El Dorado is a marketplace for buying and selling Dollars (cUSD), Euros (cEUR), and Bitcoins with Latin American fiat currencies. We are targeting the region’s 500 million+ mobile users, where a majority of people face problems with inflation, currency devaluation, and lack of access to financial services. We are initially launching in Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela, where these problems are prominent, and we are using Celo’s mobile-first technology to provide an inclusive solution.

El Dorado is a technology company formed by Venezuelans living in many parts of the world due to the consequences of the country’s economic collapse. According to the Cato Institute, hyperinflation has devastated Venezuela to such a degree that we are heading to the longest hyperinflation streak in history with 46 straight months. Now more than 6 million Venezuelans, roughly 20% of our population, are currently abroad, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Having experienced hyperinflation firsthand has also taught us the importance of having access to a more stable currency like the US Dollar. Saving in a stable currency is something that most first-world country citizens take for granted. However, in many places in LATAM, it is a luxury or, even worse, a life or death matter. That is why we believe that a digital dollar is the entry door for a new economy where financial products and services can be denominated in multiple currencies and a friendlier step forward towards supporting crypto.

Why a P2P market?

El Dorado is natively built for stablecoins, a mobile-first approach, and very soon with high-yield USD savings accounts.

Why is El Dorado better?

We decided to build a P2P exchange from scratch because we believe it is the right approach for our target market. Latin America has over 38 different currencies and hundreds of different payment methods. This situation creates friction when doing international business, and most times, regular people suffer from these inefficiencies paying very high fees for simple things like sending remittances or money transfers.

Over time, El Dorado plans to improve the User Experience significantly better than other P2P platforms currently operating. We know that if we want to get mass adoption, we must provide a service where buying dollars is as easy as sending a text on Whatsapp.

How to get started?

To use El Dorado’s P2P services, you will only need to provide your email address, phone number and create a password. By creating your account, you will be able to create USD, Euro, and Bitcoin accounts for free. Whenever you want to transact on our P2P marketplace with your local payment methods, all you need is to complete a very easy user verification process that will grant you access to our suite of financial products. You can access our services from either our Android app or web application. We’ll also add support for IOS by the end of the year.

Our P2P marketplace consists of a reputation system, an escrow, and a chat with a dispute mechanism to ensure the safety of all the transactions on the platform. As we grow, we plan to expand the scope of our services to most countries within the Latin American region and allow more payment methods.

Where are we heading?

We plan to position El Dorado as the main On/Off ramp of the Celo community in Latin America so they can easily access a fast-growing ecosystem with multiple opportunities. As we scale, we plan to become a bridge for international business between Latin America and the rest of the world. To fulfill that vision, we need to offer competitive and innovative services that can help the growing young middle-class population of our region that is desperate for financial alternatives, particularly ones that offer the ability to generate extra income denominated in a strong currency.

This project is inspired by the growing crypto communities in places like Argentina and Venezuela, where adoption is happening because of necessity and not because of speculation. We want to onboard non-crypto-savvy users to show them the benefits of transacting in stable digital currencies and access a new class of financial services. We’ll see the emergence of savings accounts, loans, remittances, payments and many other products denominated in strong and global currencies, giving them easier access to the crypto economy.

We are on a very important mission of eradicating inflation and extreme poverty in our region and we’ll need the help of many other actors. El Dorado is already part of the Celo Alliance of Prosperity, which is a group of 150+ companies and organizations aligned towards creating a financial system that creates the conditions of prosperity for all.

Join us on this exciting journey and let’s bring financial inclusion to every corner of the world. We are here for the long term and we’ll not rest until every person has access to the benefits of an inclusive financial system that puts human prosperity and happiness above everything else.