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Cardano Founder Says He Is Ready to Work with Kraken on Layer 2 Blockchain Network
- Cardano founder posts on X saying he’s ‘game’ to build Kraken’s layer 2 network.
- Kraken layer 2 widely believed to be in the works, though yet to be confirmed.
- Coinbase launched its layer 2 ‘Base’ in August; exchange-owned layer 2’s seemingly becoming a crypto trend.
Outspoken founder of the Cardano blockchain, Charles Hoskinson, has made public his enthusiasm to work with Kraken on its rumoured layer 2 network.
The Cardano founder tagged Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell in a post on X on Sunday saying “I’m game if you are”, including a link to an article speculating on Kraken’s layer 2 plans.
Coinbase Layer 2 Setting The Trend
Kraken’s unconfirmed plan to build its own layer 2 network—based on anonymous sources who spoke to CoinDesk—follows the launch in August of Coinbase’s layer 2, known as Base.
Base was built on Ethereum using the OP stack from leading Ethereum layer 2 network Optimism.
The motivation for Coinbase to launch its own network seems primarily to have been the creation of new revenue streams.
Speaking at the time of the launch of the Base blockchain, Coinbase’s Head of Protocols Jesse Pollak, said the layer 2 would drive innovation, simplify web3 and increase blockchain utility through third party Dapps, which would generate significant revenue for Coinbase through network fees and other monetisation strategies.
What we’re really focused on is increasing utility, which increases the number of use cases that folks can do through Coinbase and increases the opportunity for Coinbase to provide easy-to-use, trusted experiences that we can monetize.”
Jesse Pollak, Coinbase Head of Protocols With the news that Kraken potentially plans to launch its own layer 2, it seems exchange-owned layer 2s may become a trend as exchanges look to expand their income base.
Why not? Why Shouldn’t Hoskinson Build The Layer 2?
Until Hoskinson threw his hat in the ring, anonymous sources had linked Polygon, Matter Labs and Nil Foundation to the creation of Kraken’s layer 2. All of these organisations have experience building scaling solutions for the Ethereum network.
What about Hoskinson and his team; would they be a good fit to build a layer 2 network for Kraken?
Everything so far suggests Kraken are probably planning to build on Ethereum, not Cardano, so either Hoskinson would have to convince Kraken to build on Cardano or the Cardano team would have to dedicate time to building a layer 2 on one of their primary competitors.
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Hoskinson was one of the the five founders of Ethereum in 2013, so he has a deep understanding of the network, so it’s likely he could build a layer 2 on Ethereum.
Hoskinson may be more inclined to try to convince Kraken to build on Cardano to increase the usage of his own network—this is possible as Cardano does have layer 2 capabilities similar to Ethereum and utilises much of the same underlying cryptographic technology.
However, given the other organisations linked to its development and the fact Coinbase used Ethereum, it seems more likely the Kraken layer 2 would be built on Ethereum.
Author
Jody McDonald
Jody is a Brisbane-based freelance writer who specialises in writing about business, technology, and the future of work.
