TLDR; The Braintrust Network has moved all of its user accounts on-chain to Base, the first big step, which will allow its over 670,000 talent members to exchange bespoke career advice and mentorship using the BTRST token using Coinbase Pay (easy credit/debit on-ramp) on a fast, low-fee blockchain, thus making BTRST a valuable commodity amongst the millions of global knowledge workers that are highly motivated to upskill their career to have a more fulfilling career, make more money, and stay out of the way of the AI freight train!
Why Base?
- Before this, BTRST was only available on Ethereum mainnet, it will continue to be.
- Base is a fast and cheap L2 and allows Braintrust to cover gas fees for its users.
- Coinbase has introduced native fiat on-ramp support, allowing users to purchase BTRST tokens using their credit or debit card and have them instantly available on the Base chain. Base is an L2 that underpins the Coinbase network. The team had tried to implement this feature on Polygon, Solana, and other L2s for over a year. However, the combination of a fast L2 and Onramp solution was either too difficult or too expensive to work with. As a result, we considered complicated solutions like converting to USDC first and then swapping to BTRST, which was a technological and reconciliation headache, a costly workaround or did not provide the simple user experience we were after for our non-crypto native users.
- Coinbase is the most reputable firm in the business and our persistence and partnership got us to the desired experience without sacrificing user experience.
- Braintrust growth can now be publicly available on chain.
- Additional Braintrust marketplace and professional network transactions can now be recorded directly on chain and publicly visible.
Why it matters:
- Transparency around how many BTRST token holders there are and how much network activity there is; prior to this, nearly all activity was off-chain. This will allow the community to build on-chain analytics and dashboards.
- Easy access to purchasing BTRST will allow the 670,000 professionals in the Professional Network to earn for providing 1:1 mentorship sessions and valuable advice in addition to offering free help. BTRST purchases on the Professional Network via Coinbase Pay should be live in the next few weeks.
- Enables us to launch incentive mechanisms to enhance the overall career journey experience for all talent members and mentors and fulfill Braintrust’s mission to be the place for talent to earn, learn and grow.
- Enhance referral engine and engagement gamification: the current referral engine has been almost entirely off-chain until someone withdraws to mainnet (< 10% do). Being on a fast and cheap L2 allows for far greater experimentation with dynamic and composable/embeddable upgrades to the referral engine.
- Gamification with a liquid token. Gamification is a well-known tactic that allows sites to use points or other digital credits to incentivize behavior. What if you mixed the best gamification techniques with a liquid token that can be transferred, bought, and sold easily and cheaply? We’re about to find out.
How to get and use BTRST on Base & Coinbase.com:
- I want to Buy BTRST on Coinbase.com
- Soon, you’ll be able to buy BTRST directly on the Braintrust platform using Coinbase Pay. Until that feature is live, use the following process. We’ll update this HOW TO with instructions on how to do that.
Step 1: Click Deposit at the top of the screen
Step 2: Select “Deposit BTRST”
Step 3: Select your “Pay with” method - your cash balance on Coinbase or your linked bank account/credit card
Step 4: Enter the amount in USD you’d like to purchase of BTRST, then click “Preview Buy”
Then you see the order summary - how much BTRST you’re getting plus any fees.
Step 5: Click Buy Now.
The BTRST tokens will end up in your Coinbase BTRST wallet. From there, you can follow the next steps to get them off Coinbase and onto Base.
How to deposit my BTRST on Base or Braintrust into Coinbase.com
Step 1: Click Deposit at the top of the screen
Step 2: Select “Deposit BTRST”
Step 3: Select “Receive”
Step 4: Select your network, Ethereum or Base
You now see your Coinbase deposit address for BTRST on Base - send BTRST to that address. If you’re unsure, do a test transaction first (0.1 BTRST)
If you’re withdrawing BTRST from the Braintrust platform, that is ONLY supported on Base, so use this address to paste into the withdrawal screen on Braintrust.
Important links:
Big thanks to the Coinbase team, Jesse Pollak and the Base team.