Successfully Launching More cStables on Celo

Governance
1

Motivation

  • The ability of CELO to launch local currencies is a strength of the protocol and Mento.
  • Done well (with supporting liquidity, dApps, wallets) it can grow the use of cStables and grow the Celo community.

Background

  • This post discusses various cStables for the community to consider, as well as some challenges with the cREAL launch.
  • This post discusses cCOP - a Celo Colombian Peso with contributions from @0xj4an and many others.
  • This post discusses cIND - a Celo Indian Rupee with contributions from @gvish and many others.

Bottlenecks
Ultimately, there are two bottlenecks:

  1. Technical - Currently it requires 3+ governance proposals to issue a new cStable. @martinvol is working to simplify this and expects to be ready with the new technical approach by the end of May 2022.

  2. Practical - @MilaRioja described this well to me recently:

  • Exchanges - what local exchanges are signed up to support? What liquidity will they provide?
  • Wallets - what local wallets will support the new cStable?
  • dApps - what dApps?
  • Is documentation available in the local language?

For the community to vote on a new cStable, it makes sense to consider whether all of the above points (and more that I’m missing) are all in place.

Rather than fix a schedule for which cStables we issue when (as I previously suggested), I think it’s more important that each local community take the lead in aligning the above points for their region, and then proposing a date by which these practical elements can be in place.

Some ideas from here
If you go to the cIND or cCOP proposals, clearly there are many people interested in making this happen. So, here are some ideas (and certainly this is not a complete list) on ways to take things forward:

  1. Work with cLabs/Foundation
  • Colombia - @davidmriascos is ecosystem lead, and @MilaRioja is also trying to help coordinate to support cStable launches and other activities. If you can help out - worth reaching out to these two.
  • India - I don’t believe there is a clabs/foundation representative.
  1. Submit an on-chain proposal to get funds to support a local working group that would launch a cStable.
  • The idea here is to get funding allocated to a multi-sig and then use those funds to organise locally.
  • I would recommend that any such proposal include clear plans around how the practical steps (listed above) would be addressed, as well as timelines and how funds would be spent.

Members of the governance working group - that’s me, @willkraft @ebeth and @CalicoKittencat can help with this stuff.

  1. *Apply for grant funding to do the same as point *
  • This is similar to the approach in #2 but probably quicker for amounts <$100k. Here, the idea is to apply to the foundation or ocelot or CCF2 (CCF1 is over and CCF2 is coming soon) for funding.
  • Worth checking the grant guidelines of each body because supporting a local cStable launch may or may not be in line with their funding objectives.
8 Likes
2

Hi There! While I love the exercise as we need to move faster and better with stables, I am concerned that we may not have reached a mutual understanding of what a stable “launch” entails (or should entail).

I made comments to your post re. cReal, as I don’t think it captures the issues and learnings of the launch. While it does focus on some of the effects of it, it does not consider country-specific strategy, bottlenecks for implementing, funding and liquidity specific barriers.

I support the need to fund tactical teams to develop these launches, and suggest some live discussions on the community call for some leveling towards more grounded brainstorm on how to move this fwd.

4 Likes
3

Thanks @Pinotio.com and @MilaRioja for the above, the information is super helpful! I wanted to provide some additional information here on launching new cStables for the community and share some links that can assist.

CeloConnect Links
At Celo Connect, Alberto and Volpe spoke about how to think about successfully launching new stablecoins and the work that is going on to simplify government proposals. I’ve clipped specific sections but would encourage watching the entire video.

Successfully launch new stablecoins:

Stablecoins refactoring:

Stablecoin Checklist
When launching new Stablecoins, here is a checklist for a successful launch:

  • Use cases: Are there clear end-to-end use cases from users interacting with exchanges to using them with specific merchants? These use cases should be robust as while we dont want to hamper innovation, having stablecoins worth $100K do not help usability for the ecosystem.
  • Partner Integrations: Are there wallets and exchanges that have (or will) integrated to support this new stablecoin? Users need a way to on/off ramp.
  • Liquidity: Is there enough liquidity to support this stablecoin and ensure it does not get depegged? (The Celo Foundation can help here.)
  • Parity: With Mento, these currencies should be in parity with their respective currencies.
  • Yield: Do users have the ability to draw yield on this new stablecoin? There needs to be an incentive for users to hold this stablecoin.
  • Marketing: Are there marketing initiatives to support this new launch and drive awareness amongst users? This is critical in a world of many coins to ensure users are aware.

To @MilaRioja 's point, launching a new Stablecoin should entail all elements of the above, and not just the creation of the cStable for it to be successful.

How to add a new Stablecoin (tech docs)

Other considerations
In the event proposals fail (due to some portion of this checklist not completed), we should work to isolate the task in question and find ways to address before re-submitting the proposal. For example, if liquidity commitments are not secured we can work to accelerate this task before resubmitting.

In the unlikely scenario that a newly launched coin has its liquidity drop significantly, is delisted and we (as a community) decide to remove this coin, there would likely need to be some changes to the smart contract to support this.

Timeline
In total it will take ~4 months to complete the checklist. The bulk of the work is not necessarily technical but more so the supporting tasks from partner integrations, liquidity, and marketing initiatives.

cLabs view on stablecoin roadmap
At cLabs we are currently exploring other stablecoins that we can help launch. Based on the feedback from Celo Connect and the forum posts, we are currently exploring and gathering use cases for key strategic and social impact markets like the Indian Rupee, Great British Pound, Mexican Peso, and Colombian Pesos. Any additional use cases you have for these or other markets please share!

Reach out with any feedback or questions, we’re happy to help!

Thanks,

-Nimit

Product Manager, cLabs

4 Likes
4

Thank you @Pinotio.com, I agree we need to have a strategy and all the other pieces listed by @nimittank in place to make it a successful launch. I had highlighted some concerns in the original post of cINR and I would like to make sure we have a plan in place to tackle them.

Since the tax regulations have come into effect this month, volumes have dropped about 80% in most of the exchanges and it is a concerning situation in India. Coinbase recently launched their services in the India and quickly ran into problems when on/off ramps through UPI (India’s digital payments system) were suspended. More on that here.

I think Celo needs to closely engage with authorities in order to have the intended impact. It would make on/off ramps much easier if Valora can be integrated to work with UPI. I see some immediate arbitrage opportunities Celo can tap into with cUSD trading at about 2-3 INR less than USDT on Valora as compared to other exchanges. There is a way to work around this UPI problem via P2P mechanism like on WazirX or Binance, which I’m guessing would use a bit of resources.

It would help if we have an ecosystem lead for India (and other cStables) to facilitate and brainstorm the strategy. I am happy to assist with these initiatives and to reach out to people who could help us penetrate the market. As @nimittank rightly pointed out, we would need marketing initiatives to make it all happen.

5

Just to start thinking about cCOP, there is some aspects:

Use cases:

  • @Sebastian can talk about the Usecase in Simpol (6K userts atm)
  • @Sebastian can talk also about Daily Cop “first stable coin peg to COP” (DLY) (Myself prefer don’t talk about the proyect), DLY has +113K Active Wallets, so DLY demostrate that people in Colombia wants a StableCoin to use in their daily stuff.
  • @cointaigas can talk about their remittances project, he needs the cCOP StableCoin to develop his project.
  • @davidmriascos can talk about Cobru and the plans to use this App in some of the local commerces of the Country.
  • Pact Market: I am starting to show the App to the people, we are going to work hand in hand with some posible beneficiaries and cCOP could be a good way to they can receive their help funds.
  • Myself: I have some companies that can receive cCOP as a payment method for their e-learning courses and platforms.

Partner Integrations:

  • Myself have asked to Valora if they can pay the 25% APY they are paying to the StableCoin holdings in the wallet if Celo add another StableCoind and they says Yes, they will pay the 25%APY over any StableCoin allowed in Celo Network, so we can offer to the people in Colombia to move their funds of the Saving Acoounts that only pays around 5%APY per year to the Valora Wallet and their are going to receive the 35% APY.

Users need a way to on/off ramp.

  • The program “Celo Connect The World” is working in the on/off ramp to improve this, I think Colombia is one of the Countries that are going to be in this campaign and we are going to have the on/off ramp provided by the FiatConnect open source API.

Liquidity: Is there enough liquidity to support this stablecoin and ensure it does not get depegged?

  • Celo Foundation can help, cCOP dont need a lot of liquidty because the exchange rate cCOP/cUSD is high. aprox 3.800cCOP/1 cUSD so we dont need lot of liquidity in terms of $USD net worth.

Parity: With Mento, these currencies should be in parity with their respective currencies.

  • I think personally that the initial pairs have to be:
  • CELO/cCOP
  • cCOP/cUSD
  • cCOP/cEUR

Yield: Do users have the ability to draw yield on this new stablecoin? There needs to be an incentive for users to hold this stablecoin.

  • We have an incentive clear in the road, Valora can give the 25%APY in StableCoins included new ones.
  • Also I think that @Sebastian can offer the same rewards to the people that uses Simpol with cUSD or cCOP. (Idk if i am wrong maybe @Sebastian can say better if they can do that.)

I want to receive your opinion about the matter and together we can lead the new cCOP StableCoin

2 Likes
6

Love the thoughts @0xj4an and @gvish .

Would each of you be willing to set up a fund for Colombia and India, respectively? The idea would be to get some on-chain funds to pay for the work that needs to be done to get in place the items that @MilaRioja and @nimittank have listed as critically important for a launch.

I’m happy to help with crafting and submission of an on-chain proposal. You can send me a DM here or find me on Discord: Pinotio.com#5357

P.S. Just a note - when we say “Celo” should do this or “Celo” should do that - it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Celo is (in principle) a decentralised organisation. Yes, there are different groups involved, but if anyone wants to get something done, they can take leadership to do it themselves. The point of CELO having such a large (as a portion of epoch rewards/emissions) portion of funds going into grants is to provide the financial support for this. Cheers.

2 Likes
7

Thanks @Pinotio.com

I have some questions about:
When you said ÂżWould each of you be willing to establish a fund for Colombia and India, respectively?

When you talk about “Establish a fund” does it mean that we should put money ourselves or how does this work?

Also I have some questions about the Celo Add Stable Assets docs:

  • Liquidity
    ÂżIs provided by Celo Foundation or by the Celo Reserve? or ÂżPeople can add funds to the liquidity pools? If people can add liquidity to Mento Âżwhat is the rewards for those who provide liquidity?

  • Determine pre-mint addresses and amounts
    We can support with some funds to premint some cCOP.

  • Including contracts on the registry, Freezing, Constitutional parameters, Oracle activation, Full activation and Tooling
    ÂżThis development of contracts is leading by a Celo Foundation Dev? or Âżdo we have to search for a dev to develop the contract?

Thanks for your replies

2 Likes
8

Hi @0xj4an, some answers - my personal view:

Establishing a "Fund"
When I say establish a fund, I mean make a governance proposal on the Celo blockchain for a grant (just as Celo Community Fund I, Ocelot, and now the Climate Collective are doing - you can see all proposals at Celo Governance by Staking Fund). The money comes from the on-chain community fund. Alternatively you could apply to Celo foundation for a grant, which I think is more appropriate for smaller grants (<$100k). The funds should be managed by a multi-sig (so you’ll want to get maybe 3, 5 or 7 community members there), and the idea is that the group would use the funds to put in place all of the arrangements that @MilaRioja and @nimittank talk about above. https://ocelotlabs.xyz/ is a good example of one way to show how funds are being spent.

The process for making an on-chain proposal starts by making an informal post here on this forum. Full details of the process are here, and I can help as well as @willkraft : governance/Technical Guide - Nuts & Bolts of the CGP Process.md at main · celo-org/governance · GitHub

Liquidity
When a cStable is launched, that means it is automatically on Mento (which provides liquidity between CELO and each cStable). The liquidity there is automatic. When we talk about organising liquidity, we mean getting liquidity outside of Mento (e.g. with local exchanges in Colombia) - especially between fiat COP and cCOP.

[For clarity, people don’t add liquidity to Mento. Mento operates from Celo’s reserve capital. What people can do, if they have CELO, is mint cCOP - there isn’t a reward for this, it’s a facility for people to get cREAL.].

Pre-mint addresses
In principle, CELO can decide to pre-mint some cCOP. I believe this was done for cUSD (and maybe cEUR). I’m a bit conflicted on whether this is a good idea because it involves printing money out of thin air. It’s probably fine in small amounts, a few million USD worth.

Including contracts on the registry etc.
This is the technical part that @martinvol is working to simplify. Currently this is complicated and actually takes a few CGPs (separate governance proposals) to implement . By the end of May, @martinvol and team should be issuing a more simple approach.

3 Likes
9

Thank you @0xj4an for the important questions and @Pinotio.com for clarifications and offering help in furthering these initiatives.

I believe there are enough use cases and hopefully incentives to help grow the liquidity. From my understanding the majority of the work lies in partner integrations and marketing. I would need to find the right people for the multi-sig who can help me. I shall DM you @Pinotio.com to figure the next steps.

2 Likes
10

Hi @0xj4an and @Sebastian - @MilaRioja @davidmriascos @downer and I are starting to do some work to outline use cases for Colombia. Would love to jam with you on this! :pray:t4:

2 Likes
11

Sure Dm me and we can start to build the usecases for the cCOP i have another one Usecase in progres…

12

Hello. We are building our Exchange in Colombia and have some case uses for Re-fi and tokenization with Reforestation projects that have been operatin for 25 years, solar energy and water projects.
Would love to have the cCOP implanted.
What would be the next steps ?

1 Like