Key Highlights
- Opera MiniPay launched in September 2022 by Opera in collaboration with the Celo foundation and Mento Labs aims to provide accessible DeFi services to mobile users
- The service enables instant wallet-to-wallet transfers pegged to US Dollar for minimal fees
- Seamlessly integrates dollar-stablecoins on Celo using Mento Protocol’s cUSD
- User growth has exceeded 1 million in 5 months across Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana
Opera recently announced that its payment platform, Opera MiniPay, has exceeded 1 million active users across Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana – a major adoption milestone. Opera MiniPay is an Android browser wallet developed on the Celo blockchain network to promote financial inclusion through permissionless dollar-pegged transactions.
“This partnership represents a pivotal moment in the world of digital finance, allowing individuals across Africa to send, receive, and ultimately earn money in a permissionless way,” stated Jørgen Arnesen, Opera’s Executive Vice President of Mobile.
Rapid User Adoption Amid Need for Accessible Finance
In just 5 months since launching in partnership with Celo Foundation and Mento Labs, Opera MiniPay has already crossed the milestone of 1 million users – mostly across Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana.
The rapid adoption highlights the persisting need for accessible financial services amid currency uncertainties in Africa. As Arnesen stated, concerns around transaction fees, reliability and transparency still affect user satisfaction.
Also Read: Huawei Kenya trains 100 women in digital and entrepreneurial skills
“Therefore, this partnership represents a pivotal moment in the world of digital finance, allowing individuals across Africa to send, receive, and ultimately earn money in a permissionless way,” he said.
Enabling Permissionless Transactions Through Stablecoins
Opera designed MiniPay on top of the Celo protocol to enable permissionless fund transfers leveraging stablecoins. By pegging transactions to US Dollar, users can securely store and transfer value without exposure to local currency devaluation.
Celo is a platform acting as a global payment infrastructure for cryptocurrencies that aims to target mobile users. To this end, Celo’s goal is for financial activity to be accessible to anyone globally thanks to its ability for payments to be sent to and from any phone number in the world.
Integration with cUSD through Mento Labs provides built-in stability while maintaining usability for everyday transactions. The product simplifies access to decentralized finance for anyone with a basic mobile phone.
Shared Mission of Achieving Prosperity for All
The launch and growth of Opera MiniPay represents strong alignment between Opera, Celo Foundation and Mento Labs around the goal of universal prosperity through technology.
Jason Rodrigues, Head of Founder Programs at Celo Foundation echoed this vision, stating, “This partnership allows real-world users access to a variety of inclusive financial tools in a seamless, fast, and reliable way.”
By collaborating across products and protocols, the companies aim to abstract away crypto-complexities and empower the next billion users through permissionless finance. The milestone of 1 million users proves the strong product-market fit towards this goal.
