There are over 7.7 billion people in the world and more than 6 billion of them use mobile phones. People behind Celo, the first ever mobile-first blockchain, saw this as an opportunity to build a financial ecosystem that would enable every mobile user in the world to get their hands on cryptocurrencies.
This open-source platform’s motto is – prosperity for everyone. In order to be able to create a financial system that truly makes it possible for every man alive to prosper, Celo has been engaging in multiple activities related to environmental health, technical research, and education just to name a few. The mission of this innovative project is to reshape local economies and, ultimately, impact the global economy by providing easy access to certain financial tools. Yet, how does Celo give greater access to financial tools exactly?
Celo’s Financial Tools
If you know a thing or two about Esperanto, then it shouldn’t be hard for you to tell the literal meaning of Celo, and it is – purpose. The name of the project is inspired by the spirit of this auxiliary language, and that is building a system that instills trust and connecting people all around the world. Celo aims to solve real-world problems that threaten financial stability and cause global poverty by harnessing the power of blockchain technologies.
Celo takes the full-stack approach, which means that they are offering end-to-end solutions and have no need on relying on other services to get applications built on their platform fully operative. This also guarantees the speed, stability, and security of these applications.
The platform boasts a collection of resources, DeFi tools, services, and applications that 1) make it simple for users to make wallets and manage their digital assets and 2) make it equally simple for developers to deploy useful, mobile-friendly dApps and build integrations.
Celo’s EVM – Ethereum Virtual Machine enables deploying fast and secure dApps. It is interoperable with the hottest Ethereum developer tools for developing applications, deploying contracts, and running tests, such as MetaMask or Truffle.
Thanks to Celo, Moss, AllBridge, and Optics, developers can easily build cross-platform dApps or the ones that connect to external data with the help of RedStone oracles, Band Protocol, or Celo Reserve Oracles.
So far, thousands of applications had been built on Celo, some of which include Aave, Curve, Moola, Valora, Impact Market, and Ubeswap. Moola is a popular lending protocol and Ubeswap is a mobile-first DeFi exchange that should increase liquidity on Celo.
Valora is a mobile payments app built on the Celo blockchain that makes it a breeze to make all kinds of crypto transactions and collect rare digital art, also known as NFTs. It features Cello Dollar, Euro, and Brazilian Real payments, enables sending and storing each of them, and even rewards users for doing so. With Valora, users can send funds to people who are not even using crypto wallets.
Celo Funding
Not only does Celo paves the way for developers so they can build dApps but the project also provides funding and supports the ones who are trying to help them with creating a world of prosperity for all and empower their ecosystem. All this wouldn’t be possible without the Celo Foundation Grant program, the Celo Ecosystem Venture Fund, and Flori Ventures. In fact, the team has plans on investing $100 million in projects who will make the DeFi world more accessible for everyone.
Which Problems Is Celo Solving?
Currently, cryptocurrencies are still not as accessible to everyone as they should be. Money is not as mobile as it should be nor is sending money as low-cost as it should be.
With Celo, gas fees are almost non-existent (an average transaction will cost you less than $0.01). Transaction fees are paid in stablecoins, which means users can enjoy spending crypto like fiat money. Celo’s goal is to make sending payments as easy as sending a text message and making crypto money global and widely accepted.
This makes it a breeze even for people who are not familiar with cryptocurrencies as well as the one owning low-cost mobile devices with limited connectivity to still use the Celo platform.
CELO is Celo’s native asset that supports this entire ecosystem. Holding the token gives holders voting rights and a chance to generate even more tokens passively, by staking them. And then, on the other hand, we have the above-mentioned Celo stablecoins – cUSD, cEUR, and cREAL that enable faster and cheaper mobile phone transactions. They are the answer to some of the main problems related to other stablecoins (such as Tether), including high entry barriers, slow networks, and usability issues just to name a few.
These stablecoins are paving the way for effortless online payments, cross-border payments, distribution of charitable aid, and transferring the value of currencies that are susceptible to volatility without messing up with exchanges that make money out of fees.
Summary
So, to conclude – how does Celo give greater access to financial tools? Well, that’s because the team behind the project is a team of builders who have a greater purpose in mind. Striving to create an ecosystem that truly enables everyone to live a prosperous life and reap the benefits Web3 world has to offer, they have built a family of financial tools that make payments borderless and accessible to all. They have also been supporting the creation of a myriad of other Web3 tools that allow other builders and creators to join them on their mission.
