[Base Founder: Betting on On-Chain Social Was a Mistake, Will Focus on Trading, Payments, and AI Agents] Odaily Planet Daily News – Base founder Jesse Pollak published a post reflecting on the development direction over the past two years, admitting that the previous bet on native on-chain social was a mistake. He stated that social directions such as Farcaster, Zora, Miniapps, and creator coins failed to become the core drivers of crypto adoption. As a result, Base has lagged behind some competitors in areas like perpetual contracts, prediction markets, tokenization, and payments. Pollak mentioned that in the future, Base will position itself as "the blockchain for global finance," with a focus on three key areas by 2026: trading, payments, and AI Agents. Trading will encompass tokenized stocks, meme coins, and application tokens; payments will center around global stablecoins for individuals and businesses; and AI Agents will leverage cryptocurrency as the native currency for computers, serving participants in the future large-scale machine economy. Additionally, Base applications will be handed back to the Coinbase team, with Cobie taking over to drive progress, potentially expanding beyond the Base ecosystem. Pollak also stated that Base will continue to support developers through Base Layer, Base Batches, the ecosystem fund, and Coinbase's distribution resources.