Celo FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Celo.
Introduction and Overview#
What is Celo (CELO)?#
Celo is an open platform that makes financial tools accessible to anyone with a mobile phone. Celo is a mobile-first platform that makes financial dApps and crypto payments accessible to anyone with a mobile phone Let's dig a little deeper into some of the terms:
Open
- The platform is an open-source project where everyone is invited to contribute
- Celo is connecting to decentralized ecosystems like Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Cosmos, and improving blockchain interoperability with Optics
Mobile
- Phone numbers are mapped to addresses using a decentralized identity protocol, which facilitates the user experience
- The ultra-light client allows all smartphones, including those with low memory and connectivity, to easily connect to the Celo network
Real
- The platform is designed with communities around the world where are innovations are based on 150+ user interviews in 20+ cities across 10+ countries
- Celo hosts a rich ecosystem of dApps, from DeFI to payments, catering to users across 6 continents
- Celo is a blockchain ecosystem focused on increasing cryptocurrency adoption among smartphone users.
- By using phone numbers as public keys, Celo hopes to introduce the world’s billions of smartphone owners, including those without banking access, to transacting in cryptocurrency.
When was Celo Launched?#
The project started in the fall of 2017 when the whitepaper was first published. The first test network, called Alfajores (named after the famous Argentian cookie), launched in July 2019. The incentivized testnet, called Baklava (named after the delicious Turkish dessert), launched in December 2019. Mainnet launched on Earth Day Apr 22, 2020.
Today Alfajores is a testnet for dApp developers and Baklava a testnet for node operators.
Who are the Founders of Celo?#
Celo was originally founded by a team comprised of people from MIT, Stanford, Google, Square, Circle, Visa, GoDaddy, World Bank, Federal Reserve Bank, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Cambridge University, U.S. Department of Justice, Bank Of America, Capital One, Twitter, Give Directly, and the Gates Foundation
Separate entities are aimed at Celo’s promotion and preservation. The dedicated Celo Foundation is a non-profit which launched along with the mainnet, while the Celo Alliance for Prosperity is what the company describes as an “ecosystem of mission-aligned organizations.”
Where can I see a list with all the apps developed on Celo?#
What is the unique selling point of Celo?#
Celo’s main unique selling point lies in making financial tools and global digital payments accessible to all using crypto. It focuses on making crypto mobile and usable taking a user-centric approach to platform design and innovation.
General Questions#
Do you have an Announcement Channel?#
At the moment there is none on telegram, best to follow Celo on Twitter or any other social media channels for Celo. Every announcement is always posted there.
Celo Token#
What token does CELO have?#
The platform has three native tokens. CELO is a proof-of-stake (PoS) token used for transaction fees, governance participation, and related activities. In the future, the platform aims to host various stablecoins, with Celo Dollar & Celo Euro, already in use.
What is cUSD/cEUR backed by?#
Both stable coins are backed by Celo reserve celoreserve.org composed of BTC, ETH, CELO, and DAI.
Do you have a Mobile Wallet?#
Go to the App Store and search "Valora" to find the Celo mobile wallet. Alternatively, you can directly follow app links available at Valoraapp.com
What's the difference between cEUR and cUSD?#
cEUR is a stablecoin that tracks the value of 1 euro while cUSD follows the value of 1 USD.
Exchanges#
Where can I purchase Celo?#
There are a number of exchanges that listed Celo, you can find us on Binance and Coinbase. You can also visit Coingecko and CMC for the full list of exchanges that listed us.
Where can I swap tokens related to Celo’s ecosystem?#
What is Celo's supply?#
CELO has a capped supply of 1 billion (1,000,000,000) tokens, of which 600 million were available when the mainnet launched in April 2020.
The last 40% of the supply will be released gradually via fees and rewards, and various vesting schedules are in place depending on how initial investors received their tokens.
In addition, up to 120 million CELO will go towards a reserve designed to maintain the validity and price stability of cUSD. As a stablecoin, cUSD is envisioned as a convenient payment method for Celo users who will not have to worry about their holdings fluctuating in value.
Technical Questions#
How is Celo Secured?#
Celo uses proof-of-stake to maintain security and has a complex election process to determine validators of its blockchain. Holders of CELO are able to use their holdings as a means of participating in elections by voting for groups of validators.
Regarding Celo Blockchain, do we have another source for on-chain data apart from explorer.celo.org?#
https://www.thecelo.com/ is an alternative source for on-chain data.
How does Celo handle Governance?#
All CELO owners can participate in on-chain governance which votes on Celo Governance Proposals (visible here https://celo.stake.id/#/ ). One of the first governance proposals was to re-name Celo Gold (cGLD) to CELO (Coinbase still hasn’t been renamed to CELO so you’ll see it listed at cGLD there)
The (DAO of) CELO owners also govern the Community fund. 25% (governable parameter) of the minted block rewards go to this fund. The community can decide how to spend it. It’s also worth noting, that 0.1% of block rewards go to a carbon offset fund, currently, those go-to project Wren for planting trees.
Can I access DeFi DApps using Valora?
The Valora team just spun out of cLabs and their CEO is currently reviewing their product strategy. Originally Valora was designed as a Venmo payments app based on user research in emerging markets
For DeFi - today the easiest experience is to visit a dApp’s website and either use Valora on mobile or Metamask chrome plugin on desktop (advanced users only)
How to add Celo to MetaMask docs here
Staking Questions#
How do I stake CELO?#
You can stake CELO via CeloWallet.app, CeloVote.com, Celo.dance, or Celoterminal.com.
Can people without technical knowledge also participate in the staking process?#
Yes, staking and governance are possible using celowallet.app and celoterminal.com
Is there a step-by-step on how to stake Celo?#
Here is a step by step guide regarding Celo staking
DeFi (Lending, pooling, liquidity mining, farming)#
What are liquidity provision and farming?#
Pools are a way to provide liquidity, or the ability to trade, between two different tokens. They allow you to get exposure to the price of two tokens while earning trading fees on your tokens.
Staking tokens in a pool gives you a token called a liquidity provider token (or LP token for short). These LP tokens are extremely useful, as they can be used to provide loan collateral, earn rewards in a yield farming platform, and many other use cases.
How can I provide liquidity and farm tokens of Celo’s ecosystem?#
Ubeswap (more info here)and SushiSwap offer liquidity provision and farming functionalities on Celo.
What about borrowing, lending, and interest-earning on Celo?#
Moola is a non-custodial liquidity protocol built on the Celo blockchain that is democratizing access to yield and credit. Depositors earn passive yield which is paid for by borrowers who are able to take over-collateralized loans in perpetuity or under-collateralized flash loans. Moola has shared ancestry with Aave v1.
Are there risks associated with using Celo’s DeFi platforms?#
As with any new technology, not all risks can be eliminated. Some of them are smart contract risk (unknown vulnerability with the code) and liquidation risks.
Developers#
How is Celo different from Ethereum?#
You can see the key differences between Celo and Ethereum here.
When building for mobile, what native SDKs are available?#
When building for web2 what SDKs or libraries are available?#
A basic example can be found here. If you prefer more granular control, take a look at use-contractkit.