TL;DR:
- What is Mento? - Mento is a stablecoin protocol creating stable assets for every country. With a goal of onboarding a billion web3 users, Mento is creating a new, accessible future for digital currencies.
- What can I do with Mento? - Mento provides access to cryptocurrencies called stablecoins, which hold value equal to national currencies like USD, EUR, or REAL. Stablecoins provide the benefits of cryptocurrency, like self-custody, permissionless transactions, and access to DeFi - without the volatility typically associated with digital currencies.
- What opportunities do you have with Mento? - With Mento you can hold cUSD, cEUR, and cREAL in your Valora wallet while earning interest, staking, or earning from DeFi protocols like Curve, Uniswap, Moola Market, and more.
Disclaimer: The following article is for informational purposes only. It should not be taken as an endorsement, investment, tax, financial, or other advice. The Mento dapp is not built or maintained by Valora nor does Valora receive any payment or other form of compensation from Mento. This article simply aims to provide an explanation of how many people around the world are using the Valora wallet to access and explore decentralized applications like Mento. As with any Web3 solution, you alone assume the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with using any third-party decentralized application.
What is Mento?
Mento is a protocol that enables the adoption of digital currencies worldwide, aiming to provide a stable asset for every country. With a goal of onboarding a billion web3 users, Mento is creating a new, accessible future for digital currencies that anyone can use.
Currently, Mento offers three stablecoins that maintain a stable value: cUSD, cEUR, and cREAL. These stablecoins are backed by a diversified portfolio of cryptocurrencies through the Mento Reserve, which keeps the value of the stablecoins pegged to the value of their respective fiat currencies.
Each of the stablecoins was created to provide an easy way for the Celo community to transact in a familiar regional currency.
Mento Stablecoins
- cUSD - Pegged to the US dollar
- cEUR - Pegged to the Euro
- cREAL - Pegged to the Brazilian Real
Stable value is an important feature for many of the real-world use cases that we see on Celo - including remittances, sending payments from one country to another, purchasing goods and services, growing savings in a stable currency, and earning interest on your cryptocurrency.
What can I do with cUSD, cEUR, cREAL?
cUSD, cEUR and cREAL stablecoins serve as a digital alternative to traditional banking services, offering a secure and accessible means of storing value, making payments, conducting transactions and earning interest. This is particularly valuable in areas that have less support from traditional or legacy financial institutions.
People without access to a bank account or a credit score can use these stablecoins to hold savings in a stable currency, send and receive payments, grow their savings, and access other financial services directly through their smartphones.
Stablecoins can provide the benefits of cryptocurrency for many people - including access to DeFi, without the extra difficulty of managing the volatility associated with other cryptocurrencies.
How do I get started?
To start using Mento, you will first need to connect to Valora. If you haven’t already - you can download the Valora app from the Apple App store or Google Play store here. It only takes a few simple steps to set up your Valora wallet.
To start using Mento follow these steps below. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us on Discord and our team would be happy to assist you.
Launch Valora
- Launch Valora on your smartphone
- Add funds including Celo, cUSD, cEUR, or cREAL to your wallet (Instructions to add funds)
- Access the dapps page to put your stablecoins to work by earning interest, participating in a savings pool, buying real world goods and more.
What opportunities do you have with Mento?
Mento enables users to tap into many DeFi opportunities - from earning interest on your stablecoins, to more complex financial opportunities such as lending and borrowing using dapps in the Celo ecosystem. The range of financial opportunities is endless. Here are just a few examples of opportunities you can access right now with Valora.
- Supercharge Rewards - One popular use case is Supercharge rewards, where you can receive 7% annual rewards* just by keeping a balance of stablecoins in Valora. To do this, Valora users just need to make a swap of Celo (CELO) tokens into cUSD. After swapping Celo to cUSD, users can then claim weekly rewards in their Valora wallet while enjoying the stability of a fiat-backed stablecoin for storing assets.
- DeFi Staking & Rewards - For users who want to explore decentralized finance, Mento enables you to convert amongst cUSD, cEUR, or cREAL and Celo for use on various Celo DeFi dapps to earn additional rewards. Once you convert for Mento stablecoins such as cUSD and cEUR you can then use a dapp such as Ubeswap to provide liquidity for users who trade between those two assets. You’ll own a share of the liquidity pool by depositing both of the assets and then earn fees on all trades between those assets by other users. This is just one example of how you can earn additional rewards on stablecoins without the volatility commonly associated with non-stable tokens.
- Payments for Goods & Services - Another way to use these stablecoins is for peer-to-peer transactions. The types of transactions that can be completed include payments for goods and services between two parties. For example, if you are a fruit seller in a marketplace, you can offer your customers the option of paying for your products with cUSD, cEUR, or cREAL by using Mento. This could be especially beneficial for sellers of goods and services in countries with high inflation and or volatile currencies.
Why we’re excited
Mento stablecoins are an important tool in providing real-world use cases for crypto. From payments to growing savings, they enable our community to hold stable balances, access financial services, and begin exploring decentralized finance. With so many methods to provide more inclusive financial opportunities, Mento stablecoins are helping to positively reshape the financial world for all.
Stay tuned and follow @Valora on Twitter for more to explore dapps, and if you haven’t already, make sure to download Valora today to try out Mento.
Interested in new ways to save, spend, and grow your crypto using Valora? You may also enjoy the following:
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- Dapp Spotlight: Browse NFTs for Plastic Recovery with Plastiks
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*Disclaimer: As of February 13, 2024, Valora offers 7% annual rewards on qualifying Celo stablecoins. This change will be applied to new and existing Supercharge accounts with a minimum required balance - effective immediately.
Supercharge rewards will continue to be paid out weekly. Remember to claim your Supercharge rewards every week in your Valora wallet.
