cLabs

cLabs is one of the many companies working on Celo, an open-source permissionless platform that makes financial tools accessible to anyone with a mobile phone. Using a novel decentralized PKI, Celo lets you send cryptocurrency to phone numbers in a fully decentralized way. Additionally, Celo uses stable-value tokens pegged to fiat currencies, like the US Dollar, to minimize volatility, and crucially allows transaction fees to be paid with these tokens. To make sure that the platform is scalable and fast enough for day-to-day use, Celo uses a new Proof-of-Stake protocol with fast block times and one block finality. Further, it uses SNARK-based proofs to allow light clients to sync with the chain near instantly. The protocol is now live (run by hundreds of entities) and we are now working with organizations such as GiveDirectly on an open-source social payments app (Valora) that looks and feels like Venmo, yet is fully decentralized.