Donut Hardfork is Live on Celo

In a huge push forward for the DeFi community, Celo’s hardfork is live as of 1.30pm ET today, May 19. Celo will have full compatibility with MetaMask, one of the most popular DeFi wallets, bringing all of Celo’s mobile-first DeFi ecosystem to MetaMask’s 5 million users. This network upgrade, called the Donut Hardfork, will also enable future bridging to Solana, Cosmos, and NEAR, driving forward the path to interoperability.

Excitement from the Celo-verse

“The second we can use MetaMask or Wallet Connect we can start running Ube Swap and Moola Market on all our ATM machines and earning interest on all deposits automatically” — Chris Hughes ETHTrust ATM

“Celo becoming a full EVM chain is good because it’s one of the things that I think has kept a lot of ETH builders hesitant. Like, what do you do if you can’t use MetaMask?” — Tarun Chitra, Gauntlet

“Donut makes Celo compatible with the EVM. 90% of cross EVM projects we’ve talked to are not supporting Celo because Celo’s transaction format is incompatible with the EVM.” — Ian Macaliano, Ubeswap

Missed the Celo Donut Hardfork Livestream? Watch it here.

What is the Donut Hardfork?

The Donut Hardfork is a non-contentious hardfork of the Celo blockchain set to go live on May 19, 2021 at block number 6774000. It includes many exciting network upgrades making Celo more gas efficient, improving interoperability, and allowing Celo users to connect to popular tools like MetaMask.

Important Updates

• CIP-20: Toolkit for adding cryptographic functions that are useful to smart-contract devs
• CIP-25: Will help enable future bridging to Solana, Cosmos, and NEAR thanks to Chorus One
• CIP-35: Makes Ethereum transaction types accessible on Celo, which will enable access to all Ethereum’s tools

Why does it matter for Celo?

The Donut Hardfork opens new access for builders, extends Celo usability for users to the tools they already use, and adds even more legitimacy to Celo as a contributor to the blockchain ecosystem.

What does this mean for DeFi?

Celo will have full compatibility with MetaMask, one of the most popular DeFi wallets, bringing all of Celo’s mobile-first DeFi ecosystem to MetaMask’s 5 million users. This network upgrade, called the Donut Hardfork, will also enable future bridging to Solana, Cosmos, and NEAR, driving forward the path to interoperability.

What does it mean for the Ethereum community?

This is a big deal because it makes Ethereum transaction types accessible on Celo, which will also enable access to all Ethereum’s tools. The addition of new hash functions in Solidity will enable Ethereum developers to take advantage of a fresh toolkit of features they have been waiting for for too long on Ethereum. This will also enable new bridges to be built between Celo and Solana, Cosmos and NEAR. This will also help with Celo’s ultra-light client project Plumo, which will be 1.7 million times faster at syncing than any other blockchain clients, which is important in places with low-powered mobile devices with access to slow internet.

How will this work with MetaMask?

MetaMask allows users to easily access decentralized applications from their browser. The Donut hardfork will enable Ethereum transaction types on Celo, which makes Celo a full Ethereum-compatible chain which would allow popular tools such as MetaMask to work with Celo. MetaMask works with Ethereum transaction types only, which is why the Donut Hardfork is important. It opens access to decentralized applications on the Celo blockchain to the millions of MetaMask users.

Get Started with the Donut Hardfork

Donut is the first of many hardforks that will be planned for Celo, and the first hardfork of the new generation layer-1 Proof-of-Stake networks such as NEAR, Solana, and Polkadot. We are beyond excited for this new milestone.

We’re actively looking to collaborate with entrepreneurs and developers that have an interest in building a more open and connected blockchain ecosystem. If you would like to learn more, read Using MetaMask with Celo and join the mission to build a financial system that creates the conditions for prosperity for everyone.

Join the Community

Learn more about the Celo Protocol in the Celo Developer Documentation and try out Celo on the Alfajores Testnet. You can ask questions and find answers on the Celo Forum, or chat with Celo developers on Discord.

#DonutIsHere