Original Title: Base Stole 3 Years of My Life
Original Author: @weretuna
Translated by: Peggy, BlockBeats
Editor's Note: Base once used the slogan "Build on Base. We will support you." to attract countless developers, but there is often a silent gap between promises and reality.
The author of this article, @weretuna, is a co-founder of @pndmdotorg, a studio focused on creating viral Ponzi-style blockchain games on Solana. Drawing from the team's three-year journey, this article chronicles their experiences—from initial investment and waiting, through disappointment, to a rapid turnaround after migrating to Solana. It highlights a crucial truth: the success or failure of an ecosystem is never determined by slogans, but by who is willing to provide real resources and attention to applications. For all builders still "waiting for support," this is a sobering reminder of reality.
The following is the original text:
"Build on Base. We've got your back."
This was their original promise. We believed in it for three whole years. During these three years, we launched over 10 products: games, AI agents, prediction markets, and zkTLS-related products. We've basically dedicated our entire lives to developing on Base.
What did we end up with?
Nothing at all. No forwards. No replies. Not even a group chat.
Last year, we created @infecteddotfun—the most popular and viral game on Base. We grew a brand new account to 50,000 followers in just one month. It went wildly viral across all platforms, and people couldn't stop talking about it.
But Base didn't even retweet our launch post.
At that moment, I finally completely understood: what had gone wrong.
And the problem is very serious.
Why do we believe?
When I first discovered Base, it was almost an "obvious" choice. At that time, the fragmentation of L2s was a complete mess. Building a product is already hard enough, and deciding which chain to build on was even harder.
Then Base launched—backed by Coinbase, featuring "social media-style technology." Jesse and his team aggressively promoted the "application-first" narrative. For the first time in a long while, I finally felt that someone actually cared about applications, rather than just focusing on infrastructure.
It looks like a truly "developer-first" chain. They say they care about developers. They say they will help you with marketing. They say they are different.
Looking back, it was just better marketing. We fell for it like that.
A slow realization
Over time, my belief in Base began to waver.
The first real crack became apparent when they started aggressively promoting Farcaster and Zora—not necessarily because these products were the best, but because they had invested in these companies. It was at that moment I finally understood how this entire system actually works.
The crypto industry really likes to pretend that blockchain is "permissionless and open"—anyone can participate, and the best product will win. Since there are so few applications that have truly achieved product-market fit, I always thought this space encouraged experimentation and diversity.
But the reality is: either you create things they like, or you belong to that circle. Everyone else is just the "backdrop" used to bring attention and liquidity to this chain.
But on X, they'll still say: "Build on Base, and we'll help you break through."
And we believed. We spent three years developing. We launched over 10 apps. We bet our lives on it.
But they never respond to us on X. Discord doesn't respond. Telegram doesn't respond. We can't even get a group chat.
Support? None.
I think the reason is simple: what we do is not what they like.
Come here yourself
So we decided not to wait any longer. Alright, then we'll break through on our own.
We spent several months brainstorming back and forth, and finally created @infecteddotfun — a game where you "spread a virus on the blockchain."
It exploded directly.
A brand new account that gained 50,000 followers in just one month. Became one of the most popular games on Base.
It was only at this point that the Base team finally began to respond to us. They said, "We will support your launch." They said, "Leave it to us." They said, "Just wait a bit longer."
So we waited.
The launch day arrived. You know what? Nothing happened at all.
No tweets. No retweets. No support at all.
Imagine this: you've spent five months working on a product, and you've finally built up enough momentum to get them to promise "support." But just when it matters most, that support suddenly vanishes.
When I asked for the reason, the response was vague, politically charged, and completely illogical.
Watch what they do, rather than listen to what they say.
The worst thing is not actually what happens to us.
Worst of all, this happens to everyone. But no one dares to speak up. Because once you're already on Base, you become a "hostage." You don't want to strain relationships—what if you still need them someday? So you stay silent.
While Base continues to pretend to support developers.
If you only want to support a few selected projects, that's fine too. Just be straightforward about it. Don't act as if you're a blockchain that supports all builders while picking "favorites" behind the scenes. What they say and what they do are completely different things.
So we left.
Everything changed after I left.
We have migrated to Solana.
Six months later, we launched @addicteddotfun, the biggest crypto game of 2025. It generated $4 million in revenue within 48 hours.
We didn't suddenly become smarter. We just left a chain that treats developers as NPCs. Our next game @jaileddotfun is also coming to Solana soon. All future games will be built on Solana.
We will never build any product on Base or Ethereum again.
Conclusion
I used to think that the competition between Ethereum and Solana was a good thing. Developers should be able to build wherever they want. But after wasting three years of my life, I now believe it actually creates negative returns for the industry.
Too many excellent builders are still stuck in ecosystems like Base. I'm not at all surprised: many people, once they move to Solana, will experience sudden growth of 10x, or even 100x, just like we did.
Developers should go where the users are. And today, both users and liquidity are on Solana. This isn't a "bigger chain" stance—it's outcome-driven, based on our own data and the experiences of our friends.
I've already wasted enough time on Base.
So you don't have to waste any more.
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