Sello is a micro-lottery system embedded into everyday purchases at local shops. Each time a customer makes a purchase, they can opt-in by tipping a small amount to enter a lottery pool. Winners are randomly selected daily or weekly.
To incentivize adoption, shop owners also earn a share of the prize if the winner shopped at their store—prioritizing shops with the highest number of purchases by the winner. All transactions are transparent and onchain, helping build trust and verifiable impact.
To prevent abuse, wallets must be linked to a verified mobile number, ensuring fair play and reducing Sybil attacks.
This project encourages digital payments, strengthens community commerce, and builds on Celo’s vision of financial inclusion through mobile-first tools.
Our mission is to empower local communities by transforming everyday purchases into engaging, rewarding experiences.
We aim to drive digital payment adoption, increase customer loyalty for local merchants, and create fair, transparent incentives for both shoppers and shopkeepers—using a micro-lottery system built on the Celo blockchain.
By embedding rewards directly into micro-transactions, we create a fun, inclusive, and fraud-resistant ecosystem that brings economic opportunity to the people and places that need it most.
In many local economies, especially in mobile-first regions, small merchants struggle to build customer loyalty and attract repeat visits. Meanwhile, customers have little incentive to use digital payments beyond the transaction itself.
Additionally, micro-payment systems often lack engaging mechanisms that create community excitement or tangible rewards—especially for everyday shoppers.
Worse, most reward systems are siloed, easy to game, or rely on centralized tracking, leading to unfair distributions and minimal transparency. Shopkeepers may exploit systems by faking transactions, and users may create multiple wallets to abuse rewards.
building a transparent, onchain micro-lottery system embedded into local daily purchases. Customers can opt-in by tipping a small amount with each digital transaction, earning a slot in a daily or weekly lottery draw.
Each draw selects a random winner from recent tippers, and shopkeepers also earn a reward share—especially if the winning customer purchased from their store. This encourages merchants to adopt the system and promote participation.
To ensure fairness:
Transactions are recorded on-chain to prevent fraud.
Winners are verifiably random, ensuring trust.
Wallets must be linked to mobile numbers, deterring multi-wallet exploits.
Shop payout logic is automated, prioritizing merchants with the most valid interactions from the winner.
This solution gamifies local commerce, drives digital payment adoption, and builds community engagement
Want to grow through just grant funding
Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana