What is Celo Coin (CELO)?

Celo functions as a global payment infrastructure designed for cryptocurrencies, with a focus on catering to mobile users. Its primary objective is to enable easy access to financial services worldwide, achieved through the capability to send and receive payments using any phone number across the globe.

Beyond facilitating basic transactions, Celo also supports creating decentralised applications (dapps) on its blockchain. Notable dapps on the platform include one that allows anyone to participate in a community-driven universal basic income program and a crowdfunding platform tailored for social causes.

At the core of Celo's blockchain operations are two native tokens: CELO, which serves as a governance asset utilised for voting on protocol changes, and Celo Dollars (cUSD), a stablecoin that maintains a value equivalent to the US dollar.

Who are the founders of Celestia Coin?

In 2017, Celo was established through the collaborative efforts of Rene Reinsberg and Marek Olszewski, former executives at the web hosting company GoDaddy, along with Sep Kamvar, an MIT professor, and Marek Olszewski, who held a position at Google.

During the period spanning 2018 to 2020, Celo secured more than $46.5 million in funding by conducting sales of approximately 120 million CELO tokens through a combination of private and public token offerings. Prominent investors involved in this funding included notable venture capital firms such as a16z Crypto, General Catalyst, and Social Capital.

What makes Celestia Coin unique?

The Celo blockchain operates as a layer-1 platform that is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). It supports the CELO governance asset and other ERC-20 Mento stable assets, which can be utilised for covering transaction fees. Celo stands out with its commitment to global financial inclusion, community commerce, and environmentally positive technology, making it a driving force behind the mainstream adoption of the regenerative finance (ReFi) movement. Its cross-chain compatibility and interoperability contribute to these goals across various ecosystems simultaneously. Notably, Celo is among the world's pioneer carbon-negative blockchains due to its energy-efficient proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which consumes significantly less energy than proof-of-work chains.

Celo's dedication to environmental well-being extends through its involvement in the Climate Collective, a coalition of companies merging Web3 technology and climate action. The Mento Reserve, powered by the Mento Protocol on the Celo blockchain, maintains a diverse array of digital assets and aims to have 40% of its holdings represented by nature-backed assets within four years.

A distinguishing feature of Celo is its mobile-first design, which aims to serve billions of global users effectively. This encompasses the Plumo light-client syncing mechanism, utilizing zk-SNARK technology to enable faster blockchain syncing for mobile and resource-limited users with minimal data usage. Celo also connects encrypted phone numbers to wallet addresses, simplifying asset transfers among contacts, and offers access to a range of dapps like the Valora Wallet on low-powered smartphones. These features collectively enhance user-friendly blockchain transactions for individuals of all skill levels. For deeper insights into Celo's unique attributes, you can explore its technical documentation and GitHub repository.

Explore the network security of Celo Coin.

The Celo network ensures its security through a consensus mechanism called Proof-of-Stake with Thresholded Proof-of-Stake (PoS-TPoS). Validators and Validator Groups, lock up a certain amount of CELO tokens as collateral, validate transactions, and propose new blocks. Validators are selected randomly and weighted based on their staked tokens, and transactions undergo an added layer of scrutiny through a threshold of Validator Groups before being confirmed. 

This multi-layered approach boosts network security and resists attacks. Validators' economic incentives and potential penalties for malicious behavior create a self-regulating system, and the mechanism's energy efficiency distinguishes it from traditional Proof-of-Work approaches. This PoS-TPoS consensus ensures the Celo network's robustness and integrity.

What are the recent developments in Celo Coin? 

The Celo Foundation has partnered with Google Cloud to enhance the security and scalability of the Celo network. Google Cloud is now operating a validator on the Celo platform, joining other validators like Deutsche Telekom and impactMarket, who are collectively working to expand blockchain technology's reach to a billion people.

The transition of Celo to an Ethereum layer-2 solution was approved by community members, and technical upgrades, including a decentralized sequencer and off-chain data availability through EigenLayer, will be facilitated by Google Cloud's Blockchain Node Engine. This transition aims to align Celo 2.0 with the Ethereum network. The Celo ecosystem encompasses over 1,000 projects across 150 countries, including impactful decentralized applications like GoodDollar and Grassroots Economics.

The collaboration between the Celo Foundation and Google Cloud underscores a shared commitment to advancing Web3 tools and sustainable solutions. Google Cloud's involvement in Celo's ecosystem extends to their Web3 startup program, offering substantial credits and grants to support mission-driven projects.