Celo's Impact in Latin America and CeLatam Mission

Let's journey through these events, where bright minds converge to shape the future of Web3.

DeveloperWeek Latin America 2023: Fostering Innovation Across Borders

In 2023, DeveloperWeek Latin America brought together visionaries from across Latin America to showcase their talents and ingenuity. This regional event served as a melting pot of ideas, with participants from various countries converging to push the boundaries of Web3 while developing solutions for topics like the Climate Crisis, Payment and StableCoins, Public Goods, DAOs, NFTs, and Gaming.

VaultBoost, Real-Time Neurological Disorder Detector, and CELO club were among the winners.

Celo Hackathon and Startup Competition in Argentina: Nurturing Local Talent Among Students

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In November 2019, Argentina hosted a hackathon and startup competition launched by CLabs and Celo. 

Focused on students from all over the country, the big winner was Maria Emilia Macor, founder of SAFE FOOD!, whose solution aimed to revolutionize food safety practices, and the dynamic trio of Mateo Fuentes, Yannick Zukian, and Tomás Saavedra, creators of Pamper.app, an innovative platform empowering local businesses.

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Fueling Innovation in Brazil: A Hotbed of Web3 Creativity

From the Hackathon Ethereum Rio 2022 to the Hackathon Web3: Tokenização do Patrimônio da União in December 2022, together with Celo, the country showcased its prowess in blockchain development.

For Ethereum Rio 2022, the winners were Obvios Crypto, an off-ramp platform that allows Brazilians to go from Pix  (the Brazilian payment system used by 155,8mi Brazilians) to Crypto in seconds, and Omnisig, a multisig with swap capabilities.

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In December of the same year, together with Serpro, the Central Bank, and the Ministry of Economy, Celo organized a hackathon to tokenize all the assets from the Union (the federative entity representing the Brazilian State at the Federal Level). Here we are talking about $400bi—yes, you read it right—that's the largest financial object a Web3 hackathon has ever had in Brazil (and probably in the world).

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The winner was Team Insigna, which proposed using NFTs to fraction the price of Real Estate to increase its liquidity at auctions. Second place went to the Tokenverse Team, which paved the way for Web3 adoption within the State with its solutions on permissioned tokens. In third place, we have Team GeoReg, which proposes using satellite data to identify, report, and manage different kinds of properties from the Union.

In March 2023, Celo sponsored the ETH Samba Hack Rio23, a hackathon that gathered teams from all over the country for three days in Bamba House. The big winner was Happay, an e-commerce solution.

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One of the main hackathons happened in November 2023, when CeLatam's steward Mila Rioja, together with the National Treasury of Brazil, the Central Bank of Brazil, Serpro, and B3 (the Brazilian main stock exchange), organized a hackathon to tokenize all the bonds of the Brazilian national debt.

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Here we are talking about more than one trillion US dollars.

The winners were Code_Creators (offering a comprehensible solution for the tokenization of the bonds), GUIZO (with a proposal to tokenize GreenBonds), and ValedasAraucarias (with an Oracle solution).

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Empowering Colombia's Tech Ecosystem: Hackathon Web3 Colombia

In December 2023, Colombia showcased its potential as a hub for blockchain innovation with its Hackathon Web3 Colombia aimed at accelerating the Colombian ecosystem.

The winners were Kiwi (democratization of access to credit), GreenGate (mixing data about national parks and conservation), and DAGROCELO (traceability and e-commerce).

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Looking Ahead: Celatam's Commitment

As we reflect on these hackathons, it's clear that Celo and CeLatam, have been playing a pivotal role in accelerating the Web3 ecosystem across Latin America. Their commitment to fostering innovation, empowering local talent, and driving collaboration has laid a solid foundation for future growth on adoption through the ReFi and impact-driven lens.

Looking ahead, CeLatam remains steadfast in its mission to expand opportunities for Web3 builders and enthusiasts in Latin America. Through continued support for hackathons, educational initiatives, and community engagement, CeLatam aims to unlock the full potential of blockchain technology and usher in a new era of decentralized innovation.

Let us embrace the journey ahead in the spirit of discovery and humility, knowing that together, we can shape a brighter future for Latin America.

Stay tuned to our Twitter, IG, and blog posts.

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