Q: When will Condor be delivered?

Michael:

“The team has prioritized ease of integration into existing environments with Release Candidate 5 (RC5). We’re focused on providing predictable feature sets and simplifying downstream integration and migration. RC5 is expected to be completed in the second week of October, after which it will go into internal testing. We’ll then decide on its release to Testnet.

Starting immediately, the core engineering team and I will establish regular meetings with the Validator community to update them on Condor’s progress and address questions. These meetings will be closed to Validators, but recordings will be shared with the community.

We are also moving back to semantic versioning, so Condor is 2.0.0. New features will be in 2.1.0, and we’ll have a couple of patch releases (2.0.1, etc.) to address post-launch issues. Development planning has been centralized in GitHub with ZenHub on top, which will allow continuous public reporting on progress.”

Q: What does the new technical organization structure of the Casper Association look like?
Michael:
“The core team for the Condor release consists of Casper engineers working on the node, VM, consensus, and networking, along with project management and testing at all levels. Outside of engineering, the team has minimal overhead, focusing on supporting the technical rollout and ecosystem growth through marketing and technical enablement.”

Q: Are we still on track for a Prove AI launch in Q3, along with the Condor upgrade?
Michael:
Prove AI is due to be demonstrated at IBM TechXchange from October 21-24, 2024, in collaboration with Greyscale AI. More updates will follow in the coming weeks from Casper Labs.

Q: Explain the difference between CasperLabs and Casper Association. I would like to be crystal clear on what each organization is responsible for.
Michael:
"Casper Association and CasperLabs are separate organizations.

The Casper Association, as a Swiss non-profit, is responsible for overseeing the network and supporting its organic evolution. The Association is the home of the open-source protocol. As the CTO of the Casper Association, I lead a team of developers focused on advancing the core protocol and supporting the ecosystem of developers, validators, and platforms. My team has full responsibility for the protocol roadmap and upgrades.

CasperLabs, on the other hand, is a for-profit company that develops commercial software and provides consulting services. While they have supported the Casper Association in the past, CasperLabs also builds applications on the Casper technology. CasperLabs began working on the Casper blockchain in 2018 and facilitated testnets prior to the mainnet launch."

Q: How do you plan to manage your role as CTO of the Casper Association and co-founder of MAKE (a service provider for CA)?
Michael:
"As the CTO of Casper Association, my focus is on the delivery of Condor and defining the core protocol roadmap, which will be made publicly available. I will continue to engage with community stakeholders such as validators, dApp developers, and partners, while operating in full transparency.

MAKE, where I am a co-owner, provides blockchain and public health services. It has a leadership team in place to manage ongoing projects while I focus on Casper. Currently, more than 50% of MAKE’s CSPR Suite and other Casper tools are open-sourced, with plans to open-source even more in the near future."

Q: How will you increase community engagement?
Michael:
"We are committed to increasing the community’s involvement in Casper’s development and governance. Initially, we’re launching a governance forum (forum.casper.network) for Validators and the public to discuss proposals and changes.

We’re also organizing regular Validator meetings with the core engineering team. Recordings will be shared with the community for full transparency.

Additionally, we’ll have a recurring DeFi workgroup to align stakeholders on DeFi project priorities and ensure collaboration. I’ve spoken with many developers, and there’s excitement about moving in the same direction.

As always, I will remain active in community forums and continue engaging with the community in an open and collaborative manner."

Q: When will Casper stablecoin CSPRUSD come online, and what is the status of CSPREUR?
Michael:
"CSPRUSD is currently in trial by specific partners, managed by Sarson Funds. I haven’t seen any projects working on or asking for a CSPREUR stablecoin."

Q: Would you make an effort to bring CSPR to Binance, Coinbase, and other major exchanges?
Michael:
"The decision to list an asset on an exchange is up to the exchanges themselves, not Casper. That said, CSPR has been listed on multiple significant exchanges, and we are always working to increase accessibility. CSPR has been added to major on and off ramps like Uphold, Alchemy, and Ramp. There are still milestones to achieve, and we’ll continue pushing forward."

Q: Under what circumstances would the inflation rate be reduced?
Michael:
"If and when the community decides this. The Casper Network is a collective effort, and we are putting frameworks in place for the community to initiate and discuss these topics. I look forward to the discussions around this and other important matters."

Q: How will you reduce barriers to entry for developers and businesses and increase value for token holders?
Michael:
"Casper has low and predictable costs, and this will be even more pronounced with Casper 2.0. Tools like ODRA and the CSPR Suite make it easier to integrate with Casper. We’ve also improved our documentation and recently held a successful workshop showcasing Casper’s integration process. The development planning is now centralized in GitHub with ZenHub, providing continuous public reporting on progress.

Teaching developers is an important topic as well. We recently held a well-attended workshop that showed off the ease of integration with Casper and provided an end-to-end dApp that includes Odra based smart contracts, a CSPR.click based front end, and CSPR.cloud in the backend, which developers can review and use as examples. You can find the video here, and the example source code here.”

Q: Do you expect delays in the release of Condor, and how does it compare to Ethereum’s faster rate of updates and developments?
Michael:
"I don't 'expect delays' – Condor has already been delayed for quite a while. As I mentioned earlier, we now have clear visibility and a rollout plan for version 2.0.0, along with a roadmap for future releases. Condor is a major lift, but moving forward, we will have more manageable releases. We are a small and nimble team, and we need to leverage that to our advantage."

Q: Is the Casper Association financially prepared to complete the tasks outlined, and would it be possible to receive institutional funding in the future?
Michael:
"Yes, I am confident that the Casper Association has the resources to execute everything I’ve outlined.

The Association is a non-profit entity in Switzerland, meaning it doesn't have equity or shareholders, so institutional funding doesn’t apply. However, grants and other types of funding are certainly possible."

Q: Has the development of the Casper node now moved to the Casper Association, and does that mean core developers from CasperLabs have been transferred to the Association?
Michael:
"As clearly stated, Casper Association now has full responsibility for the development of the node, protocol, and network, including coordination, management, and resources.

For all practical purposes, yes, core developers have been transferred to the Casper Association."

Q: Does this mean no more enterprise adoption on Casper Network, considering CasperLabs will soon be moving on?
Michael:
"Casper Network literally announced a new enterprise integration last week. That said, our focus should be broader than just enterprise, and that’s what I’m going to pursue."

Q: Can you provide a more detailed explanation of the nature of July's hack? Many people still don’t fully understand what happened.
Michael:
"There is a detailed explanation here, which includes a root cause analysis. Details of the fix are available on GitHub, and efforts are underway to recover more funds from centralized exchanges. Casper Blockchain Security Update - Preliminary Incident Report".

Q: Could a reduction of block time in the current protocol be considered as a short-term solution now that Condor is delayed? This would speed up Dapps and increase usability for retail and gaming.
Michael:
"There isn't much more performance that can be squeezed out of Highway. You could half the block time, but you’d only be able to process about half the transactions, so the net TPS remains the same. Zug, on the other hand, will have flexible block times and is much more efficient, meaning it can process more transactions in less time with less overhead."