Is CELO Halal?

is celo halal

What is CELO?

Celo aims to be a framework that resolves some of the obstacles to cryptocurrency adoption (such as volatility and lack of user-friendly interfaces) by supporting the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications via phone numbers as private keys and issuing a native stable-value token. The network also supports the development of smart contracts.

 

Its first application, Celo Wallet, aspires to be a social-payments system centered on mobile phones. Celo has two native cryptoassets  Celo and Celo Dollars. Celo (CELO) is the root asset protocol of its operating frequency. It serves as a utility that allows users to take part in the network consensus process through validation of Proof-of-Stake (P-O-S), pay for transactions fee on the Ethereum network, and vote on governance. Celo Dollars (cUSD) are a stable asset that follows the US Dollar.

 

Key features (more details on CELO website) include:

  • Stable Value Currencies
  • Accounts Linked to Phone Numbers
  • Transaction Fees in Any Currency

 

Who Invests In CELO?

 

9Yards Capital

Autonomous Partners

Coinbase Ventures

Curious Endeavors

Dragonfly Capital

Electric Capital

General Catalyst

Greenfield One

Kilowatt Capital

Lakestar

Nima Capital

Polychain Capital

SVAngel

Social Capital

Valor Capital Group

a16z Crypto

Is CELO Halal? We’d Love to Hear Your Thoughts

Sharing the collective wisdom of thousands of Muslim crypto traders and investors.

CELO Technology

The Celo Protocol is a distributed cryptographic protocol that allows applications to interact with and perform computations on multiple cryptocurrencies, including those pegged to the US Dollar. The Celo Wallet app, when released, will allow individuals to manage accounts and process payments securely using its innovation.

 

Legitimacy Screening of CELO

Aside from the high calibre VC’s listed in the investors section above, a number of high profile individuals have also invested and support CELO. This includes Reid Hoffman (Linkedin Founder), Jack Dorsey (Twitter and Square Founder) and Naval Ravikant who is leading VC with over 70 exits, including 10 unicorns.

 

When organisations and individuals of this calibre are backing CELO, we should probably pay attention. So in terms of legitimacy, CELO of course has no issues.

Is CELO project aligned with Islamic values?

Yes, CELO project does align with Islamic values as its basically trying to make mobile payments easier using a secure medium in between.

 

Financial Screening of CELO:

Financial screening ensures that the crypto asset meets the financial criteria for Shariah compliance, if it is an equity based token. CELO is not backed by any equity, so there is no financial screening required on this coin/ token. Here we would typically look at things like debt to income ratio to ensure borrowing is limited to a tolerable level.

 

CELO Token Screening for Shariah Compliance

Token Type: Native
Token Uses: Payments, Vote

CELO owners can use their holdings to pay gas-price transaction fees (gas fees). The Celo protocol requires paying a gas fee for every network transaction or contract execution. The market for this gas fee adheres to the logic of that presented in EIP-1559, an Ethereum improvement proposal focused on increasing gas fees.

CELO holders use their funds to vote on governance proposals to endorse improvements to the CELoC protocol, or to modify the design of CELoC reserve targets. Based on this the CELO token is considered halal.

 

Is Staking CELO Halal?       

The Proof of stake method used by this protocol complies with Shariah principles, so staking CELO is Halal and permissable.

 

What Does The Muslim Crypto Community Think of CELO?           

Sharlife considers CELO as a halal cryptocurrency based on the five areas assessed for Shariah complaince screening.

Crypto Halal Office for Monitoring and Sharia auditing on cryptocurrency markets thinks CELO is a Halal digital asset based on its Shariah complaince screening.

 

If you know of other academic or scholarly views on this, please add in comments and we will update accordingly. Alternatively, you may want to join our community of Muslims crypto investors and traders, to share, learn and profit from halal digital assets.          

 

Is CELO Halal?

Yes, CELO is Halal and the entire project aligns with Shariah guidelines. Like other blockchain projects, CELO is trying to utilize a text messaging system to facilitate payment. A bit like M-Pesa have been doing in parts of Africa for some 15 years, using text to pay energy bills for example.

I know, innovation isn’t always earth shattering, but maybe the investors are backing CELO because they see M-Pesa’s market as a $7b opportunity open for disruption? What do you think?

 

We hope you found this useful. Please view our Halal Crypto List to find suitable digital asset investments, without compromising your Islamic faith.

 

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