Celo Mobile-first platform for dApps
Celo’s purpose is to empower anyone with a smartphone anywhere in the world to have access to financial services, send money to phone numbers, and pay merchants.
The project aims to be a decentralized platform that is not controlled by any single entity, but instead developed, upgraded and operated by a broad community of individuals, organizations and partners.
Uniquely, Celo is oriented around providing the simplest possible experience for end users, who may have no familiarity with cryptocurrencies, and may be using low cost devices with limited connectivity. To achieve this, the project takes a full-stack approach, comprising of both a protocol and applications that use that protocol.
The Celo protocol is an open, distributed cryptographic protocol that allows applications to make transactions with and perform computation on a family of cryptocurrencies, including ones pegged to ‘fiat’ currencies like the US Dollar. The Celo Wallet app, the first of an ecosystem of applications, allows end users to manage accounts and make payments securely and simply by taking advantage of the innovations in the Celo protocol.
Highlights include:
Stable Value Currencies
Celo includes native support for multiple ERC20-like stable currencies pegged to ‘fiat’ currencies like the US dollar, to facilitate the use of Celo as a means of payment.
Accounts Linked to Phone Numbers
Celo maintains a secure decentralized mapping of phone numbers that allow wallet users to send and receive payments with their existing contacts simply and with confidence that the payment will reach the intended recipient.
Transaction Fees in Any Currency
Users can pay transaction fees in stable currencies, so that they do not need to manage balances of different currencies.
Immediate Syncing Even on Slow Connections
Extremely fast, secure synchronization between mobile devices and the Celo network means that even wallet users with high latency, low bandwidth, or high cost data tariffs can use Celo. Celo removes the need to check every header before a received header can be trusted. Performance will be further improved with BLS signature aggregation and succinct zero-knowledge proofs, via zk-SNARKs.
Proof-of-Stake
Celo uses a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm. In comparison to Proof of Work systems like Bitcoin and Ethereum, this eliminates the negative environmental impact and means that users can make transactions that are cheaper, faster, and where the outcome cannot be changed once complete.
Full Node Incentives
The Celo protocol offers incentives for running full nodes to service the light clients that run on each mobile device. Unlike other proof-of-stake systems, users can still earn cryptocurrency in exchange for providing compute resources without having to stake funds.
On-chain Governance
Since great user experiences need constant iteration, Celo supports rapid upgrades and protocol changes via on-chain governance in which all cryptocurrency holders can participate.
Programmable (Full EVM Compatibility)
Celo includes a programmable smart contract platform that is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, which is already widely adopted, familiar to developers, and has strong tool support. This enables Celo to deliver rich user features and rapidly support a wide ecosystem of third-party applications and extensions.
Self Custody
Users have access to and fully control their funds and account keys, and don't need to depend on third parties to make payments.
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