Marek Olszewski is the CEO and co-founder of cLabs, the creators of the Celo blockchain, which is an Ethereum Layer 2 and mobile-first blockchain network designed for fast, low-cost payments globally. ^[1][2]

Education

Olszewski attended the University of Toronto, earning his BASc and MASc in Computer Engineering in 2005 and 2007. He was also a software engineer intern at Microsoft and Google, a research assistant at U of T, and a research intern at Sun Microsystems and Microsoft’s research department. He then earned his PhD, ABD, in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012, where he was also a research assistant. ^[3]

Career

At MIT, Olszewski co-founded Locu, an app helping local businesses manage their business listings for SEO and review sites, with Rene Reinsberg in November 2010, where he served as CTO. In August 2013, GoDaddy acquired the company, and Olszewski became VP of Engineering, where he worked until January 2017. In August 2017, Olszewski and Reinsberg co-founded cLabs and the Celo Foundation, where Olszewski serves as the CEO of cLabs. Four years later, in July 2021, he became president of Valora, a mobile-first Web3 wallet for sending and saving cryptocurrencies. ^[4][5]

Celo

Olszewski and Reinsberg went on the Empire Podcast to discuss Celo’s mobile-first UX and real-world use cases. They started with the origin of Celo: ^[6]

“Rene and I met at MIT in a class taught by Tim Berners-Lee about the original Web 3. Back in 2010, Berners-Lee was working on the semantic web and linked data, which was considered the third version of the web. Our first company, Loku, was primarily a machine learning company in the data space, with origins in Web 3. The idea was to do for data what had been done for documents—make them open and accessible to everyone. Fast forward to today, and open data remains valuable, with permissionless public ledgers being another way to represent data in a fully open and transparent manner.”

“I think, first and foremost, we were big believers in the Ethereum ecosystem. We started our journey by building a wallet on Ethereum, and the reason we ended up working on Celo, the platform itself, was because we wanted to create functionality that made it easy for non-crypto-native people to use wallets and address real-world use cases. This led us to realize that we needed a consensus protocol that was secure, decentralized, and offered one-block finality so that payments couldn’t be rolled back. As a result, we created a new and novel proof-of-stake protocol. When we launched almost three years ago, Celo was the first major proof-of-stake EVM-compatible chain, which was really exciting. We also added features like the ability to pay for gas with tokens natively, without needing third-party bundlers or meta-transaction relayers. This was particularly useful so that if I send you a stablecoin, you can pass it on without being stuck. Additionally, we introduced phone numbers as an optional identity layer, allowing people to send payments to phone numbers in their contact lists in a fully decentralized way.”

Olszewski then explained why the focus was on a mobile-first platform: ^[6]

“When we started, nobody was talking about mobile. Everything was desktop-based and primarily accessed through MetaMask as a browser extension. At that time, there were no major mobile wallets, and certainly no talk of a Solana phone. I was going around emphasizing that we had it backwards—Web3 should be leading, as Web2 moved to mobile over a decade ago. There's a famous book called *Mobile First* by Luke Wroblewski, which took Web2 by storm and prompted its transition to mobile. Yet somehow, Web3 lagged in this crucial area. Our focus on mobile wasn't just about catching up with that evolution; it was driven by the belief that the people who need the advantages of crypto and Web3 the most are on mobile devices. This belief led us to develop a consensus protocol using threshold cryptography and BLS12-377, enabling us to create a state-based light client. No other EVM-compatible protocol has achieved this, and it's significant because light clients are critically important for security and decentralization. We worked hard to develop something that allows you to sync with very little data.”

When asked about the use cases for Celo, he responded: ^[6]

“A lot of P2P payment activities are happening outside the U.S., particularly in Latin America and Africa. Rene mentioned Colectivo, which is based in Curacao, but there are also other protocols on Celo that are providing universal basic incomes (UBIs), such as Impact Market and GoodDollar. These initiatives are primarily focused on emerging markets, with Impact Market heavily involved in Favela communities in Brazil, throughout West Africa, and even in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal. These are real adversarial environments where it's challenging to deliver payments cost-effectively, but they've found that using Celo's rails allows them to send value very cheaply to anyone, making them about an order of magnitude more efficient than something like GiveDirectly, which has been a leader in low-overhead cash transfers outside of Web3. What’s great about Impact Market is that they disperse funds to beneficiaries and then the money circulates within these communities. People use mobile wallets like Valora, which I’ve spent some time on—an evolution of the wallet we originally started on Ethereum—just like people in the U.S. use Venmo, keeping the money circulating within these communities.”

Toward the end of the interview, Olszewski shared his thoughts about the Valora wallet: ^[6]

“I think it does a really good job of showcasing all of the early amazing features that Celo has to offer and creates a really easy-to-use mobile wallet. If you look at the home screen for the wallet, yes, there’s a dApp browser where you can sign transactions within the apps, and that's quite elegant, but the two primary actions on the home screen are 'send' and 'receive.' So it's really catered towards this payments use case, and that's what we're seeing in emerging markets—people using the wallet for payments. So yeah, I'm very excited about it; if you haven't tried Valora, I highly recommend checking it out.”

Panels

OP Stack

At Optimistic Gathering 2024, Olszewski presented Celo's strategic transition from a Layer 1 (L1) blockchain to a Layer 2 (L2) using the OP Stack. He highlighted the technical challenges of this migration, such as ensuring compatibility with Ethereum and managing high transaction volumes without causing disruptions. The move is driven by the need to align more closely with Ethereum and capitalize on Celo's growing user base, largely fueled by partnerships like Opera’s MiniPay. The transition process includes the deployment of the Dango testnet and further upgrades planned for later in the year. ^[7]

Celo's Choice

At EthCC’s Superchain Space, Olszewski discussed Celo's decision to transition from a Layer 1 blockchain to a Layer 2 solution using the OP Stack, which aligns with Ethereum's vision and offers technical advantages. He explained the challenges of this migration, particularly the complexity of adapting Celo's unique chain data and maintaining its high transaction volumes. Olszewski also introduced Dango, a testnet that integrates Celo's features into the OP Stack and outlined the roadmap for fully implementing the transition across Celo's networks by the end of the year. ^[8]

Exploring CEL2 and OP Collective

At CELO GATHER 2024, Olszewski and Optimism co-founder Mark Tyneway discussed Celo's transition from a Layer 1 blockchain to a Layer 2 solution on Ethereum, utilizing Optimism's OP Stack. They highlighted the importance of interoperability and scalability in blockchain networks, with Optimism preparing to upgrade its mainnet to a Stage 1 rollup featuring a permissionless fault-proof system. The discussion also covered retroactive public goods funding and the significance of modular blockchain design, which allows for customization and differentiation among chains while supporting impactful projects and maintaining low transaction costs. ^[9]

Real World Adoption

At the Blockchain Application Stanford Summit, Olszewski presented Celo's plan to scale blockchain applications by transitioning from a Layer 1 to a Layer 2 solution. The key objectives of this transition include maintaining low gas fees, preserving decentralization, and ensuring one-block transaction finality. Celo aims to achieve this by using Eigenlayer for cost-effective data availability and implementing a decentralized sequencer model to enhance censorship resistance. The approach also incorporates features like paying gas fees with stablecoins and providing flexible transaction finality options to improve the overall user experience. ^[10]

Celo Talk

At the Restaking Summit Istanbul 2023, Olszewski discussed Celo's efforts to transition to a Layer 2 solution on Ethereum to enhance scalability and reduce gas fees. He highlighted Tron's dominance in daily active addresses and payment activities, contrasting this with Ethereum's challenges. Olszewski explained Celo's integration with IGDA, a data availability layer, which shows promise in performance and bandwidth improvements. He compared IGDA's capabilities with Ethereum’s Proto and Danksharding, noting that while Ethereum’s solutions offer robust security, IGDA provides a potentially cost-effective alternative for Layer 2 chains. ^[11]