Libra Minus Facebook: Why Celo Is 2020's Buzzy Token Project

The team behind that project, C Labs, is combining the ethereum and Libra models with a $30 million war chest from the likes of Polychain Capital and Andreesen Horowitz.

"The Celo mobile app, bringing stable payments and remittances to the unbanked, has a chance to bring broad swaths of people to the world of blockchain technology and crypto, but to also level up the economic well-being of those most in need across the globe," said Polychain President Joe Eagan.

Polychain CEO Olaf Carlson-Wee said in a Reddit AMA: "In the best case, Celo is Whatsapp for money."

"We are not doing anything related to the token sale," Weiss said, referencing the not-yet-launched Celo Gold token sale.

Since LibraCamp wasn't endorsed by Facebook, the initial goal was to connect investors with unaffiliated teams able to build products and services that leveraged Facebook's open source Libra project.

Regardless of whether the CeloCamp teams are able to launch venture-backed businesses, Reinsberg hopes participants will make financial products and services that help Celo find a use case.

As part of the plan, C Labs will also conduct a token sale in 2020.

Following in the footsteps of the Interchain Foundation, stewards of the Cosmos project, a separate foundation will distribute funds to C Labs to develop Celo.

The Celo network's currency reserve will include ether and the broader network will use stablecoins, inspired by the dollar-pegged and crypto-backed DAI stablecoin.

Facebook's Libra project arguably has the same goals, but Reinsberg says Celo's approach is "Fundamentally different."