yes, swap.hive is wrapped hive and we have used it for a while.
Also a base wallet is just a metamask wallet, and I am told Hive:USDC pool is in the works shortly after they launch Hive:BTC and Hive:HBD pools.
@lordbutterfly is the right person to answer these things in detail and so I will defer the absolute mechanism questions to him.
Interesting! Yeah , that's why I am very excited about VSC news... It will bring a bit of novelty around here =) we need that!