India’s Need for Pro-Crypto Banking, Roadmap for Base: Interview with Coinbase’s Jessse Pollak

India, securing the top position on Chainalysis' Global Crypto Adoption Index for the second consecutive year in 2024, has earned widespread recognition for its vibrant and skilled community of Web3 developers. Jesse Pollak, a senior Coinbase official, shares this sentiment, describing Indian developers in the fields of crypto, DeFi, and blockchain applications as highly ‘sophisticated' in their understanding and innovation with distributed ledger technology (DLT). As the creator of Coinbase's Layer-2 blockchain, ‘Base,' and the lead for Coinbase Wallet services, Pollak brings a wealth of expertise to these observations.

In December, Bengaluru hosted the second edition of India Blockchain Week, celebrating the industry's achievements in 2024. The event united Web3 investors, developers, and community members to address existing challenges and outline focus areas for growth as the sector prepares for 2025. During the event, Jesse Pollak spoke with Gadgets 360, sharing insights on the roadmap for Coinbase's Base blockchain and his observations on India's evolving Web3 landscape.

Pollak had visited India earlier in November, traveling to Bengaluru—often referred to as India's Silicon Valley—to engage directly with Web3 builders. Reflecting on these interactions, he highlighted the exceptional skills and technical expertise of Indian blockchain developers, which stood out during his on-ground meetings.

Pollak's Observations on India's Web3 Market

“Indian builders are sophisticated and passionate about contributing to the global on-chain economy. learned a lot from interacting on the ground with builders in Bengaluru,” Pollak told Gadgets 360.

During the discussions, Pollak noted that India's Web3 sector faces a significant challenge beyond regulatory delays: the limited availability of borrowing and credit facilities.

This challenge stems from the strained relationship Indian banks have had with the crypto sector in recent years. In 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), skeptical of cryptocurrencies, prohibited banks from offering services to crypto firms. However, in 2020, the Supreme Court of India overturned this ban, paving the way for renewed interaction. Despite this, Indian banks continue to grapple with defining their stance and engagement with the Web3 industry.

ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Yes Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, and IDFC First Bank reportedly offer crypto buying, selling, and storage services alongside customer awareness and education services. The trend of banks issuing loans against crypto assets as collateral is still not as popular among traditional financial institutions.

“There is a huge opportunity for on-chain micro-lending and credit. Tokenisation of assets, on-chain identity credentials, and updating legacy systems can help bring this to reality. Another massive opportunity is cross-border payments. While traditional finance, international payments across borders can take days and be prohibitively expensive, onchain cross-border payments operate 24/7,” Pollak noted.

Currently, a significant portion of Web3 startups in India depend on funding from venture capitalists and alternative sources.

Pollak's Vision for Base Blockchain

After thorough testing, Coinbase officially made its Base blockchain live in August 2023. The Layer-2 blockchain is built atop the Ethereum blockchain. As per its official website, Base aims to keep gas fees under 1 cent (roughly Rs. 0.002519) while also maintaining the transaction speed at under a second.

Discussing the future of Base, Pollak emphasised his commitment to transitioning the currently centralised blockchain toward greater decentralisation.

“Base benefits in many ways from our relationship with Coinbase. At the same time, we believe that Base must be decentralised, because decentralisation will help enable a global, open, on-chain economy that will unlock economic freedom around the world,” Pollak said.

Two key areas of focus in 2025 will be to make wallets easier and more accessible while also bringing more currencies on-chain, Pollak noted.

“In 2025, we're focusing on making getting on-chain with a wallet dead simple. We want anyone --even people who have no experience on-chain -- to be able to get started in seconds. Secondly, stablecoins are key to the global on-chain economy. But to bring the world on-chain, it's crucial for people to be able to interact in their local currency. By 2026, we want to bring over 100 local currencies on Base,” the blockchain creator added.