Building the Future of Local Currency Stablecoins: Celebrating the 2nd Anniversary of Mento Labs
November 4 2024
by Markus Franke
GMento! Dear Mento friends! I'm thrilled to share that Mento Labs has marked its second anniversary! This is a perfect moment to reflect on our Mento journey, which began five years ago at cLabs. Today, I am happy to celebrate this milestone together with the entire Mento Community.
Mento Labs is dedicated to building the future of EVM compatible, decentralized local currency stablecoins on the Mento Platform and enabling real-world use cases of digital currencies worldwide. Reaching milestones of over 850,000 active addresses of Mento’s cUSD last month and becoming the second most used stablecoin platform globally, Mento envisions a local currency for every country in the world. Our mission is to make financial tools accessible, affordable, and user-friendly for everyone, especially those who need access to innovative financial services that are tailored to their needs, and who are often overlooked by traditional financial systems. Currently, Mento powers a growing portfolio of decentralized stablecoins spread across three continents. As we celebrate our 2nd anniversary, we are gearing up for the launch of two new local currency stablecoins - the Colombia Peso with cCOP and the Ghana Cedi with cGHS, both driven by community support.
From day one on Celo, the idea was to build for end users, to build for people who don't have the same access to financial solutions as users in North America or Europe. It is still the same mission driving the team building Mento today. When we were building Celo, it was clear that if we want to build infrastructure for financial inclusion, we need a scalable blockchain. We need a blockchain that can be accessed easily on low-end mobile phones. But we also need to build infrastructure that includes decentralized stablecoins, because stablecoins are a function on blockchains that allow for stable transactions that can enable a range of use cases such as saving, lending, borrowing, payments, and remittances. Over the past two years, Mento has grown into a platform that offers tailored solutions to local communities, addressing their most critical needs.
Mento Momentum
The past year, Mento and the broader Celo ecosystem have achieved significant momentum, marked by increasing adoption of stablecoins and a growing number of people using Mento stables for their everyday needs, from saving and lending, to peer-to-peer and cross border transactions. This momentum has been bolstered by strong partnerships such as with Opera MiniPay. The launch of two additional decentralized stablecoins on Mento, cKES in Kenya and PUSO in the Philippines - highlighted Mento Labs’ commitment to provide solutions to enable partners to launch a local currency stablecoin in every country of the world. Mento’s cUSD reached 3 million holders, while Mento’s wallet partner, MiniPay, reached over 3.5 million users in Africa. cUSD received a mention from Vitalik, recognizing its transactions driven by the adoption of real-world applications.
With excellent partners by our side, we are proud to share the Mento Labs’ milestones that are driving the Mento Momentum:
The community voted on the Celo Governance proposal, resulting in Mento Labs’ spin-off and the launch of the MENTO governance token. Mento governance separation has been accomplished through a Celo governance vote, making Mento the only governance system fully born in a decentralized manner from another governance community.
Mento Labs announced its $10M fundraise from investors including T-Capital, HashKey Capital, web3.fund and more.
Opera MiniPay, a dollar stablecoin wallet, supported by Mento stable cUSD achieved the milestone of over 3.5M users across Africa.
The Mento dApp has been launched within the MiniPay ecosystem, enabling users to interact with the Mento Platform.
Mento Labs launched cUSD and MENTO token rewards campaigns for MiniPay users.
The Mento Asset Exchange, Mento’s AMM infrastructure has been integrated into MiniPay to power the “Pockets” swapping feature, providing users the flexibility to easily drag and drop to exchange the currency they want within MiniPay without any additional fees.
Mento Labs celebrated the milestone of 3M cUSD holders.
Mento Labs relaunched its website with a brand new look.
The Mento ecosystem and Celo Africa DAO announced the launch of the Celo Kenya Shilling (cKES) on Mento. Kenya became the first African nation with a decentralized local currency stablecoin on Mento.
To support the adoption of cKES, Mento Labs launched a $50,000 prize pool (6,450,000 cKES) in partnership with Fonbnk and Valora.
The Mento Community organized a cKES workshop and hackathon to educate talented builders in Kenya and across the continent, to encourage them to innovate and build projects that integrate real-world applications of cKES (the Kenya Shilling stablecoin).
Following the launch of cKES, Mento ecosystem partners Haraka, Kotani Pay, and Clixpesa launched a microcredit pilot program aimed at improving financial access for small and medium businesses in Kenya. With the cKES pilot, over 1 million cKES were disbursed to 150 micro-entrepreneurs, organized into groups of 5 to 15 people, 85% of whom were women. These entrepreneurs, often part of informal savings circles called "chamas," were able to access micro-loans, expand their businesses, and improve their livelihoods. The pilot outcome showed that local currency stablecoins enable the access for credit while helping borrowers avoid the foreign exchange risk that comes with global stablecoins pegged to currencies like the USD. Being on the ground in Kenya, we learned invaluable lessons about the importance of accessibility to financial tools and local knowledge.
The Mento ecosystem and Celo Philippines DAO announced the launch of PUSO, a decentralized stablecoin pegged to Philippines Peso on Mento. With more than 10 million digital asset users across the country, the Philippines became the first Asian nation with a decentralized local currency stablecoin. Currently, the Mento Community is voting for two more local currency stablecoins, cCOP and cGHS and we encourage you to cast your votes to help evolve the future of the Mento ecosystem!
The Mento Labs’ team participated in over 25 industry events throughout the year from Mobile World Congress, EthCC, Devcon to Token 2049, ETHSafari and Africa Tech Summit.
While reaching these milestones, we’ve worked with amazing partners to make this year a success for Mento. We’d like to give a shoutout to all of our partners Haraka, Fonbnk, Clixpesa, Pretium, Valora, MiniPay, Kotani Pay, Swypt, Payd, Paychant, BitGifty, Hurupay and many others. We also are grateful for the support of our ecosystem partners on the ground including Celo Europe DAO, Celo Africa DAO, Celo Philippines DAO, Celo Colombia DAO and Celo LATAM. Over the past two years, we’ve learned that accessibility, simplicity, and local collaboration are key to building effective solutions. Often, there’s a “chicken-and-egg” challenge when it comes to adoption, for example, wallets need users to integrate, but users need wallets to start using the technology. However, by focusing on strong local partnerships and fostering a community-driven approach, we’ve been able to make steady progress.
As we look forward to 2025, we see an exciting future for local currency stablecoins. We expect to see more decentralized stablecoins launched on Mento, new use cases emerging, and expanded adoption, particularly across young economies. With cCOP in Colombia and cGHS in Ghana, we are aiming to run additional pilot programs and user activation campaigns. By growing the community and sharing the benefits of participating in Mento Governance, we aim to deepen community engagement and bolster decentralized financial solutions. The team is also getting ready for the “Episode 2” of the MENTO airdrop, this time expanding to reach a wider community of Mento supporters.
As we celebrate our 2nd anniversary, Mento Labs is committed to building a foundation that is not only sustainable but impactful, ensuring that digital currencies can thrive across diverse regions. We're excited to continue building the future of local currency stablecoins to create a more connected, inclusive financial future for all.
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