# Jesse Pollak

> Jesse Pollak is the creator and head of Base, Coinbase's Ethereum layer 2 network. A former Clef cofounder and Coinbase consumer engineering leader, he took Base from a 2023 launch to a widely used onchain platform, then refocused the network on trading, payments and AI agents after publicly acknowledging that its social app strategy had missed the mark.

- **Role:** Head of Base at Coinbase
- **Organizations:** Base, Coinbase, Clef, Optimism Collective
- **From:** Washington, D.C., United States
- **Education:** Studied computer science; left before graduating, Pomona College, Sidwell Friends School
- **Known for:** Cofounded Clef, a passwordless login startup developed with Pomona College collaborators; Pollak wrote that it powered logins on more than one million websites., Led Coinbase consumer engineering as its team grew from a few engineers to roughly 200., Created Base, a Coinbase-incubated Ethereum layer 2 that opened publicly in August 2023.

## Career timeline

- **2012** — First encountered Bitcoin and crypto, according to a later interview.
- **2013** — Worked with Brennen Byrne and Mark Hudnall on Clef, a phone-based alternative to passwords, while at Pomona College.
- **2017** — After Clef joined Twilio and Pollak took time off, he became engineering manager of Coinbase's brokerage team.
- **2017-2021** — Led consumer-facing engineering at Coinbase, including work on Coinbase, Coinbase Pro and Coinbase Wallet; the organization grew from a few engineers to about 200.
- **2021-2023** — Explored ways to bring Coinbase onchain; after multiple abandoned ideas, led development of Base.
- **2023-08** — Opened Base mainnet to the public as an Ethereum layer 2 built on the OP Stack.
- **2024-10** — Took leadership of Coinbase Wallet in addition to Base and joined Coinbase's executive team.
- **2026-07** — Handed Base App leadership back to Coinbase and refocused on Base's underlying network, prioritizing trading, payments and AI agents.

## Achievements

- Cofounded Clef, a passwordless login startup developed with Pomona College collaborators; Pollak wrote that it powered logins on more than one million websites.
- Led Coinbase consumer engineering as its team grew from a few engineers to roughly 200.
- Created Base, a Coinbase-incubated Ethereum layer 2 that opened publicly in August 2023.
- Helped form Base's OP Stack collaboration with Optimism and publicly outlined Base's governance role.
- Hosted Base's Onchain Summer Stories livestreams in 2023; Base reported more than 200,000 views for the series.

## Latest updates

- **2026-08** — In an interview, said the Base App under Jordan Fish would become less Base-centric as it broadened trading across networks.
- **2026-07** — Handed leadership of the Base App to Coinbase and publicly acknowledged that the social and creator coin strategy had missed expectations; shifted his focus to Base network infrastructure.
- **2025-12** — CoinDesk included Pollak in its 2025 Most Influential coverage, citing Base's growth.

## Links

- Website: https://jesse.xyz/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessepollak/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/jessepollak
- GitHub: https://github.com/jessepollak

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/jesse-pollak
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-29