diff --git a/src/dawn_native/Device.cpp b/src/dawn_native/Device.cpp
index cf65c420d0..67020a0dbe 100644
--- a/src/dawn_native/Device.cpp
+++ b/src/dawn_native/Device.cpp
@@ -902,19 +902,6 @@ namespace dawn_native {
         return !IsDeviceIdle();
     }
 
-    void DeviceBase::Reference() {
-        ASSERT(mRefCount != 0);
-        mRefCount++;
-    }
-
-    void DeviceBase::Release() {
-        ASSERT(mRefCount != 0);
-        mRefCount--;
-        if (mRefCount == 0) {
-            delete this;
-        }
-    }
-
     QueueBase* DeviceBase::GetQueue() {
         // Backends gave the primary queue during initialization.
         ASSERT(mQueue != nullptr);
diff --git a/src/dawn_native/Device.h b/src/dawn_native/Device.h
index 53e3cc9bd7..32d676791c 100644
--- a/src/dawn_native/Device.h
+++ b/src/dawn_native/Device.h
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ namespace dawn_native {
     struct InternalPipelineStore;
     struct ShaderModuleParseResult;
 
-    class DeviceBase {
+    class DeviceBase : public RefCounted {
       public:
         DeviceBase(AdapterBase* adapter, const DeviceDescriptor* descriptor);
         virtual ~DeviceBase();
@@ -183,9 +183,6 @@ namespace dawn_native {
 
         PersistentCache* GetPersistentCache();
 
-        void Reference();
-        void Release();
-
         virtual ResultOrError<std::unique_ptr<StagingBufferBase>> CreateStagingBuffer(
             size_t size) = 0;
         virtual MaybeError CopyFromStagingToBuffer(StagingBufferBase* source,
@@ -390,7 +387,6 @@ namespace dawn_native {
         struct DeprecationWarnings;
         std::unique_ptr<DeprecationWarnings> mDeprecationWarnings;
 
-        uint32_t mRefCount = 1;
         State mState = State::BeingCreated;
 
         FormatTable mFormatTable;