Celer Network

Celer Network (CELR) was founded in 2018 by Mo Dong, Junda Liu, Xiaozhou Li, and Qingkai Liang. The founders have PhDs from prestigious institutions such as Princeton, MIT, UC Berkeley, and UIUC, and they also have experience in developing corporate software like Google Fi, Veriflow, Intel DPDK, and B4.

In July 2019, Celer Network unveiled Cygnus, the world's first Generalized State Channel Network. The company raised $30 million in its initial coin offering (ICO) in March 2019 and launched its alpha testnet in May of the same year. The beta version of the Celer Network mainnet was launched in March 2020, and it has since been integrated with major blockchain platforms like Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain.

In July 2020, Celer Network introduced Layer-2.5, a technology that allows for the scaling of decentralized applications (dApps) on top of Layer-2 networks. This innovation enables developers to create more complex dApps while maintaining the speed, security, and cost benefits of the Layer-2 infrastructure.

Celer Network has also been recognized by industry experts for its contributions to the blockchain ecosystem. In September 2020, the company was named a finalist in the DeFi category of the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield competition. Additionally, Celer Network was selected to participate in the prestigious Ethereum Foundation’s Grant Program in November 2020, further solidifying its reputation as a leader in the blockchain sphere.

Celer Network is a blockchain interoperability protocol designed to enable seamless interactions across multiple blockchains. It allows users to access various decentralized applications (dApps), tokens, DeFi, GameFi, NFTs, governance, and more with a single click, providing a unified user experience across different blockchain ecosystems.

1. Celer Inter-chain Messaging (IM) Framework:

   • This framework enables generic message passing and cross-chain function calls. Developers can build inter-chain-native dApps using the Celer IM SDK, which provides efficient liquidity utilization, coherent application logic, and shared states.

2. Celer cBridge:

   • A decentralized and non-custodial asset bridge that supports token transfer across over 40 blockchains and layer-2 rollups. It has processed significant cross-chain asset transfer volumes and is expanding to more blockchains and layer-2s.

3. State Guardian Network (SGN):

• A Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain built on Tendermint, which serves as the message router between different blockchains. It offers L1-blockchain level security and is used for staking CELR tokens to participate in the network consensus.

• Interoperability:

  • Celer Network allows users to access various blockchain ecosystems with a single click, providing a unified user experience. This is achieved through the Celer IM Framework and cBridge, which facilitate seamless interactions between different blockchains.

• Staking and Rewards:

  • Users can stake CELR tokens to participate in the network consensus and earn rewards. Stakers receive service fees for their services, which are shared on a per-block basis.

• Layer-2 Scaling:

• Celer Network is built on top of other blockchain platforms to enable scaling and secure operations through off-chain transactions. This layer-2 architecture helps optimize the speed, performance, and interoperability of dApps, smart contracts, and off-chain operations.

• Security:
  • The State Guardian Network provides L1-blockchain level security, ensuring the integrity of transactions and interactions across different blockchains.

• Token Bridging:

  • Celer Network enables the transfer of tokens across multiple blockchains, facilitating the use of tokens across different ecosystems.

• Cross-Chain Liquidity:

  • The platform provides efficient liquidity utilization, allowing for coherent application logic and shared states across different blockchains.

• NFT Bridging:

• Celer Network supports the transfer of NFTs across different blockchains, expanding the use cases for NFTs in various ecosystems.

• Metaverse Games:
  • The platform enables the creation of metaverse games that use items from multiple chains, enhancing the gaming experience and interoperability.

• Native Token:

  • CELR is the native token of Celer Network, used for staking, network fees, and other functions within the ecosystem.

• Token Supply:

  • The total supply of CELR is 10 billion, with a circulating supply of around 7.09 billion as of August 2022.

• Token Price:

• The price of CELR is subject to market fluctuations and can be influenced by various factors such as project news, market sentiment, and the flow of cryptocurrency on exchanges.

Celer Network (CELR) has several strengths that make it a promising solution in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space:

1. Scalability: Celer Network is designed to provide fast and cheap transactions, making it a scalable solution for blockchain technology. It uses state channel technology, which allows for the creation of private off-chain channels between two parties that can be used to conduct multiple transactions without having to broadcast them to the main blockchain, significantly reducing fees and increasing transaction speed.

2. Layer-2 Scaling: Celer Network operates as a layer-2 scaling platform, which means that transactions are processed off-chain instead of being broadcasted and processed on the main blockchain. This approach significantly reduces fees and increases transaction speed, making it a powerful and flexible platform for building and running decentralized applications.

3. Cross-Chain Interoperability: Celer Network supports cross-chain interoperability, allowing it to communicate and have transactions with other blockchain networks. This is achieved through the use of cross-chain bridges, which enable the transfer of assets and data between different blockchains.

4. Security Measures: The network incorporates advanced security measures, including secure multi-party computation (MPC) and threshold signature technology, which provide cryptographic security to protect users’ assets and ensure the integrity of transactions.

5. Blockchain Agnostic: Celer Network is blockchain agnostic, meaning it can work with any blockchain, reducing the risk of obsolescence and making it a versatile solution for developers and users alike.

6. Developer-Friendly: Celer Network provides a variety of SDKs (software development kits) that make it easier for developers to build and deploy scalable decentralized applications (dApps) at lower costs. These SDKs are designed to handle storage, operation, tracking, and disputes of off-chain states, making the development process more efficient.

7. Competitive Advantage: Celer Network has demonstrated speed and efficiency, performing 15 times faster than rivals, thanks to its generalized state channel and channel balancing solutions. This competitive advantage could help lift it to prominence in the industry.

8. Strong Founding Team: The four founders of Celer Network have strong backgrounds in network infrastructures, distributed systems, and performance networking, which adds credibility to the project.

9. Tokenomics: Celer Network has a limited total supply of 10 billion CELR tokens, which acts as an anti-inflation mechanism and potentially makes CELR a good store of value in the long term.

10. Real-World Applications: Celer Network has already been integrated with major blockchain platforms, such as Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain, and has been recognized by industry experts for its contributions to the blockchain ecosystem.

Celer Network (CELR) carries both systematic and unsystematic risks. Systematic risk is associated with overall cryptocurrency market movements and cannot be diversified away. Unsystematic risk, on the other hand, is specific to the Celer Network project and can be mitigated by diversifying investments across different digital assets with low correlation to each other.

• Market Volatility: Celer Network's price is susceptible to fluctuations in the broader cryptocurrency market, which can impact its value.
• Market Sensitivity: The token actively responds to market movements, making it sensitive to changes in the overall market environment.

• Project-Specific Risks: Events specific to the Celer Network project can negatively affect the token's price. This includes factors such as the project's performance, adoption, and competition.
• Risk of Devaluation: There is a risk that the token's value may decrease due to various project-specific factors.
• Speculative Nature: Celer Network has characteristics of a speculative cryptocurrency, which can lead to high volatility and uncertainty.

• Competition: Celer Network faces competition from other layer-2 scaling solutions and payment networks, which can impact its adoption and value.
• Marketing and Social Presence: The project has historically lacked strong marketing and social presence, which can hinder its growth and visibility.
• Risk Gauge Score: The risk gauge score for CELR indicates that it is currently a moderate risk investment, which may deter some investors.

Overall, investors should carefully consider these risks and their own risk tolerance before investing in Celer Network (CELR).

• Mo Dong: Co-founder of Celer Network, with research and engineering experience in networking protocol design, distributed systems, formal verification, and game theory. His work has been published in top conferences and has been adopted by major internet content and service providers.
• Qingkai Liang: Co-founder, author of over 15 top-tier papers and inventor of 5 provably-optimal adversarial resistant routing algorithms. He has received several awards, including the Best Paper Nominee at IEEE MASCOTS 2017 and the Best-in-Session Presentation Award at IEEE INFOCOM 2016 and 2018.
• Dr. Christos Kozyrakis: Advisor, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Stanford University, a fellow of the ACM and the IEEE. He is broadly interested in secure and energy-efficient distributed systems.
• Dr. Alan Mishchenko: Advisor, Research Scientist at UC Berkeley since 2002, specializing in building fast and scalable tools for design automation and developing computationally efficient methods for various applications.