Feb 1
impactMarket Joins Celo’s DeFi for the People Initiative
DeFi for the People (DFTP) is excited to welcome to the initiative impactMarket, a decentralized poverty alleviation protocol that enables the distribution of unconditional basic income (UBI) to those in need. impactMarket’s work is guided by a strong belief that inclusive and expanded access to decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions and tools can empower and increase economic opportunities for the nearly 1.7 billion unbanked people worldwide.
By leveraging Celo’s fully transparent blockchain-based technology, impactMarket efficiently and quickly tracks deposits from donors as well as transfers of funds from the protocol directly to recipients. Currently, the platform accepts contributions of cUSD, CELO, Bitcoin, and Ethereum. Further, aid is delivered without financial intermediaries, drastically reducing the high costs typically associated with cross-border payments.
To date, impactMarket supports nearly 25,000 people from 140 vulnerable communities in over 25 developing countries. An inspiring use case is Brazil, where from October 2020 to October 2021, more than 12,000 people have been lifted out of poverty thanks to impactMarket.
How Celo Ecosystem Partners Support Those In Need
To help further impactMarket’s efforts to support vulnerable communities, several Celo validators and ecosystem projects have contributed, or will pledge funds, in different ways:
- AriSwap — A social blockchain platform that brings together developers and gamers through fun, interactive gaming and an NFT marketplace.
- Ubeswap — A decentralized exchange and automated market maker (AMM) for Celo assets.
- CeloPunks — An early Celo NFT project that sold out its first drop in under 10 minutes.
- CeloApes — Another popular NFT project on the Celo blockchain.
- Mobius — A cross-chain exchange that enables the trading of stable assets with low slippage.
- Moola Market — A leading lending protocol on the Celo blockchain.
All donations from these projects are distributed to impactMarket-supported communities as unconditional basic income.
Earn Rewards for Contributions
With the recent launch of Impact Farming, an incentive mechanism to reward donors, anyone contributing cUSD to back UBI distribution in vulnerable communities can claim $PACT — impactMarket’s governance token — as rewards. Rewards earned are determined based on the amount of cUSD contributed, and there is no commission fee.
impactMarket’s commitment to poverty alleviation is deeply aligned with DFTP’s mission to provide anyone with a mobile phone and an internet connection access to DeFi apps and services. To learn more about DeFi for the People and the growing ecosystem of dapps on Celo, visit DeFi for the People.
