There has been a lot of hype around cryptocurrencies over the past years where many conversations were mostly focused around NFTs and buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
One topic that has however fallen short and many people might not have on the radar is how stable coins such as cUSD, USDc and bUSD can be used as an alternative payment method when making purchases online or receiving funds from family and friends. 

What is a stablecoin?

“A “stablecoin” is a type of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to another asset class, such as a fiat currency or gold, to stabilize its price.

Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether offer a number of benefits, and one of the most fundamental is not requiring trust in an intermediary institution to send payments, which opens up their use to anyone around the globe. But one key drawback is that cryptocurrencies’ prices are unpredictable and have a tendency to fluctuate, often wildly.

This makes them hard for everyday people to use. Generally, people expect to be able to know how much their money will be worth a week from now, both for their security and their livelihood.” “Stablecoins try to tackle price fluctuations by tying the value of cryptocurrencies to other more stable assets – usually fiat currencies. Fiat is the government-issued currency we’re all used to using on a day-to-day basis, such as dollars or euros”  (Coindesk)

There are various purchases that can be made using stablecoins including buying airtime, or making online purchases where crypto wallets are accepted. You can also transfer crypto funds to your family and friends at no additional cost. 

How to buy airtime using cUSD:

As part of Opera’s partnership with Celo, everyday users across Africa stand a chance to get up to 5 cUSD for creating a crypto wallet in Opera Mini to start our users web3 journey.

The cUSD can be used to buy airtime using providers such as Coinsbee. If you would like to purchase airtime or data packages using your cUSD follow the upcoming steps:

1. Go to Coinsbee.com and select Mobile phone top-ups in the top left menu on mobile
2. Select the country you are in such as Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda or South Africa and paste the phone number of the sim card you would like to top up
3. Choose your provider
4. Select the airtime or data package you would like to purchase and add it to the card. Make sure the the cUSD value is sufficient to buy the data package you are aiming to buy. 
5.  Go to the shopping cart and enter the email to receive the product code
6. Reenter the same email address as the shipping address
7. Select the payment method CryptoCoins , choose the Coin cUSD and select buy now
8. Copy the wallet address And open your Crypto wallet in Opera Mini
9. Go to Celo Chain and click on cUSD , paste the wallet address into the recipient  address, enter the cUSD amount and click confirm payment. You will be asked to put in your crypto wallet password
10. Go back to the open tab in your Opera Mini browser it may take up to 5 minutes to confirm the payment on the blockchain
11. You will be receiving an SMS confirming the top up of 

How to send cUSD to a friend:

1. Ask your friend to share with you their Opera Wallet address for the Celo Chain
2. For this they will have to click on the “receive” button 
3. You can either scan their QR code or ask them to copy the wallet address and share it with you.
4. Once you have received their wallet address, click on Celo Dollar in your asset list and paste their wallet address into the recipient field
5. Enter the amount of cUSD you want to sent them and confirm the payment

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