It seems to me that every day we have a new chain emerging from some corner of the blockchain industry diluting an already diluted audience even further. There are 23 active chains where farming is available in one way or another but can people really keep up with all of this?
Let's leave that discussion for another time and look at what Celo has to offer.
Celo (CGLD) is an open-sourced Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain designed to support stablecoins and tokenized assets with an algorithmic reserve-backed stability mechanism. CGLD is a cryptocurrency that acts as a utility and governance token for the CGLD) platform.
How?
Metamask users can chose the "Custom RPC" option in the dropdown menu and enter the following:
- Network Name: Celo (Mainnet)
- New RPC URL: https://forno.celo.org
- Chain ID: 42220
- Currency Symbol: CELO
- Block Explorer URL: https://explorer.celo.org
The native currency for the network is Celo and all transaction fees are paid in this currency. There are 3 ways you can get some into your wallet.
Direct withdrawal from a CEX like KuCoin is probably the fastest way to get started. There is a withdrawal fee of 0.1 Celo and you get it in your wallet in a matter of seconds.
Bridging assets through the Optics bridge is another way of getting your coins over to Celo but these transactions can take up to a day. The average waiting time is 4 hours. At least that is what I was told in their discord channel.
Celo faucet is available if you need to pay for a transaction. Just go to the CeloDex home page and request some free coins.
Why?
Liquidity on Celo is on the rise and right now it has captured about $1B in TVL. There are a few projects that are attracting millions and would probably be worth looking into.
As you can see it is mostly exchanges and lending protocols but there are a few farming opportunities as well.
If you are looking for farms, as always Vfat tools is your friend. I personally only tested out CeloDex and it has some interesting opportunities.
Farming mechanisms offer higher APY for token lockups that can range from a few weeks to 6 months.
In general, alternative chains are finding their place in the industry, and exploring them every once in a while can be beneficial. Sometimes you will use protocols that will reward you with an airdrop in the future, sometimes you will find gems that will boost your portfolio, and sometimes you will simply spend money on complete shitcoins. Such is life and DeFi farming.
Bottom Line
I found Celo easy to use and the transaction speed isn't that bad. Fees are virtually nonexistent and even speeding up the transaction by increasing the gas fee won't affect your Celo balance in a noticeable way.
Most of the farms I saw look sketchy. CeloDex is the only one with rational tokenomics but that doesn't have to mean anything in the long run. Entering with play money is highly advised.
The Optics bridge is not very user-friendly and waiting 4 hours to get your funds to the other side simply sucks. Those that can't use KuCoin will have a really bad time experiencing Celo for the first time.
Cheap transactions shouldn't be the main selling point of any blockchain so doing further research on Celo is a must. Everything you may need can be found here.