profile to make transactions, and receive the assets in your profile.

But even with these adjustments, it felt like Base wasn't fully behind us. They seemed more interested in projects that put the Smart Wallet front and center. This made the promotional plans fall flat, and we didn't get the visibility we were hoping for in the Base ecosystem.

2. Lack of Promotional Support

One big reason we went for Base was to get more exposure. They promised to help promote us with shoutouts and social media posts. But after we launched, those promises didn't come through. It seemed like they preferred to spotlight projects that just focused on using the Smart Wallet directly instead of a project that works with Universal Profiles and is also focussed on LUKSO.

3. The Reality of Being Bootstrapped

Supporting Base for our platform isn't cheap, and as a bootstrapped company with very limited resources, we have to be smart about where we spend our resources. Without the traction we expected, continuing to support Base just doesn't make financial sense. We need to focus on what's sustainable for us in the long run.

4. Questions About Alignment and Community

We also began to question how well Base's ecosystem aligns with our values around decentralization and open community engagement. While they delivered on the technical side, some things felt off. On the surface, it looks like a lot of exciting things are happening on Base. But when we looked closer, we noticed issues like people being banned from Discord without clear reasons, a lack of true decentralization, and a fragmented community that doesn't feel as cohesive as for example the LUKSO community.

It was also challenging to gain traction as a new project in this space. Platforms like Farcaster often felt bot-driven, and despite many builders on Base, much of the activity we saw involved promoting meme coins and simple projects lacking innovation or utility. We acknowledge that there are great things happening on Base, and we respect how they've grown their ecosystem and attracted so many people. However, we felt the reality didn't quite match the initial impression. This disconnect made us rethink whether Base is the right place to build the kind of open, engaged creator community we envision.

What This Means for Universal Profiles on Base

If you have a Universal Profile on Base, we recommend that you use the next two weeks to transfer any bridged ETH you still have on your profile to a wallet like Coinbase Wallet, Rabby, Metamask, etc.

Starting November 18, we'll remove Base from our user interface, which will make it harder to manage your Universal Profile on Base. As far as we know, there aren't any other platforms supporting Universal Profiles on Base right now. While your assets on IPFS and the blockchain will still be there, you won't be able to access them easily through our platform anymore.

Looking Ahead

Our infrastructure is still flexible, and we're open to supporting multiple chains in the future if it makes sense. However, we're planning to focus on LUKSO for now and will be removing Base from our platform. We've learned a lot from this experience, but it has also been a great disappointment for us as we really need the community to grow and thrive in order to survive. Hopefully, the LUKSO community can make a comeback and we can continue to build the best platform we can.

Thank you for sticking with us on this journey. We appreciate your support.