Baki wins Most Innovative Award in the Celo x Huobi Hackathon for Web3 Sustainability

The Celo x Huobi Hackathon has come to a close and we are proud to announce that Team Canza Finance has won the award for Most Innovative Product, as well as runner-up in the Stablecoin & DeFi vertical. The Baki team has worked tirelessly throughout June to develop our ideas into actions across front-end, back-end, marketing and presenting. For our efforts to be acknowledged in such a way truly fills us with immense pride as we continue our mission of creating modern financial products for millions of unbanked Africans.

The challenge we undertook focused on building stable coin-related financial solutions on the Celo network, that expanded the use of the Celo Dollar (cUSD) to emerging markets with high rates of inflation. Our product Baki will allow millions of unbanked Africans access to foreign exchange tools that are:

• USD FX swaps priced at the Central Bank rate
• Alternatives to black market ForEx services that offer poor rates and high premiums
• Algorithmically infinite liquidity whilst always remaining overcollateralized
• Permissionless and non-custodial

Week 1 focussed mainly on arranging meeting times and planning actionable tasks to increase our efficiency and ensure the vision was aligned across the team. We met daily to update on progress and future plans, of which week 1 resulted in the development of the smart contracts for the zTokens.

Week 2 focussed heavily on making the vault operational and integrating the price oracle. This proved to be more complex than initially planned as Link Market oracles were under maintenance for nearly two-weeks, however we managed a functioning workaround in house.

The final two weeks revolved mainly around developing the UI front end to our desired design, followed by integration. As difficult as this proved to be with the time constraints, our Baki team did not give up once, and after a monumental effort, our product was ready for submission.

Finally, a big thank you to the Celo and Huobi Global communities for getting together to run such a rewarding hackathon that gave us the opportunity to build out products that will change so many lives for the better.

Baki is due to be released early Q4 2022 and this experience has positively validated the importance of providing services across Africa that allow users the opportunity to hedge against hyperinflation within their region.

Final submission video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9r0o6qsJiE

Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecoypZLdNZE

Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Htae6OJeXk