Authorize 2nd half of Minipay Strategic Grant

Governance Governance Proposals
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Initial Proposal : Celo Governance by Staking Fund

  • Receiver Entity: Celo Governance

  • Status: [DRAFT]

  • Title: Authorize 2nd half of Minipay Strategic Grant

  • Author(s): @opera_minipay

  • Type of Request: Funding

  • Funding Request: We are requesting authorization for the remaining amount of $2,840,910 worth in $CELO

Overview

This proposal seeks authorization for the second half of the Strategic Grant aimed at accelerating the adoption. Celo ecosystem apps in Africa. Following MiniPay’s recent milestone of reaching 6 million wallet activations—each tied to a verified phone number and making it arguably one of the fastest-growing self-custodial wallets worldwide—this additional funding will be used:

  • As incremental marketing budget to advertise Celo ecosystem apps within Opera products including display ads and push & in-app notifications (in addition to ongoing promotions of the MiniPay product itself)
  • To expand marketing, co-marketing efforts for MiniPay and ecosystem applications.
  • To aid dedicated business development efforts and point of contact with Opera product and engineering leads.

The grant will be disbursed in $CELO on a quarterly schedule. Opera intends to responsibly hold $CELO tokens and actively engage in Celo governance, reflecting its commitment to the long-term success of the ecosystem.

Motivation

This initiative is key to Celo’s growth, offering new avenues to onboard millions of potential users, foster stablecoin utility, and deepen integrations within local economies. By leveraging Opera’s extensive footprint on the continent—already proven successful with MiniPay’s rapid growth—this grant will unlock the next phase of Celo’s expansion into critical markets and showcase the potential of ecosystem solutions to a broad user base.

Launch & Growth

Opera introduced MiniPay in September 2023 integrated inside of Opera Mini, one of the most popular browsers in Africa, kicking off the roll out in Nigeria and subsequently expanding to Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, and additional key markets across the continent. MiniPay launched only supporting cUSD stablecoin and grew to over 3 million wallet activations generating over 4 Million daily cUSD transactions before later adding support for both USDT and USDC stablecoins on Celo in July 2024. This update was executed with the innovative “Pockets” feature—which streamlines multi-stablecoin management, enabling users to easily swap between stablecoins seamlessly and at no extra cost— powered by Mento Protocol.

Global Expansion

In October 2024, MiniPay expanded beyond its initial integration as a feature of the Opera Mini browser, launching as a standalone app on Android, and expanding to 50+ more countries globally and unlocking remittance to existing users in Africa as a use case. The standalone app on Android has since surpassed 600,000 downloads on the Google Play Store and the iOS version, currently in TestFlight, is slated for release in early 2025. With this expanded availability, MiniPay continues to broaden its global footprint, connecting users on the continent to the global economy and bringing seamless, stablecoin-based transactions to users worldwide.

Blockchain Impact

As of today, MiniPay records over 1.5 Million monthly active wallets and 900,000 daily transactions on the Celo blockchain. Following the addition of USDT support, active USDT addresses on Celo have increased from 27,400 in July 2024 to 894,400 in January 2025 (source: Artemis)., demonstrating heightened adoption and underscoring MiniPay’s pivotal role in catalyzing stablecoin usage and broader DeFi participation.

Thought Leadership & Social Proof

MiniPay’s rapid growth and innovative approach has attracted significant media attention, with major publications recognizing its impact and featuring stories on MiniPay. Moreover, industry KOLs have also commended MiniPay’s user-friendly design and potential. Their endorsements underscore the broad market excitement and validate MiniPay as a true innovation in the space. Additionally, initiatives like the MiniPay Challenge have showcased real success stories from the very users participating on Celo every day.

Specifications

The second half of the grant will towards acceleration the following;

Celo Ecosystem Adoption

Expanded Payment Coverage:
MiniPay now integrates 13 crypto–fiat ramps, covering over 53 countries and over 35 local currencies. Partners include Unlimit, Transak, Banxa, Ramp, Partna, Yellow Card, TransFi, Cashramp, Fonbank, Paychant, and MoonPay—ensuring a hyperlocalized experience for buying and selling stablecoins across the globe.

Strategic Collaborations:
In addition, Opera has forged key partnerships to provide zero-fee on- and off-ramping across over 35 local currencies. These strategic alliances have eliminated traditional conversion costs, enabling users to seamlessly move funds between local currencies and stablecoins at no extra charge. This initiative not only drives increased user engagement by reducing transaction friction but also solidifies MiniPay’s reputation as one of the most accessible and affordable ways to buy, sell, and spend stablecoins.

Empowering Celo’s ecosystem of Builders
The MiniPay Discover Page (now the Mini Apps section) features 15 Celo apps, each of which automatically inherits MiniPay’s localized cash-in/cash-out experience—eliminating the need for separate on/off ramps. This ensures that users, regardless of local currency or location, can instantly access and interact with these ecosystem applications. Integrated Mini Apps now record over 50 million weekly impressions and 5 million weekly app opens, reflecting high user engagement and adoption.

Opera has played a pivotal role in this success by providing comprehensive product, design, marketing, and business development support, along with dedicated funding for co-marketing campaigns and promotional initiatives using Opera’s owned inventory. This robust support structure has empowered external ecosystem builders to refine their offerings, reach new audiences, and leverage MiniPay’s seamless infrastructure to deliver practical solutions. These efforts have directly contributed to transforming promising projects into high-impact applications that drive everyday stablecoin usage.

Featured Mini Apps

*** BitGifty**: Simplifies local bill payments and merchant transactions, offering affordable, borderless financial services.

  • Pretium: Facilitates seamless local bill payments and airtime top-ups, bridging digital finance with everyday needs.
  • Mini Games by Blockscratch: Delivers engaging on-chain games like Wordle and Spell Tower, with over 500,000 plays in the first month.
  • Topcasters: Lets users predict real-world events and win rewards, driving vibrant community participation.
  • Blockscratch: Enables users to earn stablecoins by completing simple tasks and on-chain missions.
  • Mento App: Boost cUSD engagement for $MENTO airdrop campaign, allocating 10M $MENTO tokens two weeks ahead of schedule.
  • Blockscratch: Enables users to earn stablecoins by completing simple tasks within the MiniPay ecosystem.
  • Good Dollar: Provides daily Universal Basic Income in stablecoins, promoting financial inclusion with every claim.
  • eSIMs by Boxo: Provides instant global connectivity by allowing users to purchase and activate eSIMs using stablecoins.
  • Donate App: Empowers users worldwide to donate stablecoins to local charities like WeThinkCode in South Africa and Code Yetu in Kenya with ease.
  • Learn & Earn: Offers interactive blockchain courses that reward users with stablecoins while building essential Web3 knowledge. With over 400k users actively learning and over 150k course completions so far.
  • Mdundo: Delivers affordable, culturally tailored music streaming across Africa. With 3 days free of music and subscription plans for as low as $0.50. Crossing over 10k subscribers In the first 24 hours of going live.
  • Thumbtribe- Allows users to buy mass market retail vouchers in South Africa using Stablecoins
  • Featured Game: Showcases a spotlight game that combines fun challenges with the opportunity to win rewards.
  • Predictor: Engages users with football score predictions, offering real prizes for accurate insights.
  • Multis: Allows users to create football parlays for amplified rewards, elevating the sports prediction experience. WIth over 8 Million Multis created since launch.
  • Daily Claim: Rewards users daily for engaging with MiniPay, ensuring consistent value accrual with every login.
  • Hold to Earn: Incentivizes users to hold cUSD by offering rewards over time, transforming savings into passive income.

Metrics & KPIs

Opera has provided funding for co-marketing campaigns, product, design, and business development support, and in-app promotions to integrated Mini Apps. This support has helped refine their offering, reach new audiences, and leverage MiniPay’s infrastructure to deliver practical solutions—spanning remittances, bill payments, gaming, education, and more. Below are externally built Mini Apps that exemplify the impact of these efforts, followed by Opera-incubated apps that further enrich the MiniPay user experience.

Case Studies

Case Study 1: Donate

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The Donate Mini App, integrated within MiniPay in December 2024 is making donations more accessible. Launched first in December 2024, and currently featuring Code Yetu and WeThinkCode—2 local NGOs from Kenya and South Africa respectively. The Donate app has since facilitated over 12,000 donations by leveraging MiniPay’s robust, borderless payment infrastructure. The app allows these local charities to receive contributions in stablecoins from donors in over 53 countries, eliminating traditional barriers and high fees.

This streamlined donation process not only increases the reach of local charities but also enhances transparency and efficiency in fund transfers. The success of the Donate App underscores MiniPay’s ability to drive real-world impact through decentralized financial solutions, enabling charitable organizations to access a global donor base and receive support quickly and cost-effectively.

Case Study 2: BitGifty

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BitGifty’s evolution is a shining example of how access to a global distribution network can redefine a service. Originating from the Celo Camp Batch 8, Opera worked with the BitGifty team, advising on product, design, and marketing, eventually finding it a home inside of MiniPay at the end of March 2024. Today, BitGifty is a thriving platform that has facilitated over 400,000 local bill payments—from electricity and airtime to data and cable subscriptions—across Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Uganda. BitGifty not only simplifies everyday payments with stablecoins but has also benefitted from Opera-facilitated strategic partnerships and funded co-marketing campaigns to offer zero-fees and cashback on local bills paid, further expanding its reach and driving adoption by local users.

Case Study 3: Mdundo

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Mdundo, a culturally tailored music streaming service, launched within MiniPay with a focus on affordability and local relevance. Offering a free three-day trial and subscription plans starting as low as $0.50, Mdundo quickly captured the market—amassing over 20,000 subscribed users in the first few days going live. This rapid adoption underscores MiniPay’s unique ability to empower innovative solutions that meet the everyday needs of users, bridging digital finance and entertainment. Mdundo’s success demonstrates how a robust, borderless ecosystem can drive engagement and unlock opportunities in sectors that directly resonate with local communities

Case Study 4 : MENTO

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Mento Labs, the team behind the cUSD stablecoin also launched a Mini App to drive engagement for cUSD stablecoins among MiniPay users through two airdrop campaigns. Leveraging MiniPay’s frictionless and localized cash-in/cash-out experience and user-friendly send flow, Mento quickly accelerated token distribution, with the second season fully allocating 10 million $MENTO tokens two weeks ahead of schedule—demonstrating rapid adoption and reinforcing stablecoin usage across the ecosystem.

Current Status:

  • Initial Grant: On December 15, 2023, the community approved a grant to support MiniPay’s growth. Detailed updates are posted in Q1-Q4 2024 progress reports on the Celo Forum.
  • Subsequent Proposal: Having successfully disbursed and utilized the first five installments, this proposal requests authorization for the remaining budget, ensuring ongoing initiatives continue without disruption.

Community Engagement & Growth

Opera remains deeply committed to fostering a vibrant global ecosystem by supporting builders on Celo. This commitment is reflected through:

  • Celo Camp Collaboration: Opera has actively participated in the Celo Camp program, providing mentorship and technical guidance that have helped promising projects—such as Bitgifty and Pretium—find a home in MiniPay.
  • ETHGlobal Hackathons: By sponsoring hackathons like ETHBangkok, ETHCC, and ETHDenver, Opera creates a dynamic platform where developers experiment with innovative ideas and receive direct support from the Opera and Celo developer communities.
  • Regional DAO Collaborations: Recognizing that local communities have unique needs, Opera partners with the Celo Africa DAO to drive localized impact. These collaborations include social media campaigns and co-sponsored events—such as Celo Gather Kenya and regional Builder Workshops—that empower developers to address real-world challenges in their respective markets.

Beyond these partnerships, MiniPay has cultivated a thriving community of over 40,000 members across various channels.

Timelines & Milestones

On December 15, 2023, the community allocated a Strategic Grant to support and grow the ecosystem via MiniPay. Detailed information on the initial grant can be found here. As part of our commitment, we have published quarterly progress reports on the Celo Forum, detailing MiniPay’s achievements and impact.

Following the successful claim of the first five installments according to the agreed timeline, we now request authorization for the remaining budget in this subsequent proposal.

We remain committed to advancing MiniPay with tangible progress, while recognizing that market conditions, technical developments, and strategic opportunities can shift over time. Leveraging our unique position, MiniPay is poised to deliver on-chain services to millions of underserved users—offering a transformative path to global financial opportunities. Below is a high-level outline of our next steps:

Near-Term Focus: Building on the Momentum(Q1 – Q2 2025)

  • iOS Availability:
    Build on the Android standalone success by pursuing an iOS release, extending MiniPay’s coverage to Apple users on the continent.
  • Enhanced Marketing & Partnerships:
    Expand promotional efforts across Opera’s product suite (e.g., Opera Mini, Opera for Android, Opera News), spotlighting new ecosystem applications as they become available.
  • Refined On/Off-Ramp Experience:
    Continue to streamline the “Add Cash & Withdraw” flows, aiming to reduce friction and improve the user journey for buying, selling, sending, and spending stablecoins.

Mid-Term Focus (H2 2025)

  • Selective Market & Use-Case Expansion:
    Explore additional geographies and partnership opportunities that demonstrate strong alignment with MiniPay’s mission, such as niche remittance corridors and newly emerging creator-economy segments.
  • Ecosystem Growth & Developer Engagement:
    Encourage the addition of new, locally relevant Mini Apps— focusing on high-impact integrations that align with user needs.
  • Community & DAO Initiatives:
    Host or sponsor workshops and hackathons in collaboration with local/regional DAOs to support developer innovation and cultivate on-the-ground ambassadors.

Long-Term Focus (Q4 2025 – Early 2026)

  • Increased Synergy with Opera Properties:
    Deepen MiniPay integration across multiple Opera platforms, unifying user experiences and enabling cross-platform transactions.
  • Continuous Feature Iteration:
    Adapt MiniPay’s roadmap based on real-world feedback—e.g., improved merchant tools or advanced stablecoin payment features—as user adoption and market readiness evolve.
  • Extended Global Outreach & Partnerships:
    Seek strategic collaborations with NGOs, financial institutions, and corporate partners, particularly in regions where stablecoin solutions can drive meaningful impact.

We will continue to provide quarterly updates on our progress and invite community feedback to ensure that MiniPay evolves in step with real-world demands.

Allocation

The purpose of the grant, the claim address, and the claim agenda remain unchanged. For reference, the details are as follows:

  • Receiving Address: 0x6f62E32cae54D66e234F0d1e27be7e33896Dc4CE
Milestone $ Value in $CELO
Q4 2023 $568,182
Q1 2024 $568,182
Q2 2024 $568,182
Q3 2024 $568,182
Q4 2024 $568,182
Q1 2025 $568,182
Q2 2025 $568,182
Q3 2025 $568,182
Q4 2025 $568,182
Q1 2026 $568,182
TOTAL $5,681,820

Payment Terms:

Funds will be fully withdrawn upon approval and transferred to the Opera’s multisig wallet:0x6f62E32cae54D66e234F0d1e27be7e33896Dc4CE

Milestone-Based Utilization: Opera will publish quarterly progress reports before claiming each tranche to maintain full transparency and accountability.

All other terms from the initial proposal still apply.

Feedback and Contribution Opportunities

The continued success of MiniPay relies on the support of the Celo community. We welcome all forms of engagement and invite community members to build applications and solutions with real-world use cases to find a home in MiniPay, share feedback, become regional ambassadors, and sign up for early access for Minipay on iOS

We extend our gratitude to the entire community for their unwavering support, insight, and enthusiasm. Special thanks go to the builders, ecosystem supporters and regional DAO collaborators whose continuous efforts and feedback have helped shape MiniPay’s evolving roadmap.

Contact Information

X Handle: @MiniPay

Partnerships: spiolat@opera.com

Additional Support/Resources: N/A

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Hey there @opera_minipay!

First of all, congratulations to the MiniPay team for the amazing work done and the great success achieved over the past months. I’m bullish on MiniPay, and it’s clear that it has become a key stakeholder in the Celo ecosystem.

After reading the proposal, I have a few comments and suggestions that I’d like to share to further strengthen collaboration between MiniPay and the broader community:

  1. Governance Participation
    The proposal mentions that unspent CELO from MiniPay’s initiatives will be used for actively participating in governance. I’d like to understand whether MiniPay still holds CELO from previous allocations and if there is a concrete plan to retain a portion of this new grant for governance participation. I believe this would be a major step forward in strengthening MiniPay’s role within the ecosystem.
  2. Regional DAO Collaboration
    MiniPay has been actively engaging with ecosystem players such as Celo Africa. Looking at your mid-term focus for 2025, I see a strong opportunity for deeper alignment with the Regional Council and local communities. This could facilitate the implementation of pilot initiatives in new markets.For instance, at Celo EU, we are keen on fostering MiniPay adoption for cross-border payments and remittances—something that would be difficult to scale without MiniPay’s support. Similarly, other Regional DAOs could greatly benefit from structured conversations with MiniPay to explore alignment and potential synergies.

I’d love to hear thoughts from the broader community, especially from other Regional DAOs, on how we can further integrate MiniPay into local initiatives.

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“Opera intends to responsibly hold $CELO tokens and actively engage in Celo governance, reflecting its commitment to the long-term success of the ecosystem.”

You guys have good businessmen, marketers, and developers, they should be way more active in guiding Celo in general instead of just developing and promoting your product MiniPay.

Also, you wallet should let users interact with more than just 3 stablecoins and G$ - I mean, you could at least have it support $CELO, and also give users the option of sending to a wallet address instead of just to another MiniPay accounts, that way it’ll actually be part of the Celo in general instead of limited to MiniPay and MiniPay apps. That would be good for our ecosystem.

You could also try to make MiniPay more suitable for international (Non-African) users, and try to establish business relations with anyone and everyone:obviously big African companies, but also international companies like OpenAI, The Giving Block, Soundcloud, Audiomack, Odysee, Mastodon, Warpcast, medium, Scribd, Hungry Studios, Estoty, Supercell, Scopely, Zynga, AE Mobile, Ubisoft, Neobred, ClubWPT, Global Poker, SongPop, Binance, Western Union, Internet Computer Protocol, Audius, Kraken, Robinhood, etc. Businessmen like you, you should be able to get some sort of deal done with someone.

And how about as an act of good faith, you bridge $500,000 worth of various tokens from Ethereum to Celo, and then provide liquidity for them on Uniswap and Ubeswap. The eeconsystem needs that liquidity so it can be comparable to other L2s. You’re a $1.5 billion company; you have the resources to make that happen easy.

You could also partner with someone and create a centralized crypto exchange that is focused on Africans, and uses Celo the way Binance uses Binance / Smart Chain. That would be great for Celo and also for Africans in general, and it could make your company a lot of money.

Or how about making some sort of Opera Rewards Token for Opera users, and using the Celo Blockchain for it?

For another $2.8 mil on top of first $2.8 mil, you should at least give us a better sense of some of the stuff you’re gonna do that’ll stimulate our entire ecosystem. Right now you’re just talking about MiniPay (which only supports 3 stablecoins) and Africa, you should do more for the international use of Celo, outline some sort of plans that have something to do with that before we commit another $2.8 million, which is not exactly a small sum of money.

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Thank you for your valuable feedback and support!

Regarding our governance participation, while we cannot disclose specific details about our current CELO holdings, we can confirm that we maintain substantial reserves and remain committed to actively participating in Celo governance—just as we have demonstrated thus far.

On the topic of Regional DAO Collaboration, we wholeheartedly agree that deeper local engagement is key. We are already planning to intensify our collaboration with regional DAOs, including Celo EU, especially as we move forward with the expansion of MiniPay standalone and the launch of iOS. We look forward to working closely with these communities to pilot initiatives that expand MiniPay adoption for cross-border payments and remittances and more use cases to be enables by new Mini Apps in the pipeline
We appreciate the community’s insights and look forward to further discussions on how we can integrate MiniPay more deeply into local ecosystems.

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Positive feedbacks.
Good growth.

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Thanks. Good report and good plans.

Since your focus is currently in Africa, I want to ask about Sierra Leone. I installed Mini-Pay and registered with my Sierra Leone number, when I go to Cash-In I don’t see any local method, just credit card, Google Pay and Wallet/Exchange (In Sierra Leone it is extremely common Orange Money). The applications don’t support Sierra Leone either.

Do you plan to support local payment methods of Sierra Leone?

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Thanks, @opera_minipay, for this detailed thread and the incredible progress made over the past 15 months!

Most parts of this proposal seem clear, however, one element I think is important to highlight and address is the fact that the quarterly CELO amounts fluctuate based on the CELO price, which is near ATL.

With the volatility of the Digital Asset space, I believe it’s in everyone’s benefit to specify a maximum amount of CELO to be sent each quarter in case of negative market conditions.

I propose for the maximum to be set anywhere between 1.5-1.75M CELO translated to USD 0.378 per CELO - $USD 0.324 per CELO.

As such, the maximum permit of this second tranch would be: 5 * 1.5-1.75M = 7.5-8.75M CELO.

By specifying a maximum number of CELO distributed, Celo’s treasury situation for the coming years will be more clear, and the ecosystem can make better allocation decisions to ensure the development and growth of Celo.

Would love to get your perspective on setting a maximum number of CELO to be sent each quarter to reduce collective downside risk.

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Hi! Thank you for your feedback and for trying MiniPay. Currently, MiniPay’s availability in each country depends on the presence of local cash-in/cash-out support. We already offer local cash-in options in 54 countries, and we’re actively exploring partnerships to support Orange Money in Sierra Leone. We appreciate your patience and encourage you to stay tuned for future updates on this front.

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Hi everyone! Thanks a lot for all the feedback and input since we shared the proposal! We are now live with the vote for the authorization of the second grant. You can cast your vote here cgp-170: undefined | Celo Mondo | Staking & Governance for Celo

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Thank you. I work with the Mission Hope School in Kabala. Could we be a cash-in/cash-out support partner for MiniPay in Sierra Leone? What is needed? Where to talk about it?

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Thanks @opera_minipay and team for the proposal, at my end this proposal is fulfilling all the requirements:

  • Post a proposal in the Celo Forum and leave it for discussion at least for seven (7) days.
  • Present Proposal in a Governance Call and address the feedback received: Proposal was presented during Celo Governance Call #62 | March 6th, 2025

With the above said, from my end the proposal is ready to move into the voting phase when proposer wants to move forward or consider is appropriate.

:bangbang: Remember Current Celo Governance Overview & Procedures

To proceed to the submission and voting phase at least two Celo Governance Guardians must post explicitly that the proposal fulfills the requirements to be able to move into the Voting Stage in the proposal thread on the Celo Forum.

Remember next steps

  • Submission of PR to Celo Governance Repository
    Proposers needs to fork the Celo Governance Repository and add a PR including the proposal .md file and json file.
  • Approval of PR by Celo governance Guardians and merge into main branch of Celo Governance Repository.
    Celo Guardians are responsible for conducting a comprehensive review of every Pull Request (PR) to ensure that there is complete alignment and consistency between the final proposal posted in the forum post and the specific files that are being requested to be merged.
    This review process is strictly technical in nature, focusing solely on verifying the authenticity and good faith of the proposers. It does not involve any personal opinions or biases regarding the merits or content of the proposal itself. To maintain the integrity of the Celo Governance repository, it is mandatory to obtain approval from a minimum of two Governance Guardians for each PR before it can be merged into the main branch.
  • OnChain Submission of Proposal
    After PR is merged into main Governance Repo the proposers needs to fork locally the Celo Governance Repository and submit the proposal onchain using the guidelines described in the Celo Docs.

CC: Governance Working Group (@annaalexa @Wade @0xGoldo)

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Hello @opera_minipay team :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

First of all, we want to congratulate you on the incredible work you are doing with MiniPay. Your approach to simplifying digital payments and making stablecoins more accessible is truly impressive, and we believe it has the potential to drive financial inclusion in many regions, including Colombia.

We are very excited about the possibility of MiniPay launching in our country and would love to know if there is an estimated date for its availability in Colombia. Additionally, we are interested in exploring whether cCOP could be integrated into MiniPay to enable seamless local transactions using our stablecoin.

At Celo Colombia, we are committed to expanding the adoption of blockchain solutions in the country, and we would love to explore a potential collaboration with the MiniPay team to drive awareness and usage. Would it be possible to discuss this further?

Looking forward to your response, and once again, congratulations on your fantastic work!

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Hi @opera_minipay could you address this comment by Olivier1?

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why not cUSD instead of CELO?