UPDATED 22:47 EDT / MARCH 11 2020

BLOCKCHAIN

Celo Foundation establishes rival to Facebook’s Libra Association

The Celo Foundation, the group behind the Celo blockchain project, today announced the Alliance for Prosperity, a rival to Facebook Inc.’s Libra Foundation.

The alliance, dubbed by some members the “new Rebel Alliance,” has 50 founding members across a range of industries, including blockchain and cryptocurrency, finance, venture capital, payment firms, charities and telecommunications. They have committed to develop the Celo blockchain as a decentralized and open-source platform.

Notable among its members are Coinbase Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Bison Trails and Anchorage which are also members of the Libra Association.

“The Alliance will use blockchain technology to reimagine the future of money and create inclusive financial tools,” Celo founder Rene Reinsberg said in a statement. “From sending money home across borders to donating to a humanitarian organization, we want to make sure that money arrives in the right hands – not in the pockets of a middleman.”

Celo, designed by venture capital-funded cLabs Inc. in 2017, is an open blockchain platform with supported stablecoins — Celo dollars — designed to make financial tools accessible to anyone with a mobile phone. The platform can be used to build mobile applications, including cash transfers, peer-to-peer lending, international remittances and digital wallets.

The new alliance will see members supporting the platform by backing development efforts of the project, building infrastructure, implementing desired use cases on the platform, integrating Celo assets in their projects or collaborating on education campaigns in their communities.

Although neither Celo nor the Alliance mentions Libra, the comparison to Facebook’s often controversial efforts is obvious. Both are seeking to deliver an alternative payments network based on blockchain with a stablecoin as the means of transactions. That Celo has more members at launch and may actually keep most of them, as opposed to Libra, places it well going forward.

“We’re thrilled [by] the caliber of organizations that have decided to join us in this mission and we hope that it is a call to the world for others to join the alliance and create even more prosperity throughout the world,” Chuck Kimble, the head of the alliance, told Venturebeat.

Members at launch are Abra, Alice, AlphaWallet, Anchorage, Appen, Ayannah, B12, BC4NB (Blockchain for the Next Billion), BeamAndGo, Bidali, Bison Trails, Blockchain Academy Mexico, Blockchain.com, Blockchain for Humanity, Blockchain for Social Impact, Blockdaemon, Carbon, cLabs, CloudWalk Inc, Cobru, Coinplug, Cryptio, Cryptobuyer, CryptoSavannah, Fintech4Good, Flexa, Gitcoin, GiveDirectly, Grameen Foundation, GSMA, KeshoLabs, Laboratoria, Ledn, Maple, Metadium, Moon, MoonPay, Pipol, Pngme, Polychain, Project Wren, SaldoMX, Semicolon Africa, The Giving Block, Utrust, Upright, Yellow Card and 88i.

Image: Alliance for Prosperity/Medium

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