Just one of many advantages of Blockchain and Web3
Among the greatest values of blockchain and Web3 is that they enable different communities around the world to use the new technology’s building blocks to solve problems specific to each of them, said Xochitl Cazador, head of ecosystem growth at open source, mobile -first Celo platform. The many opportunities created in this way include universal basic income (UBI), unsecured loans and micro-employment.
The value of Web3 is largely measured by metrics like Total Value Locked (TVL), but another way the value can be measured is in terms of community and the basic needs that are met, Cazador told Cryptonews.com.
Communities seek to solve various problems
Celo, she added, has a global ecosystem with builders in 150 countries, many of which are in emerging markets. Some of the most active hubs are in Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda, as well as in areas of Latin America, such as Brazil and Colombia – and the focus here is on real-world use cases.
Therefore, Cazador noted that,
“One of the things we’re seeing develop in our ecosystem is people building solutions for their communities.”
Everyone uses this emerging technology differently across different regions, she said — even within a single region, there are micro-communities to observe, given that they each have issues relevant to them specifically. For Brazil, it could be protecting the Amazon, so projects focus on that. Or in Kenya, where unemployment is high and the population is very young, projects are focused on allowing micro-working, “which is a very good use case for crypto,” Cazador said.
Examples include projects working on universal basic income, looking at how we tokenize real-world assets, as well as promoting positive action. impactMarket, for example, is a decentralized poverty alleviation protocol that enables the distribution of Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) to those in need. One of their projects is the UBI for Ukraine initiative, supported by partners in the Celo Ecosystem.
Another example is sub-pledged loans, given by projects such as Roda, based in Colombia. Celo ran a pilot in the first half of 2020 during the COVID-19 shutdowns to test certain ideas related to unsecured credit for Venezuelan migrants living in Colombia, and found that peer-to-peer (P2P) systems “secure social relationships , can reduce both capital costs and operating costs for lenders in emerging markets.”
Cazador said,
“What’s particularly interesting about this case is that some of the people who received loans were literally sleeping on the street: they received a $500 loan to buy a motorcycle that allowed them to be bid for something like Uber eats.”
Not only did they gain access to stable employment, but their monthly income doubled, tripled and even quadrupled. “And I think that’s what excites me about Web3: these new outlets for people to start accessing basic financial tools and really change their lives.”
In addition, Web3 solves problems with Web2 when it comes to payments, as it allows people to receive digital assets immediately after completing a task, and without a large percentage of it disappearing in fees, she said, adding:
“So I think there are themes in each country, there are very specific circumstances. And I think we’re seeing projects emerge that tackle those very specific issues.”
What we’re seeing here, Cazador said, is that
“People are kind of taking the building blocks of Web3 and reimagining them in ways that we can’t because we’re not on the ground in those communities. So I think that’s where the potential lies: how do you take some of these building blocks and reimagine them in ways that really benefit these local areas?”
Toucan is another example of such a project. It is tokenizing carbon offsets, and works to motivate farmers to more planet-positive action.
More to come in the years ahead
Cazador argued that currently we see several projects focusing on this type of tokenization, approaching it in different ways, while the future will bring even more action focused on trees and water, for example.
“You’re giving the power back to individuals and communities to develop these solutions that really work for them. And then, in five years, I’m really excited to see a community thrive because they’re able to build these building blocks on their own.”
Even in a few years, Cazador expects that the industry will continue to make this new technology easier for the everyday user.
Cazador noted that we’re also now seeing larger projects join forces with smaller ones to address specific issues, and “I think that’s going to continue to be a theme” in 2023 as well.
As reported earlier in January Celo Foundationpromoting the layer-1 Celo blockchain and its ecosystem, unveiled its new brand identity and vision designed in collaboration with New York-based agency Red antlers, as well as a number of partner launches and awareness campaigns. These are aimed at the adoption of Web3 by ordinary users worldwide. “Brand development sees planned launches from Opera, GoodDollar and an NFT auction with Valora and Arigallery featuring artists from Celo’s global ecosystem,” it said.
Meanwhile, at the end of November, blockchain technology company ConsenSys partnered with Celo to drive the mainstream adoption of Web3. It allowed developers to build on Celo with Infurawith the announcement adding that the Infura integration offers multi-chain support with complementary tools that communicate with the Celo blockchain for rapid deployment and scaling.
Developers have also been enabled to deploy Ethereum (ETH)-based dApps with Truffleuse Diligenceits smart contract audit service, and transactions between Celo and other decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms and dApps with MetaMask.
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Learn more:
– Curve.Finance is distributed on Celo
– Celo’s ecosystem of companies raises $77.3 million in funding
– Celo Foundation Announces Launch of ‘2% for Web3 Impact’ Pledge
– End-user fraud and phishing attacks in Web3: Are they underreported?
– Advantages and disadvantages of Web2 joining Web3
– The future of Web3 will be multichain and chainless at the same time
