As part of our 2024 roadmap, significant protocol upgrades are planned, aimed at introducing innovative features. These enhancements are set to elevate the network's performance, making it faster, smarter, and more efficient.

Medha offered detailed updates on the advancement of imminent releases, beginning with the Peregrine update.

Peregrine

Medha provided an in-depth update on the Peregrine release, which is currently in the testing phase. She specifically highlighted the development of the partial synchrony feature, a significant enhancement allowing validators to operate at varying block times, such as 16-second or 32-second blocks. This feature is crucial for optimizing network performance and efficiency.

Medha pointed out a challenge encountered with this update: the impact of slower validators on the rewards for high-performing ones. She noted, "We've observed and heard feedback regarding the issue of slow validators impacting rewards for the high-performing validators, which is not ideal." The Casper team is actively investigating and addressing this issue, as it plays a critical role in maintaining a fair and efficient reward system on the network.

"We may not include 16-second blocks in Peregrine if we can't get rewards stabilized," she stated. Medha emphasized the importance of validators' feedback, noting their concerns about reward fluctuations. She acknowledged that the validators are the backbone of the network, and their concerns are paramount in decision-making. The focus is on ensuring stability and fairness in reward distribution before making any changes to block times.

Juliet

Regarding the Juliet update, Medha clarified that while there is no fixed release date yet, the progress is contingent on the completion of the Peregrine testing. "Once Peregrine exits testing, we will fold in its features into Juliet, and then deploy the new binary to our test framework for further site reliability engineering testing," Medha explained. “This is because we want to ensure that each upgrade is thoroughly tested and stable before its integration into the broader Casper ecosystem,” she added.

Medha shared her excitement about the upcoming Juliet release, describing it as a "brand new networking protocol that is faster and much more secure." This release is expected to significantly enhance network performance and security. "Our focus is very much on performance in the coming months," Medha said, underlining the importance of eliminating overhead from Highway and identifying other performance bottlenecks.

Condor

Formerly known as Casper 2.0., the Condor release was the next item on Medha’s agenda. She highlighted its progress is going well and the release will be rolled out on the planned timeline. "Condor is on track, and we are targeting December 19th to be feature complete," she stated. This update is anticipated to bring significant advancements to the Casper network, and Medha expressed her intention to set up a network environment for ecosystem participants to begin utilizing and familiarizing themselves with Condor's new smart contract capabilities and overall network functionalities.

During the community call, a question was raised about the release of versions 1.6 and 1.2, which Medha Parlikar addressed. She clarified, "We're not referring to these releases with numbers anymore." She explained that the Juliet release, which the community might be referring to as 1.6, is scheduled to enter testing immediately after the Peregrine release concludes its testing phase. The anticipated completion of Peregrine testing could lead to significant developments in the immediate future.

For a more comprehensive understanding of the Casper Protocol Roadmap, we highly recommend checking out the recap of last month’s Discord call, where Medha provided a detailed walkthrough of the upcoming releases.

During the call, Medha also addressed questions regarding the status of IPwe minting on the Casper Network. She detailed Casper Labs' role in assisting IPwe's transition to the mainnet, with a significant focus on preparing data for decentralized storage, particularly on IPFS. "It's about deciding which patents to mint first and determining the crucial data that needs to be on-chain and in IPFS," Medha elaborated. She emphasized that this process lays the groundwork for how patent NFTs will interact within IPwe's system, highlighting the importance of structuring and formatting the data.

Medha also touched on a recent production issue faced by IPwe, explaining how it has affected their minting process timeline. "Production issues take precedence over other work," she said, providing insight into the prioritization challenges that enterprises often encounter.

Ralf Kubli from the Casper Association provided an important update regarding cspr. His segment in the call gave insights into the recent developments surrounding cspr's listing on the Bitvavo exchange.

Ralf began by addressing the excitement and queries that had arisen in the last 24 hours concerning cspr's listing. He explained, "Last week, it was announced that cspr would be listed on Bitvavo, an exchange focusing on reputable markets, predominantly in Europe." Bitvavo is known for catering to a diverse customer segment, including institutional and international market participants.

He elaborated that the listing was initially planned for the previous day, but had to be postponed by 24 hours due to high demand. "The large demand necessitated this slight delay, but the listing has now successfully taken place," Ralf stated, highlighting the positive reception of cspr in the market.

Ralf also touched upon the unique characteristics of the European crypto communities and their affinity for Casper. "Many European communities are long-term Casper enthusiasts, appreciative of the technology and what has driven the company forward," he noted

Following Ralf’s update, Chris Hamer, Head of Business Development at Team Finance, was invited to discuss the recent integration of Team Finance with the Casper Network and introduce Team Finance's role and developments within the Casper ecosystem.

Overview of Team Finance and Its Services

Chris expressed his excitement about engaging with the Casper community and the floor of developers. He outlined the core areas of expertise of Team Finance, mainly focusing on token management. The main services offered by Team Finance include token vesting, liquidity locks, and a token generation tool.

He emphasized that all services provided by Team Finance on the Casper Network are free. The token generation tool allows users with no coding experience to create their tokens directly on the Casper blockchain in less than five minutes. This tool is complemented by services for vesting tokens to investors and liquidity locking, ensuring secure trading on exchanges.

Chris also mentioned Team Finance's close association with Trust Swap and the Trust Swap Launchpad. He highlighted that new projects launching on the Casper network could be reviewed by the Trust Swap Launchpad, providing an avenue for increased visibility and support.

Besides the basic free services, Team Finance offers Enterprise and SAS packages for projects requiring additional development support or customized solutions, tailoring their offerings to the diverse needs of projects built on the Casper network.

With the integration of Team Finance into the Casper Network, the process of token creation has become significantly simplified. The need for extensive time, deep technical expertise, and large budgets is no longer necessary.

Check out Team Finance’s service suite, now available for Casper.

Following his presentation, Chris addressed questions and provided further clarifications. He reassured that all contracts used by Team Finance for token creation and vesting are audited and up-to-date.

1. When asked about the types of projects expected to utilize Team Finance tools, Chris expressed openness to a wide range of projects, from gamified projects to high-quality initiatives in various verticals. He reiterated Team Finance's commitment to supporting a diverse range of projects, regardless of their size or scope.
2. Addressing the technicalities of creating a token, Chris explained the straightforward process on the Casper network using Team Finance’s platform. He described the steps involved in token creation, highlighting the user-friendly nature of the service that even allows for adding images and detailed metadata to the tokens.
3. In response to inquiries about future plans and additional signing options, Chris stated that while the platform primarily supports Casper Wallet, they are open to community feedback regarding the inclusion of other wallets. He encouraged users to try out their services and provide feedback for improvements.

You can learn more about the integration in our blog post.

We invite you to join our developer-focused Discord community calls and more casual discussions on X Space. These calls will keep you informed and connected to the latest updates. We encourage you to bring your questions and actively engage in our forthcoming calls.

Thank you for being a part of our community and see you on the next call!