Celo is a permissionless blockchain that contributes to its carbon-negative status, with the intention of fostering a more inclusive financial system. It is designed to be accessible to anyone with a mobile phone, aiming to cater to a large global user base. The Celo ecosystem includes a decentralized, proof-of-stake blockchain technology stack (the Celo platform), the CELO governance asset, and several stable assets (cUSD, cEUR, cREAL) that facilitate the use of digital assets. Celo's mainnet was launched on Earth Day 2020, demonstrating its commitment to environmental sustainability. The platform supports a multitude of projects in numerous countries, all with the goal of creating conditions of prosperity.

Celo operates using a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, which requires significantly less energy than proof-of-work chains, contributing to its carbon-negative status. The platform supports the CELO governance asset and other ERC-20 stable assets, which can be used to pay for transaction fees. Celo's mobile-first design intends to cater to a large global user base. This includes a light-client syncing mechanism called Plumo, which allows Celo mobile and resource-constrained users to sync to the Celo blockchain faster, using only a few kilobytes of data. The platform also maps encrypted phone numbers to wallet addresses, aiming to simplify transactions on the blockchain for users of all experience levels.

Celo seeks to bring the regenerative finance (ReFi) movement mainstream by accelerating global financial inclusion, community commerce, and climate-positive technology across multiple ecosystems in parallel. Its mobile-first design can help reach a large global user base, aiming to cater to a variety of needs. The platform supports a multitude of projects in numerous countries, all with the goal of creating conditions of prosperity. Celo's features, such as its light-client syncing mechanism and the mapping of encrypted phone numbers to wallet addresses, aim to simplify transactions on the blockchain, potentially enabling a variety of use cases.

Celo was co-founded in 2017 by Rene Reinsberg, Marek Olszewski, and Sep Kamvar. Rene Reinsberg is now the President of the Celo Foundation, while Marek Olszewski serves as the current Chief Technology Officer at cLabs. Sep Kamvar is a computer scientist, artist, and former professor at MIT Media Lab. The open-source Celo mainnet was launched on Earth Day 2020, demonstrating the platform's commitment to environmental sustainability. Today, the platform supports a multitude of projects in numerous countries, all with the goal of creating conditions of prosperity.

The Celo Dollar (cUSD) is designed with the intention of tracking the value of the US Dollar, intended to offer a digital equivalent with an aim for stability and accessibility. The cUSD is a key component of the Celo platform, which strives to make financial tools and services more accessible to anyone with a smartphone. The cUSD is associated with a reserve of assets, including the native asset of the Celo Network, CELO, with the intention of maintaining its value. This reserve seeks to maintain the stability of the cUSD, with the aim of keeping it pegged to the US dollar. The cUSD is designed for ease of use, enabling users to engage in transactions and transfer of value using the Celo platform. It plays a role in the Celo ecosystem, facilitating transactions and serving as a medium of exchange and a potential store of value.

Celo's proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism aims to contribute to network security by incentivizing validators to act in the network's interest. Validators, who are responsible for confirming transactions and securing the network, are selected based on the amount of Celo Gold they are willing to allocate. This allocation process demonstrates the validators' commitment to the network's security. If they act maliciously or fail to perform their duties, their allocated Celo Gold is at risk. This system intends to encourage validators to maintain the network's integrity and discourage dishonest behavior. Celo's Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) consensus algorithm seeks to ensure that the network can function smoothly as long as two-thirds of the nodes are honest and operational. This fault tolerance mechanism intends to make the Celo network more resilient against disruptions and maintain its integrity even in challenging conditions. Celo's democratic approach to validator elections, where Celo token holders vote for validators, spreads the power to secure the network among various participants, with the intention of improving its security.

The CELO token is the native digital asset of the Celo platform and plays a crucial role in its operation and governance. It functions as a utility, reserve, staking, and governance asset within the Celo ecosystem. As a utility, CELO is instrumental in stabilization, ensuring the consistent circulation of stablecoins that circulate and transact on Celo. It acts as the primary reserve asset in Celo's stability mechanism, allowing platform-native stablecoins like Celo Dollars (cUSD) and Celo Euros (cEUR) to algorithmically follow the value of their namesake currencies. In terms of governance, CELO holders have the ability to vote on governance proposals that direct how the core technology operates, both presently and in the future. This process facilitates the management and potential upgrade of the protocol, including upgrading smart contracts, adding new stable currencies, or modifying the reserve target asset allocation. Lastly, in the context of staking, CELO is required by validators participating in Celo's Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus protocol. Validators stake CELO as a signal of participation in confirming transactions on the blockchain, receiving Celo Dollars (cUSD) as non-financial incentives to cover costs in return.

Celo is a blockchain platform that adopts a mobile-first approach, prioritizing mobile accessibility and usability. Celo recognizes the significant role that mobile technology plays in today's world, particularly in developing regions where access to traditional financial services may be limited. With over 5 billion mobile phone users globally, Celo seeks to tap into this widespread accessibility to provide financial services to the unbanked and underbanked populations. Through its mobile-first approach, Celo aims to provide an experience that is easy to navigate and is tailored to mobile devices. By designing their applications and services specifically for mobile platforms, Celo intends to make its financial tools accessible and usable from the convenience of their smartphones. This approach seeks to address barriers such as the need for expensive hardware or unreliable internet connections, aiming to make financial services more accessible to a broader range of individuals. Celo’s mobile-first strategy also enables efficient peer-to-peer transactions. By utilizing mobile devices, users may be able to send and receive digital currencies.

Celo aims to achieve this through its identity protocol, which allows users to associate their phone number with one or more addresses on the Celo blockchain. This means users can find each other on the Celo network using phone numbers instead of complex hexadecimal addresses. When a user wants to send a payment to someone in their phone's address book, the mobile client looks up the identifier for that phone number on-chain to find the corresponding Celo blockchain address. To preserve the privacy of phone numbers and addresses, Celo created the Oblivious Decentralized Identifier Service (ODIS). This service provides a unique identifier derived from the user's phone number and a secret pepper. The pepper is requested from ODIS by the mobile wallet, which then uses it to compute the unique identifier used on-chain. This system aims to prevent anyone from associating phone numbers with blockchain accounts and balances, and it intends to enhance user privacy.

Several initiatives and projects have been built on the Celo blockchain to enhance its utility. These include Valora, a mobile wallet and payment app that enables users to transfer and receive Celo Dollar stablecoin (cUSD) and the Celo cryptocurrency (CELO). A decentralized platform built on the Celo blockchain facilitates the trading of various cryptocurrencies. Moola Market is a non-custodial liquidity protocol that aims to democratize access to non-monetary rewards and credit. cLabs, the team behind the Celo blockchain, focuses on building and improving the Celo ecosystem by developing core infrastructure, tools, and applications. HaloFi, formerly known as GoodGhosting, is a DeFi app that aims to assist users in achieving non-monetary objectives through gamification. Mobius is a cross-chain stable swap exchange built on Celo. Symmetric is an Automated Market Maker (AMM) and a Decentralized Exchange (DEX), running on the Celo and Gnosis networks. ReSource is a decentralized protocol for mutual credit and multilateral exchange. ValuesCo was created to inspire actions that have true value for both people and the planet. ImpactMarket is a decentralized human empowerment protocol. Kotani Pay is Africa’s most reliable blockchain off-ramp service. GoodDollar is a protocol that aims to make crypto accessible and useful to anyone who wants it by creating non-monetary incentives as a public good. These projects aim to offer improvements within traditional finance and strive to enable greater financial inclusion for underserved communities.