Casper – The future-proof Blockchain Protocol by CasperLabs

Ethereum was founded in 2013, five years after Bitcoin appeared in 2008. Ethereum blockchain can support decentralized applications (DApps or Smart Contracts) that Bitcoin can’t. Completely decentralized, they are the biggest blockchain protocols. Ethereum currently uses Proof-of-work (PoW) consensus protocol, like bitcoin.

Casper on the other hand; is based on Proof-of-stake (PoS) computation smart contracts platform. It also claims to be the world’s most advanced PoS platform optimised for enterprise integration and developer experience.

What are PoW and PoS?

• PoW is the idea that miners support the network with their computing power. When full nodes finish mining ‘blocks’ faster than other nodes, the fastest miner gets the block reward. Thus, creating a new Bitcoin, as well as a motivation to keep participating in the network.
• PoS however, is a type of consensus mechanism by which a crypto blockchain network achieves distributed consensus. Various random selection combinations and the stake (wealth or age) choose the developer.

In the context of cryptocurrencies, the two best known and also most commonly used are PoS and PoW. Incentives vary between the two systems of block-creation. The algorithm of PoW based cryptocurrencies uses mining. Mining is solving computationally rigorous puzzles to validate transactions and generate new blocks. The benefit of solving the puzzles in the form of that cryptocurrency is the motivation to participate in the network. The PoW mechanism requires a vast amount of computing resources. All these resources consume a lot of electricity. With PoS there is no need for doing actual ‘hard Work’ but ‘smart work’. The owner can participate in validating the next block and earn the incentives based on the stake.

What is Casper?

Casper is the blockchain platform that builds to scale opportunities for ‘everyone’. The owners says it is optimized for easy enterprise adoption and developer onboarding. With an aim to be ready for the next frontier of blockchain, Casper claims to be designed for real-world applications without compromising on usability, cost, security, or decentralization.

In seeking to provide an unbiased foundation made for a long-lasting impact Casper has gone with open-source principles.

Token & Technology

The blockchain system should have a supply of tokens to pay for computation and rewarding validators for processing the transactions on the network. They have made great efforts to ensure that no individual or entity acquires more than 1% of the tokens from the onset.

Next, the distribution of tokens will has been mandated in the following fashion (subject to applicable laws and regulations):

• 60% – Sold to the public via ongoing public sales and validator sales
• 16% – Reserved for entrepreneur and developer incentives, advisors, and community managers
• 10% – Held by the CasperLabs network
• 8% – Reserved for the team
• 6% – For advisors and strategic partners

The primary programming language for smart contracts is Rust because it provides good support for compilation to WebAssembly (Wasm). Rust is fast, memory efficient, reliable, and productive. Importantly, it is an easy to learn language. It is a language that can potentially empowering everyone to build efficient and reliable software.

Casper Native Token (CSPR) is the reference token in Casper. It is divisible into 10⁹ motes. These motes make CSPR and are indivisible.

Why CasperLabs?

Firstly, CasperLabs has an established and competent team. They are a diverse group of builders and thinkers who have decades of experience in computing systems across the business, academia, and engineering.

Secondly, they have a long list of advisors, investors, and technology partners.

Moreover, in Oct. 2020, CasperLabs had closed a $14M private validator token sale led by crypto fund Digital Strategies. The private token sale included participation from ZB Global/zb.com, Gate.io, Consensus Capital, HashKey Capital, Cluster Capital, AU21 Capital, Blockchange Ventures, QCP/QSN, GSR, RockTree Capital, Stake.Fish, Sora Capital, Chain Capital, Wavemaker, Ropart Asset Management, AGE Fund, Waterdrip Capital, Oasis Capital, Woodstock Fund, and many other funds and individuals.

In addition, they had received support and innovation from leaders across the blockchain ecosystem. This achievement brings them one step closer to launching Casper, the easiest and most advanced to use public blockchain in the world.

Conjecture

Casper’s Delta testnet is live. It is the latest incentivized testnet of the Casper network and the last  before mainnet launch in Q1 2021. Delta allows both developers and validators to work with a fully functional platform. So one can build on the delta testnet and start validating. Moreover, they have developer-friendly tools and validator resources.

One can start with the technical basics and build primitives, DApps, and custom innovations. All of these resources are available on their website. One can also act as a validator on the Delta testnet to earn rewards with the Casper mainnet launch.