For years, the crypto community has been chasing the elusive 'ETH killer'—projects promising to dethrone Ethereum's dominance. Then Base emerged. Whether it's truly displaced Ethereum or simply carved out its own ecosystem niche remains hotly debated. What's undeniable is that Base has fundamentally reshaped the Layer 2 conversation, forcing a reckoning about what scalability solutions can actually achieve. The narrative has shifted from pure replacement fantasies to genuine protocol innovation. Base's growth trajectory challenges assumptions about Ethereum's longevity, but perhaps the real story isn't about killing anything—it's about how competing chains are reshaping the entire blockchain landscape.