C Labs

C Labs is one of multiple companies working on the Celo protocol, an open-source permissionless platform that makes financial tools accessible to anyone with a mobile phone. Celo is first and foremost mobile-first. It uses SNARK-based proofs to allow light clients to sync with the Proof of Stake chain near-instantly. Secondly, Celo has a stablecoin platform built-in. Starting with the Celo Dollar, the platform allows the community to launch new stable currencies pegged to local fiat that are all collateralized by the same crypto-asset over-collateralized reserve (critically, transaction fees can be paid in these stable assets). Finally, Celo uses a novel decentralized PKI that lets you send cryptocurrency to phone numbers, even before the recipient has installed a wallet. For Celo's first product, we are working with organizations such as the UN World Food Programme and GiveDirectly on a social payments and cash transfer app that looks and feels like Venmo, yet is fully self custodial and decentralized.