Celo (CELO) Crypto Exchange

Celo is an open-source blockchain platform that specializes in the creation of DeFi mobile tools and services. It was founded in 2017 by a group of individuals including those from [MIT](https://www.mit.edu/), [Stanford](https://www.stanford.edu/), Google, Visa, [Harvard University](https://www.harvard.edu/), etc. The first test network, Alfajores, was launched in 2019, and the mainnet was released in 2020. According to Celo’s website, the platform has two core values: unique purpose and connectedness. Celo is EVM-compatible and is powered by the [Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT)](https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/byzantine-fault-tolerance-explained) consensus mechanism that is responsible for the network’s governance. A minimum of 10,000 CELO tokens is required to become a validator node in the said mechanism and vote on platform changes. Validator nodes are linked to the light clients, Celo DApps, by full nodes who are paid in fees. In total, there are three native tokens live on the Celo platform: CELO, Celo Dollar, and Celo Euro with more stablecoins planned to be released in the future. In February 2022, the Celo network [announced](https://medium.com/celoorg/pilot-spotlight-how-celo-and-mercy-corps-ventures-partnered-to-benefit-microworkers-in-kenya-882dc767aee) that it has recently partnered with an NGO like it has done multiple times in the past two years. This time Celo is working with [Mercy Corps Venture (MCV)](https://europe.mercycorps.org/). Together they ran a pilot for three months in Kenya in 2021 in order to find out whether Celo’s stablecoin, cUSD, could help improve the process of cross-border payments that are involved in microwork.