Celo is a platform which operates as a global payment infrastructure for cryptocurrencies and supports decentralized applications (dApps) while heavily focusing on mobile users.

It aims at making financial activity accessible to everyone on a global scale as payments can be sent to and from any given phone number regardless of location.

Celo also features decentralized applications’ support and development capabilities in its blockchain. Several of its dApps focus on social causes such as the universal basic income.

Celo Explained

Celo features two different native tokens:

1. CELO: which is the governance asset required to participate in voting in proposed changes to Celo’s protocol

2. Celo Dollars (cUSD): which is a stablecoin that mirrors the value of the US Dollar and is maintained through an overcollateralized reserve. Having stablecoins for other national currencies is a project currently in the Celo’s horizon.

In terms of its network, Celo employs three types of contributors:

1. Light clients: which are Celo’s Network applications running on its users mobile phones

2. Validator Nodes: which are computers that validate transactions, produce new blocks and achieve consensus. They are voted in by CELO holders.

3. Full Nodes: which are computers that send requests from the Light clients to the Validator nodes, thus connecting the Validator Nodes and user’s mobile wallets.

The History Behind Celo

Celo is the vision of two ex-GoDaddy executives, Rene reinsber and Marek Olszewki, and an MIT professor, Sep Kamvar. It was co-founded in 2017 and for the subsequent 3 years, the project raised an estimate $46 million USD.