This article is a complete guide on Celo blockchain (CELO). The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) domain has been all over in the news for the last two years and touched an evaluated value of more than USD 11 Billion LOCKED in the DeFi lending market alone. The Celo could be one of the profitable projects. Is CELO blockchain the hidden blockchain for corporates and 10x profitable for investors? Let’s take a look at this in more detail.
What Is Celo Blockchain(CELO)?
Two of the most significant obstacles to the large-scale adoption of cryptocurrencies as a tool of payment are ease of use and buying-power volatility. Celo is the blockchain that manages these problems with an address-based encryption strategy and a stable-value asset.
According to its whitepaper, Celo’s goal is to allow smartphone users anywhere in the world to have a method to utilize financial services. It contains sending money to phone numbers and paying traders. In this, it utilizes phone numbers as public keys for transacting in cryptocurrency. The network also backs the composition of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps) as a part of decentralized finance (DeFi). The mainnet was launched in April 2020.
The Celo blockchain is especially a mobile solution that’s created of the following three elements:
The above characteristics create a proof-of-stake smart contract platform. It is founded on Ethereum. The Celo protocol is supported by a preliminary digital asset called Celo coin. It is ERC-20 compliant and utilized to facilitate token delivery via decentralized exchanges. The platform has two born tokens. The CELO is a proof-of-stake (PoS) token and it is employed for transaction fees, governance contribution, and other essential functions. In the future, the platform plans to accept various stablecoins. It already utilizes the Celo Dollar (CUSD) stablecoin.
How Does Celo Work?
The Celo network depends on three backers to assist in driving its platform:
As mentioned earlier, the network depends on Lights Clients, Validator Nodes, and Full Nodes to complete Celo work as its essence supporters. Light Clients are the network’s applications operating on its user’s mobile devices. An illustration of such an application is the Celo mobile wallet. Validator Nodes are computers that altogether contribute to and partake in the network’s consensus mechanism. They also confirm transactions and form new blocks.
Now, these nodes accept requests from light clients and send transactions to validator nodes. CELO owners are in the custody of voting in Validator nodes. Celo also depends on the Proof of Stake management instrument named the Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT). The network utilizes BFT to maintain its distributed network of machines in synchronization. To become a validator node, users must stake 10,000 CELO tokens. According to the configuration of the network, there can only be 100 validators at one time. These validators each obtain rewards from a portion of the block reward for validating the transactions. Yet, full nodes also obtain prizes from costs given out by light clients.
What makes Celo Unique?
The whitepaper further states that Celo is a blockchain network that employs user email addresses or phone numbers as public keys for transactions. Its selling attribute is also that it concentrates primarily on smartphone users. The network asserts that the rising number of smartphone users without cryptocurrency wisdom is disturbing. Yet, building a service that uses both technologies acknowledges it is decrypting a future issue.
This is why Celo is bridging the huge gap between them and expanding the global adoption of cryptocurrencies. The protocol’s essence also allows users to harness the advantages of DeFi, as it also backs the design of DApps and smart contracts. Another notable attribute of Celo is how the blockchain automatically computes transaction fees. This permits users to pay transaction fees for the service in any currency.
What is CELO Token?
CELO is an ERC-20 token and the local token of the Celo network. It is also a utility token with benefits across governance and network security and is utilized for network payments. Token owners can vote on network governance judgments via staking. This implies that they can utilize their assets to partake in elections by voting for clusters of validators. Holders can also stake the token to secure the network and partake in consensus while making prizes. Alternatively, the token also protects payment for on-chain transactions in the network. Holders will require the Celo Developer Wallet to transmit, obtain, and swap CELO by utilizing decentralized phone number validation.
At launch, 600 million tokens were unrestricted to users. The developer intends to liberate the remaining 40% reserve via fees and rewards. The developers also accumulate about 120 million tokens that will go towards a pool created to support CUSD. This reserve will support the validity and price strength of CUSD and other stablecoins in the network. The token is available for purchase and trading on many exchanges, such as Coinbase, Bittrex, Binance, and DigiFinex.
How To Buy CELO Crypto?
Since September 3, 2020, CELO has been available to buy and trade on Coinbase. Yet, listed below are the five steps to purchasing the token on Coinbase;
Step 1 – Sign Up
Signing up on Coinbase is the first for beginners. First, download the Coinbase app or utilize the exchange’s website. This method is actually easy and finished after giving a few KYC details. You will also require to confirm the details you supplied. It is worth mentioning that only confirmed accounts will have access to the Coinbase trading platform. Nevertheless, current users will only require to log in to their accounts.
Step 2 – Fund Your Account
Now, after creating an account or logging in, you will require to finance your Coinbase account. This will allow the buying of CELO to be extremely simply. Funding is direct, and with either a bank transfer or any compatible debit/credit card, your account now has money.
Step 3 – Purchase CELO Crypto
After having sufficient balance, you can then buy your CELO tokens. Click on trade, choose CELO from the search bar items, and enter the amount you like to buy. You will then check and verify the amount and pay fees for it. The new assets will automatically display in your account, and you can choose to either keep, trade or sell them. You will also require to make sure that you have a wallet, allowing you to store it safely.
Is CELO the hidden blockchain for corporates and 10x profitable for investors?
The CELO could be the game-changer as it has already achieved various milestones. Some of the milestones are as follows:
1) Deutsche Telekom
Making Mobile Payments on Celo: Image Source: Celo Medium
Deutsche Telekom created a strategic investment in the Celo native digital asset (CELO) and entered the Celo Alliance for Prosperity as the first mobile conveyance associate. They also became a validator on the Celo network. This collaboration is related to Celo’s goal and the benefits Deutsche Telekom delivers to its clients worldwide, the bulk of which mainly utilize their phones to access economic benefits.
By creating on Celo’s mobile-first platform, mobile transports like Deutsche Telekom can swiftly incorporate mobile-friendly blockchain-based applications and help clients in unique, significant forms. Deutsche Telekom is ushering in this action, and it will be exciting to witness how mobile carriers and other companies take benefit of all that the blockchain and cryptocurrency market has to present.
2) Celo Euro (cEUR)
The CELO team has established Celo Euro (cEUR). This is the second local Mento stablecoin on the platform for mobile payments. This cEUR produces a completely new remittance drive for the European Union where users can swiftly and effortlessly send digital money between nations with a phone number. It’s as straightforward as transmitting a text message and can be accomplished in as short as 5 seconds for less than $0.01. Integrated with the unrestricted character of Celo’s platform, the CELO team can allow a mobile-friendly layout of digital money that can be utilized by the 6 billion smartphone users around the globe.
3) Optics
The team has also introduced Optics. It is a new gas-efficient bridging measure that combines Celo with Ethereum. Optics allows interoperability between layer-one blockchains. It’s trustless, non-custodial, and developed to reduce gas costs to users. This suggests that developers can permissionlessly create configurable cross-chain applications, easily move tokens and data between chains, and allow users to run existing applications on the chain.
4) PayU
PayU, one of the biggest payment providers for arising markets, is giving its almost half a million vendors the power to receive cUSD as a payment alternative. PayU’s vendor and client base are mainly focused in high-growth markets, such as Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, so maintaining a decentralized, over-collateralized algorithmic stablecoin gives entry to USD and EUR-supported digital assets that are protected from the volatility of some fiat money and cryptocurrencies more extensively. This incorporation is a major effort toward making digital assets more comfortable for clients to utilize and for vendors to accept. This could really accelerate the adoption of stablecoins in more societies around the globe.
5) Valora
When the cLabs team launched Valora, in February, the rapid growth in user adoption was greatly surpassed. It’s since persisted on this upward rotation. At the time of writing this, Valora has more than 200K users with credit and 53K monthly engaged users in more than 100 nations. This bash made evident that Valora has evolved to become more than a project on the Celo platform and has the prospect to scale even additionally. That powered the finding to make Valora an autonomous, standalone business, with Jackie Bona—who cLabs’ Head of Consumer Growth for Valora—as the Chief Executive Officer. The Valora team also pitched a $20 million Series A to increase the company’s expansion.
6) Donut Hardfork
On May 19th, 2021, the donut hardfork was executed. The Donut Hardfork is a non-disputable hardfork that contains many compelling network upgrades pushing Celo to be more gas efficient, enhancing interoperability, and permitting Celo users to link to widespread tools like MetaMask.
Significant updates from the Donut Hardfork:
Conclusion
Celo is an open platform maintaining different services, including distributed applications, smart contract expansion, and global payments. The various milestones could make this a profitable investment.
