Building, Scaling & Enhancing MiniPay to Onboard Users in Africa to Web3
September 2 2024
by Markus Franke
Featuring Markus Franke, CEO at Mento Labs, during the OpenFi event during EthCC.
Brussels, July 2024
This article includes highlights from the recent panel titled "Building, Scaling & Enhancing MiniPay to Onboard Users in Africa to Web3" at the OpenFi event held during EthCC Brussels.
What is Mento about?
Mento is an EVM multi-currency stablecoin platform on the Celo blockchain, offering a variety of decentralized stablecoins in different currencies. Currently, Mento supports five stablecoins: cUSD (Celo Dollar), cEUR (Celo Euro), eXOF (West African Franc), cREAL (Celo Brazilian Real) and the recently launched cKES (Celo Kenya Shilling). At Mento Labs, we are actively building infrastructure for more stablecoins such as a coin tracking the Philippine Peso, Japanese Yen, Ghanaian Cedi, and many more in the near future. The Mento Asset Exchange, Mento’s highly efficient AMM infrastructure is also integrated into Opera Mini's wallet, MiniPay to power the “Pockets” feature.
The goal of the Mento community is to provide users with access to stable currencies through easy-to-use wallets on a fast, cheap, and scalable blockchain, where users can be identified via their phone number. For instance, in Kenya, users can save money by holding a Dollar-stablecoin in MiniPay, protecting their savings from local currency inflation. However, for loans, they might prefer a local currency stablecoin to avoid the risk of the local currency losing value against the US Dollar. Local currencies are crucial for open finance, and we're thrilled to work with partners like Opera, Valora, and Fonbnk to make stablecoins accessible in many countries.
Why is MiniPay growing so fast?
MiniPay’s growth is largely due to its excellent user experience and ease of use. The dApp section is another powerful feature. During our time in Kenya, we observed that mobile money is highly fragmented; certain mobile money applications might not work if you have the wrong carrier, or they might not function across borders. MiniPay, however, offers an open ecosystem where different projects can build on top of it. We're exploring micro-lending dApps that could incorporate local currencies. This openness is crucial for user education and integration into the ecosystem.
Also Opera’s distribution across Africa and many other regions of the world is enabling a larger user base for open finance.
What is the MiniPay “Pockets” Feature?
The “Pockets” feature in MiniPay, powered by Mento, enables a great user experience. It gives users the freedom to choose their preferred US Dollar stablecoin. The core idea of the swapping feature of the Mento Platform is to provide users with the flexibility to select and exchange the currency they want. One impressive use case for this feature is microcredit. In countries experiencing inflation, users might prefer to take loans in a local currency stablecoin. This is vital for open finance, enabling users to perform FX transactions seamlessly. For example, users can switch from Kenya Shilling to US Dollar to Brazilian Real effortlessly, all on-chain. This is beneficial for liquidity providers who can interact with stablecoins like USDT, which are widely adopted across Africa. This swapping feature is also powering “Pockets” in MiniPay. By simply dragging and dropping one pocket of stablecoins to the other, a user can swap from one stablecoin to the other. In certain areas of the world different users might have an easier access to a certain stablecoin, with Pockets users now can easily go in between stablecoins.
The State of the Stablecoin Market
The stablecoin market is dominated by USDC and USDT, which account for about 98% of the market. While open finance aims to be decentralized, it heavily relies on these two centralized stablecoins. We want to offer users more choices, including local currency stablecoins and cUSD (Celo Dollar). Mento decentralized stablecoins are over-collateralized and fully transparent, with the collateral visible on-chain through the Mento Reserve. This transparency, stability and choice are what we aim to provide for users.
Integration of Other Stablecoins in MiniPay
Integrating various stablecoins into MiniPay is about giving users a choice. In countries where MiniPay is live, like Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa, it might be easier to on-ramp or pay with specific currencies. Providing users the flexibility to swap between currencies, such as from Tether’s USDT to Mento’s cUSD, ensures they can use the most convenient US Dollar stablecoin option in their location.
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