Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition: New Challenge Category on Celo focused on Peace and Prosperity

Blockchain for Social Impact is launching a new challenge category on Celo for the 2020 BSIC | Decentralized Impact Incubator (DII): Peace and Prosperity.

Hop on over as registration closes on February 28th.

We are excited to add Celo to the Incubator challenge because it is a mission-first platform focused on social impact. that helps people around the world through technology. Celo’s mission is to build a financial system that creates the conditions for prosperity – for everyone. We hope to spread the ethos of Celo, especially among emerging technology teams that will become companies after the incubator. This additional challenge can help us build a more sustainable, peaceful, and prosperous future. The DII team that builds the most compelling product using Celo technology will win a $10,000 bonus prize and tickets to Celo’s Prosper Retreat in Peru’s Sacred Valley – an intimate gathering of leaders committed to changing the world.  

What does Peace and Prosperity look like?

“There are 1.7 billion people around the world that don’t have access to formal financial services….We strongly believe that anyone, regardless of their location or socio-economic status, should have access to basic financial tools for storing and transmitting currency.”

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries—developed and developing—in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth—all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

	1. No Poverty:  End poverty in all its forms everywhere		9. Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure:  Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
	2. Zero Hunger:  End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture		10. Reduced Inequalities:  Reduce inequality within and among countries
	3. Good Health & Well Being:  Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages		11. Sustainable Cities & Communities:  Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
	4. Quality Education:  Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all		12. Responsible Consumption & Production: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
	5. Gender Equality:  Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls		13. Climate Action:  Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts*
	6. Clean Water & Sanitation:  Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all		14. Life Below Water:  Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
	7. Affordable & Clean Energy:  Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all		15. Life on Land:  Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
	8. Decent Work + Economic Growth:  Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all		16. Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions:  Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
			17. Partnership: Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

Refer to the UN SDG website for full details

For the Celo Challenge you may work towards any of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Educational resources will be provided to ramp you up on Celo’s technology.

How to Build Social Impact Projects on Celo

Celo is an open source smart contract platform built on decentralized infrastructure. For Ethereum fans, Celo is a fork of Ethereum that has implemented a reserve backed proof of stake system, and some other improvements, making most Ethereum development tools just work. Interestingly, Celo implements their equivalent of Ether as an ERC20 token and provides support for stablecoins directly in the base protocol. Other interesting features enable remote onboarding of users via mobile device while maintaining decentralization.  Celo employs: 

• Proof of Stake based consensus with high throughput, low latency, and zero carbon
• Incentives for serving mobile devices
• On-chain governance

“Celo is at the forefront of harnessing the blockchain and cryptocurrencies to empower [people]… bringing about positive change for financial inclusion to those who need it most.” – Brynly Llyr, cLabs

You’ll find ample content on the Celo website. There you can access documentation, tutorials, and code that will help you design and prototype dApps using Celo. Every layer of the Celo technical stack is designed to meet mobile user needs. Using Celo’s applications, you can send or request cUSD (or any stable value currency) easily with anyone in your address book, powered by decentralized phone number verification. 

Building dApps on Celo is easy with the Celo Software Development Kit (SDK), where you can find services that allow you to build mobile dApps, apps, and more on Celo.

• ContractKit is a library to help developers and validators interact with the Celo Blockchain and Celo Core Contracts. It is well suited to developers looking for an easy way to integrate Celo Smart Contracts within their applications.
• DAppKit is a lightweight set of functions that allow mobile dApps to work with the Celo Wallet to sign transactions and access the user’s account. This allows for a better user experience: dApps can focus on a great native experience without having to worry about key management. It also provides a simpler development experience, as no state or connection management is necessary.
• Forno is a hosted node service for interacting with the Celo network. This allow the user to get connected to the Celo Blockchain without having to run its own node.

Get Involved

The Decentralized Impact Incubator is a 6-week program to ideate and prototype blockchain-based solutions to global social and environmental challenges. During the period, participants from around the world gather to form teams, design business models, draft proposals and code. Teams need to pass through weekly checkpoints and are guided by mentors throughout the process. Winning projects will receive grants to support continued development. 

Join over 300 Developers in the Decentralized Impact Incubator Apply Here! (Deadline February 28)

• Incubator teams are limited to a minimum of 3 participants and a maximum of 4; gender diversity is strongly encouraged.
• Incubator teams must include a minimum of one developer and one individual focused on strategy, impact or business.
• Developers are encouraged to apply both individually and as a team. If you don’t have a team and are selected to participate, you will be able to form a team through our platform.

Join over 70 Mentors in the Decentralized Impact Incubator Apply Here! (Deadline February 28)

• Mentors should either have a solid technical background and experience building on or using one of the aforementioned blockchains OR extensive international development and / or strategy experience.
• Mentors advise teams before and during the virtual incubator.
• Mentors are expected to attend the assigned office hours and / or be available online to respond within the day.