Base Introduces New Standards for On-Chain Attribution
The Base network has introduced "Builder Codes" and the ERC-8021 standard to improve on-chain attribution. These technical upgrades are designed to make it easier to identify the creators and origins of smart contracts and tokens. The new standards aim to enhance the reliability of smart money tracking and wallet behavior analysis.
- The ERC-8021 standard was proposed by Conner Swenberg and is currently in "Draft" status. Its primary goal is to replace inconsistent attribution methods with a structured, interoperable standard. - The system works by appending a data suffix to the end of transaction calldata, which means it can be used with any existing smart contract without requiring any modifications or redeployments. - Builder Codes are minted as ERC-721 NFTs, which represent unique, alphanumeric codes between 1 and 32 characters long. Each code is associated with a specific payout address for receiving potential rewards. - This attribution model is inspired by a similar "builder codes" system on the Hyperliquid platform, which has successfully rewarded app developers for generating trading volume. - As an example of this model's potential, the Phantom wallet application has been earning approximately $100,000 in daily revenue by integrating with Hyperliquid's builder code system for perpetual contract trading. - For developers, the benefits extend beyond direct rewards to include more reliable on-chain usage analytics via the base.dev dashboard and increased visibility through app leaderboards and ecosystem spotlights. - The additional gas cost for including an ERC-8021 suffix is minimal, adding only 16 gas per non-zero byte of data appended to a transaction. - The core challenge ERC-8021 aims to solve is "identity fragmentation," where users interact with protocols through multiple wallets, making it difficult to trace a coherent user journey from off-chain discovery to on-chain action.
