IntoTheVerse - Why is IntoTheVerse building on Celo?
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Web3 has been rocked by controversy in November 2022, with the cryptocurrency sector grappling with the fallout from the FTX scandal. Behind the spectacle of the FTX fraud, many companies in Web3 have been quietly soldiering on and working to use blockchain to make a positive difference in the world.
Most prevalent in the news, at the moment, is Celo, whose ecosystem projects have raised $77.3M in support of interoperability in ReFi. Curve Finance, in partnership with StakeDAO and StakeCapital, has also recently deployed on Celo, to promote real-world adoption of crypto assets.
So, in a time of financial uncertainty for Web3, can we confidently celebrate a company that is making small but significant changes to better our world, and how we use cryptocurrency?
Read part 1 of our article below to find out!
What is Celo and what does it do?
Celo is a carbon-neutral, mobile-based blockchain platform that allows users to be able to receive cryptocurrency payments and make decentralized financial applications (DApps), anywhere in the world. It aims to be accessible to all, even catering to users without a traditional bank account, and now has over three million wallet addresses across 100 countries, worldwide.
Celo was founded by GoDaddy executives, Rene Reinsberg and Marek Olszewski, and MIT professor Sep Kamvar in 2017. Their motivation was simple, to build a platform that aimed to include people excluded from the current financial system. Shockingly, Celo’s research indicates that one in every three adults does not have access to a bank account across the world.
The platform uses phone numbers and email addresses as public keys, making it easier to verify people from different communities, regardless of where they live. This allows anyone without a bank account to build up a credit history. Celo also enables users to store and transfer small quantities of money, without inferring large transaction fees.
The Crypties are the cryptocurrency industry’s premier international annual awards initiative honoring excellence in the blockchain ecosystem.
How is Celo pushing boundaries to address inequality?
The divide between the richest and the poorest people around the world has been steadily increasing, over the last thirty years, under our current banking frameworks. The way money is created and loaned to people by banks can help enrich or impoverish their financial situation.
Combined with Web2 monitorisation, it can become difficult for people to navigate their way out of poverty or debt. As Oxfam (2013) cited in their global goal to end extreme wealth by 2025, “extremes in wealth and poverty, around the world can be politically corrosive, socially divisive, environmentally destructive and unethical.”
Celo’s financial infrastructure strives to create prosperity for all through the following measures.
1. By creating a Regenerative Economic System that benefits all
Using Regenerative Finance (ReFi) Celo reimagines finance to account for the needs of all, by rewarding those who create positive change within our world and charging those who negatively affect it.
This creates a new financial model that considers not only current stakeholders but also protects future users and their world, by regenerating unique talent in individuals, making communities stronger economically; and preserving and safeguarding the health and biodiversity of our ecosystems.
Celo is also unusual among blockchains because it has created its own native stablecoins in cUSD, cEUR, and cREAL, with the intention of backing these stablecoins with 40% natural capital-backed assets, for example, forest NFT’s in the Celo Reserve.
The Celo token also enables users to participate in the network consensus, vote on changes to Celo’s Protocol, and earn rewards by becoming a validator.
2. By establishing inclusion with immediate user access with only a connection to the internet and a mobile phone
The average crypto wallet address is 42 characters. Far too complicated for many to engage in cryptocurrency. Celo has simplified the process by allowing users to send transactions to contacts and receive cryptos by aligning phone numbers to public keys.
The Celo Wallet also allows all users to manage multiple accounts and have self-custody over their payments. This reduces the need to depend on third parties to carry out transactions and creates an even playing field for all users to retain ownership over their assets.
3. By encouraging innovation
Developers and designers who build on Celo are rewarded with low transaction fees, with charges being less than a cent, and flexible payment options with ERC20 tokens. There are also fast lock times with transactions being approved within 5 seconds, and users only facing 1 block finality, so developers don’t need to worry about rollback.
Celo is also EVM-compatible, which means developers can write DApps and protocols in Solidity, and port projects to Celo easily, allowing new innovative Web3 games, and DApps to thrive.
Celo Camp is also an 8-week virtual acceleration and mentorship program that was launched in 2020 by the Celo Foundation in partnership with Upright to recognize, support, and foster new ideas in Web3. Entrepreneurs and Startups are encouraged to build blockchain platforms that positively impact our world through sustainability.
IntoTheVerse was born out of Celo Camp Batch4, from a college hackathon project to a gaming company, along with 29 other ecosystem startups. We couldn’t be more grateful to the team at Upright and the Celo Foundation for providing us with mentorship, and networking from ideation and for helping us find our product market fit, to supporting us today, as we implement the full execution of our vision.
How does Celo also strive to address social impact and environmental issues?
Celo puts humanitarian efforts at the forefront of its agenda, by providing aid around the world, and helping our environment through the following incentives.
1. Celo’s Proof of Stake
Celo’s Proof-of-stake consensus mechanism is much more sustainable because they use less electricity than its Proof-of-Work counterparts. Using a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) algorithm, Celo uses a set of validator nodes to make decisions within the network. Once the majority of validators agree, the nodes process the transaction, lowering the amount of electricity used. They also use a smaller pool of hardware for network security meaning that this cost and the amount of energy used are also reduced.
2. Celo’s Carbon Offsetting Fund
Celo’s Protocol includes a carbon offsetting fund that works towards making the infrastructure of the platform carbon neutral. Using epoch rewards Celo distributes awards to validators and community participants who work to offset carbon. Celo’s carbon-negative offset now averages 65.7 tons per month.
Also by aligning themselves with like-minded Web3 platforms Celo has catalyzed ReFi into a movement for good.
3. Universal Basic Income
Celo works with GiveDirectly, an international non-profit, dedicated to delivering cash transfers to impoverished communities in West Africa. People who receive these cash transfers can use Celo’s digital currency to purchase food, clothing, and items that will fulfill their basic needs.
By working in conjunction with Celo’s Protocol, GiveDirectly can work in areas that are deprived of a bank or mobile money operator, delivering aid to the most vulnerable communities in the world much more easily and they can eliminate third-party fees, meaning that it costs less to send money.
Celo also works with ImpactMarket to alleviate poverty in vulnerable communities. Using Celo’s blockchain, ImpactMarket is able to track donations and transfer higher fund amounts to recipients because on Celo, there is no longer any need for financial intermediaries, so cross-border payments are reduced.
ImpactMarket has thus been able to extend its aid to nearly 25,000 people from 140 vulnerable communities in over 25 developing countries.
4. The Celo Foundation
The Celo Foundation is a non-profit branch of the platform that contributes to education, technical research, environmental health, community engagement, and ecosystem outreach.
It works to better our environment and to help communities prosper through collaboration. Its main initiatives are:
Celo’s Alliance for Prosperity, which was created for non-profits, merchants, and payment processors to grow global and local ecosystems to support vulnerable communities all around the world.
The Celo Community Fund, which supports projects that value and share Celo’s mission.
Celo’s Climate Collective, which evolved to build the capacity for regenerative applications on the Celo blockchain and ultimately back Celo stablecoins with tokenized natural assets. It is a coalition of companies who are actively taking climate action whilst building within Web3.
So how do we measure Celo’s success?
Celo prides itself on being founded on two main values, purpose and connectedness. In the 5 years since it was founded, it has unwaveringly followed its mission to bring prosperity and power to all.
Its success is threefold with Celo illustrating its adaptability through a variety of pilot schemes and ReFi initiatives, by its continuing draw, to attract investors and key partnerships and as a platform that champions growth and ingenuity in Web3 through independent design and development.
Below we consider some of Celo’s Success Cases:
- The Celo Foundation piloted a new Quadratic Funding Model to inspire people to donate and aid vulnerable communities with ImpactMarket. The model was based on a collective approach and donor pledges increased by 84%.
- An NFT-backed rewards pilot program to help a local San Franciso Coffee Shop that was struggling during the pandemic has now developed into a decentralized rewards protocol called Loka. It aims to help small businesses by enticing customers with NFTs, so they will visit the business more often and increase their overall profit.
- A pilot initiative was established in 2021, called Microwork. Mercy Corps Ventures worked in conjunction with Alliance for Prosperity members, cLABS, Kotani Pay, and Vana to encourage low-income youth to enter the global economy through fractional microwork digital tasks in Kenya.
- In May 2021, the Grameen Foundation partnered with the Celo Foundation, Ekolife Marketing Cooperative, and Atikha Overseas Workers and Communities Initiative to launch a program that provided working digital capital to low-income microentrepreneur's in the Philippines.
In conclusion, while crypto remains in a bear market, Celo is paving the way for ReFi to restabilize the sector, as numerous blockchain developers, who are focused on promoting equality, sustainability, and humanitarian efforts, continue to attract huge venture funding.
In a world motivated by corporate greed, material status, and divides in financial wealth, is it not time, to endorse a new financial model that respects our world, and our communities and strives to meet each and every person’s basic human rights?
Celo, we salute you 🫡!
Watch this space for part 2 of our article, where we will be talking about what IntoTheVerse plans to build on Celo.
Stay tuned for future posts and updates on our IntoTheVerse Journal.
IntoTheVerse is an NFT-Utility & Impact driven Game-fi Metaverse.
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Aimee Gilmore is a Creative Writer at IntoTheVerse. Come say hi to her on Twitter or Discord.
