The number of blockchain and cryptocurrency projects in the market today is in the tens of thousands yet users still complain about how inefficient they are. Among the challenges of using Web3 products are wallet connectivity and that of gas fees.
While developers and builders are trying to solve this problem to improve the adoption of Web3 products, there is still more work to be done.
As a Celo developer, Arthur Gousset explained at the ETHCC Paris, how the Celo blockchain has added two distinct improvements to make its user experience better and how other builders can build better projects.
“First I think in Tech and crypto particularly we sometimes have a tendency of over-indexing on our own understanding of technology and not empathizing enough with the end user”.
Celo is an open-source blockchain platform designed to create a more inclusive financial system by making decentralized finance (DeFi) and digital payments accessible to anyone with a mobile phone.
The project’s mission is to enable financial inclusion for billions of people worldwide, especially those who are unbanked or underbanked.
Celo operates as a proof-of-stake blockchain, meaning it relies on validators who hold and lock Celo’s native cryptocurrency, called CELO, as collateral to validate transactions, secure the network, and participate in governance decisions. One of the key features that set Celo apart is its focus on mobile-first design.
Fee abstraction
The first feature mentioned by the speaker that has been optimized on Celo is the abstraction of gas currencies, making it easier for end-users to interact with the blockchain without needing to understand or deal with gas fees in the native cryptocurrency.
“We really want to abstract away the concept of gas currencies because gas is something that we’re intimately aware of in the Ethereum and blockchain space but most end users are not particularly comfortable with it,” he added.
He noted that the feature allows users to pay transaction fees using stable tokens like USD or EUR, simplifying the process of purchasing NFTs or making other transactions.
Citing an example, he explained that when a typical purchase with credit and debit cards are made today, they are so easy and without much stress on users compared to when a user needs to get an NFT.
Some of the extra activities for users may include connecting a wallet, getting gas fees which can be in ETH or another token, and swapping tokens which may sometimes occur on another platform before the final purchase is done.
To correct this, Celo engineers have simplified the process of transacting on the Celo chain by where any user “can now buy an NFT in a stable token like a dollar token or a Euro token and pay for the gas in dollars too” without thinking about “the concept of gas”.
Social Connect
The second feature discussed is Social Connect, a user-friendly way to interact with the blockchain using phone numbers or email addresses instead of hexadecimal addresses.
This experience is similar to popular payment apps like Venmo or Cash App, where users can easily send money to contacts without dealing with complex addresses.
He carried out a live demo of Social Connect in action, where a user sends money to a friend’s wallet using their phone number, and the payment is received promptly. Arthur emphasized that this user-centric approach is vital for improving adoption and usability in the blockchain and crypto space.
Arthur also invited developers to participate in the hackathon to explore the possibilities of building with Social Connect and provided the audience with additional resources and contact details to learn more about the technology.
