The Celo Foundation and Rarible introduce Celosphere, a new NFT marketplace powered by RaribleX and platforming digital ownership aligned with the Celo community’s mission of creating prosperity for all.
Built on Celo, an emerging Ethereum Layer-2 and mobile-first blockchain network, the Celosphere provides creators “with the tools to bring their diverse digital collectibles to communities around the world.”
The launch of Celosphere is “a continuation of Rarible’s collaboration to empower creators, following the March 7th integration of Rarible API on Celo.”
Through the integration, builders of decentralized applications (dApps) leveraging NFT technology on Celo gained “access to robust toolkits including a real-time NFT indexer, multi-chain support, and more.”
Celosphere includes an NFT marketplace “for creators to buy, sell, and trade digital collectibles on Celo through accessible onboarding and seamless user interfaces. Through Celo’s carbon-negative design and Ultragreen Money tokenomics, which allocates 20% of every sub-cent gas fee to a carbon offsetting fund, every transaction on Celo and the Celosphere drives climate action.”
The following NFT projects on Celo are among the Celosphere’s first collections:
- STEWARD, a dynamic NFT collection funding climate non-profits dedicated to the conservation of the planet’s eight ecosystems and indigenous organizations
- Ecosapiens, an eco-conscious collective that defends the climate with a perpetual carbon capture digital collectible series, whose dynamic Celosapien has evolved with Celo’s carbon offsets at the protocol layer
- Plastiks, a marketplace for tokenized plastics recovery certificates (currently totaling 2.2M+ kgs of recovered plastic waste) with various partners, including the legendary football club FC Barcelona
They will be joined by inaugural creator Maya Spirits, a Mexico-based impact organization using blockchain, science, and art to “address critical initiatives in the Calakmul jungle, from protecting flora and fauna across 4,000 acres of Mexico’s largest biosphere to facilitating gender equality and access to healthcare services.”
The Celo Foundation is also announcing “the Celo Creators Fund, incentivizing artists, creators, and individuals to build impactful NFT collections, with grants and creative programs totaling 150,000 USDC.”
Inaugural community partners for the Celo Creators Fund “include Web3 innovators at the forefront of art, content, and culture, including Refraction, Boys Club, HUG, and Rug Radio. Each community partner will allocate five 1,000 USDC fast-track grants to members of their respective communities, with additional funding to support custom-tailored artists’ aftercare programs for greater education and awareness.”
Submissions will be considered by the Celo Creators Fund’s curatorial board, comprised of a diverse range of Web3 professionals.
Submissions for the Celo Creators Fund will close on Tuesday, April 24th at 11:59pm ET.
As noted in the update, Celo says it is “an emerging Ethereum Layer-2 and mobile-first blockchain network built for the real world and designed for fast, low-cost payments worldwide.”
The Celo ecosystem consists of “a decentralized, proof-of-stake blockchain technology stack (the Celo Platform), the CELO native token, several Mento stable assets (cUSD, cEUR, cREAL, eXOF), and USDC and USDT, which enable anyone to use digital assets. Launched on Earth Day in 2020, the open-source Celo mainnet supports 1,000+ projects by developers and creators located around the world.”
