The Celo Foundation has announced the Alliance for Prosperity, a rival to Facebook Inc.’s Libra Foundation

The alliance has 50 founding members, including key partners of the Libra Project

It is likely that the project won’t encounter opposition like Libra, as it is compliant with regulatory standards

On March 11, 2020, various members of the Facebook-led Libra Association reportedly started supporting a rival project, called the Celo Alliance for Prosperity.

According to a report on Bloomberg, the project currently has over 50 members supporting it. These include some members of the Libra Association, such as Anchorage, Coinbase Venture, and Andreessen Horowitz. Its goal is to deliver humanitarian aid, facilitate payments, and enable micro-lending via a cryptocurrency called the Celo Dollar.

The cryptocurrency is reportedly going to launch next month and will be pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar. The Celo Dollar is set to be backed by a reserve of other cryptocurrencies, while the Libra will be backed by a basket of fiat currencies and short-term U.S. Treasury bills.

Chuck Kimble, the head of the Alliance for Prosperity, revealed that while the new crypto will be available in the U.S, the alliance’s focus is on developing economies from Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

The new project is showing up while Facebook and its Libra supporters are continually hit by regulatory and political opposition.

Will Celo Dollar Get Approval From Regulators

Kimble is confident that Celo won’t have the Libra fate, as the Alliance for Prosperity has been actively cooperating with governments and central banks.

He said:

“We have met with governments around the globe as well as central banks. We are continually engaging with governments in the many countries which we hope to serve.”

Meanwhile, Anchorage president Diogo Monica said that Celo and Libra each have unique features and tactics, but they shared a similar goal of banking the unbanked. He reiterated that his company is an advocate for a more open financial system, and it is thus their duty to support both Libra and Celo dollar.

When Celo is gearing up with its stablecoin project, Facebook’s crypto initiative is facing regulatory hurdles that might push the Libra Association’s aim to launch its digital currency in mid-2020.

The Libra Association has also shed the support of some of its key members like Visa, Mastercard, and Vodafone, but recently added two members – Shopify and Tagomi.

Will Celo Dollar Be A Success?

Celo’s members have a combined reach of 400 million people. Use cases being explored include remittances and payments, micro-lending, and making it easier to deliver humanitarian aid.

The organization has raised more than $36 million to date mainly through tokens, including $15 million from Andreessen Horowitz, which also backs Libra. Other shared members include BisonTrails and MercyCorps.

The reason that the project is likely to succeed is that it is compliant with U.S laws and has had a clear motive from its launch in 2017: to bring financial inclusion to the world’s unbanked population.

Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock.