Key Takeaways
- Base’s Xen Baynham-Herd said this week’s AWS outage, which disrupted Coinbase and other major platforms, underscored how much the crypto industry still depends on centralized cloud infrastructure.
- Drawing comparisons to Ethereum’s slow evolution, Baynham-Herd told CCN it could be “years” before decentralized infrastructure can truly rival centralized services.
- The growth said Base is interested in attracting more Web2 developers.
When a major AWS outage took down large swaths of the internet this week, including Coinbase, Reddit, Hulu and Xbox, it offered a sharp reminder of how dependent even the most advanced digital platforms remain on centralized infrastructure.
Speaking to CCN on the sidelines of Zebu Live in London, Xen Baynham-Herd, Head of Global Builders at Base, said the AWS outage showed how far the crypto industry still had to go to achieve its founding goal of decentralization.
AWS Outage Paints Bad Picture
During the outage, Coinbase confirmed that some users were unable to access their accounts, citing problems at Amazon Web Services, which hosts much of the exchange’s backend infrastructure.
The company assured customers that “all funds are safe” and later reported “early signs of recovery.”
Base, which is incubated by Coinbase but operates as its own layer-2 blockchain network, felt “very little impact” during the disruption.
However, Baynham-Herd said the outage brought renewed attention to the broader crypto ecosystem’s dependency on centralized cloud providers.
“It obviously had an impact across the internet,” he said.
“I think crypto should become more decentralized and less reliant upon centralized servers,” he added.
“There are a number of crypto projects working on that. We’ve not got there yet, so I think it’s a goal.”
Lessons from Ethereum
Baynham-Herd told CCN that he believed the path toward a truly decentralized infrastructure would take years.
The Base head of growth drew parallels to Ethereum’s decade-long journey toward mainstream use.
“At every point, Ethereum could have made decisions to be more centralized in order to scale faster, and they didn’t,” he said.
“Because of that, we now have the benefit of people building on Ethereum because it’s decentralized and has a strong track record,” he added.
“Judging by the growth of Ethereum, how long it took people to build on that, I think it’ll be years until we see decentralized AWS really go big. But I think we’ll get there eventually.”
Building an Open Global Economy
This push for mass decentralization is central to Base’s philosophy, he said.
“The values of Base are building an open global economy — one that increases innovation, creativity and freedom. And part of that is being open,” he said.
Adding: “It means being open to other chains, other ecosystems, other types of users.”
He described Base as “a bridge, not an island,” emphasizing its inclusive, cross-chain approach.
Base’s global builder initiative has been expanding rapidly since Baynham-Herd joined in January.
“We’ve hired specific people in over 16 countries around the world who are dedicated to being on the ground and growing that builder ecosystem,” Baynham-Herd said.
“The culture is very much around building real utility and real long-term use cases,” he added.
The company’s Base Batches program, a global build-a-thon turned accelerator, has attracted “thousands of applications,” he said.
The initiative will culminate in a demo day in Buenos Aires on November 17, followed by new founder residencies in Kenya and Malaysia.
Web2 Developers Crossing Over
Baynham-Herd also said an increasing number of Web2 developers are joining Base’s ecosystem.
“At our hackathons we’re seeing a mix of developers who have never tried using crypto before, as well as existing on-chain developers,” he said.
The growth head said part of Base’s push was to pursue the opportunity of Web2 developers “coming to crypto because they can do new things which they couldn’t do before.”
“For example, Web2 developers interested in AI are coming to crypto because they see an opportunity to add a wallet to an agent using agent kit, or do payments online on web using a protocol,” he told CCN.
“This enables very easy payments across the web with a couple of lines of code,” he added.
Over time, he believes interest from Web2 developers will grow into a much bigger area.
Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
