Medha Parliikar: Hello everyone. My name is Medha Parlikar, and I am the CTO and one of the co-founders of CasperLabs. As far as education, I received my Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Information Systems and Programming from Coleman College. Professionaly, at the risk of aging myself, I can say that I have more than 30 years of tech experience, starting with building computers in my basement as a kid and working with Internet technology beginning in the 1980’s. For the past two decades, I have been delivering production SaaS software for many large companies including MP3.com, Adobe, Omniture and Avalara. What I love to do -- and what I think I do well -- is building high-functioning technical teams and inspiring them to deliver solutions that solve customer problems This leads to pushing out really innovative technology that ultimately has the potential to change the world. It's really great to be here in the Bitget community today. Many thanks to our host for having us - and to all of you for being here with us.
Ralf Kubli: Hello, I am Ralf Kubli, one of the Board Members of Casper Association. My professional career has been spent both in large companies and in startups. I began in Web2 building websites and browsing the world, when everything was open and accessible. I then spent 18 years in large companies in management positions. I first came across Blockchain in 2016 and then joined a Venture Capital firm, and now support several Web3 organizations as a board member. I am personally very excited about what Web3 and Blockchain - in particular, Casper! - can do to enable developers, builders and creators to really change the world.
Q: Medha, can you explain what Casper is and how the network is differentiated from other layer 1 blockchains?
Medha: Yes, absolutely. The Casper Network is a layer 1 blockchain and Turing-complete smart-contracting platform, backed by a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm and WebAssembly (WSM). The network is a permissionless, decentralized, public blockchain. In addition to being a public layer 1 chain, the Casper Network has been built and optimized for enterprise and developer adoption. While leveraging blockchain technology, the network seeks to accelerate business operations via unique features like predictable network fees, upgradeable contracts, on-chain governance, privacy flexibility, and developer-friendly languages. Casper's core features and strengths enable developers and enterprises to reap the benefits of blockchain technology.
Another unique aspect of Casper (and it having been built bespoke, every line of code, from the ground up) is the flexibility on Casper to have various kinds of deploys. An enterprose can choose to use a fully priate deployment of Casper, have everything on the public network, or a hybrid installation.
Q: So, Medha you are here representing CasperLabs and Ralf on behalf of the Casper Association. Ralf, can you first please tell us what the Casper Association is?
Ralf: Thanks! The Casper Association is the not-for-profit, Switzerland-domiciled organisation which is responsible for overseeing the network and supporting its organic evolution and continued decentralisation. In essence, we are the steward of the open source protocol, and as such, we advance the development of the network with the core team at CasperLabs and other parties which can contribute to the protocol. Membership in the Association is comprised of the independent validators which run nodes on the Casper Network. The Association currently has 12 full time staff members.
Q: And now, Medha, what is CasperLabs?
Medha: CasperLabs first started working on the Casper codebase in October 2018, and we facilitated the Casper Testnet throughout 2020. While the engineers at CasperLabs continue to contribute new features for the Casper blockchain, CasperLabs is also a fully staffed enterprise consultancy business, providing support and services for its enterprise clients building on Casper. We work closely with our customers in understanding their current techstack, potential pain-points, and how we can provide an end-to-end solution for them on Casper. CasperLabs is a Swiss-based AG and currently has 75 full time employees, primarily comprised of developers and engineers, who live and work all over the world.
Q: Medha, since you are one of the original CasperLabs co-founders, can you tell us why you started Casper and what its mission is?
Medha: Me and my fellow co-founders believe that blockchain technology is ready for its next breakthrough. The challenge is that, from the perspective of developers who actually decide if, when, and how to use a particular blockchain, there are several key features are missing in the industry that have hindered adoption of blockchain by companies and organizations. This is why we set out to create a new blockchain that will have all the features that developers expect to see in a traditional technology stack and which will provide enterprises of all sizes (both private and public) a secure, decentralized and scalable blockchain enabling their business-critical processes to be more secure, efficient, and robust. The Casper Network has a feature set that allows for flexible permissions, upgradability, energy efficiency, low latency, and high security. Casper is built to withstand and grow along with changing business requirements and developer needs. Upgradeable contracts ensure developers and enterprises can develop their systems incrementally. The development experience ensures non-crypto devs can onboard quickly. This has already attracted multiple enterprises and Web3 teams to develop partnerships with Casper. Here is a great slide which shows the major issues with other/older layer one blockchains as well as the ways that Casper solves these problems.
Q: Thank you, Medha. Ralf, moving to the Casper Association, will you please tell us what are the Association's primary objectives currently?
Ralf: Sure. The Casper Association in 2022 is focused on four major areas: network growth/upgrades, tokens on Casper, NFTs, and R&D. Please allow me to elaborate on each...
1. Casper Network and ecosystem development through coordinated network upgrades, documentation resources and educational material.
- Validators and node operators will be well informed and have access to required resources. Here is a look at just how robust the Casper Ecosystem already is!
2. The enablement of tokens built on top of Casper (similar to ERC20 tokens on Ethereum but with better security & performance)
3. Supporting the growth of the NFT Ecosystem on Casper. We firmly believe NFTs will fundamentally change how economies function and drive structural innovation in ways not yet imagined. The Casper Network will be a major player in this future infrastructure due to functions native to the Casper technology which are not available on other blockchains. Specifically, we will work to:
4. Research and Development The Assocaition is tackling challenges that blockchains face and ensures that the Casper Blockchain is ready for the future. Ensuring decentralization, readiness for quantum computing, and overall incentive structures are critical for the future.
Q: Medha, you mentioned the Casper Blockchain was built and is optimized for developer adoption. Can you elaborate on what makes the Casper Network more developer-friendly and enterprise-grade than others?
Well, for one, many blockchains require propriety programming language knowledge to build on them, for example Ethereum uses Solidity while Cardano requires knowledge of Plutus (based off of Haskell). Casper supports Rust and AssemblyScript where most programmers with experience in object oriented programming languages will be able to build on Casper. To elaborate:
- Contract execution based on WSM lets developers use Rust and AssemblyScript, rather than having to learn a new language to get started.
- A contracts SDK that is CI/CD ready, with a runtime and test harness built in. Developers need a solid way to build and test contracts, and the SDK plugs right into the Rust ecosystem, enabling the use of IDEs.
- Turing complete payment code - that can be passed in a single transaction call. Rather than doing a string of transactions for custom payments, this is all handled in a single request.
- Permissioned references - it's possible to store contracts at an immutable address or at a permissioned reference - giving contract authors control over what contracts can call their contracts.
- Queries at the CLI - this enables developers to get real time insights into their on chain data structures and events.
- Upgradeable Contracts: Contracts can be upgraded to include new features or functions moving forward. - Flexible accounts with weighted keys
- Delegate accounts to one another, grant weights for deployments, key management. This enables central management and control over contracts and accounts.
Q: To both of you... We understand that CasperLabs and the network is focused primarily around Enterprise Adoption, but what about DeFi and NFT's?
Medha: We definitely understand the importance of both of these growing segments within the blockchain ecosystem.
We believe NFT's are much more than digital art. We see them as having very high utiity in Enterprise to track unique items, for tickets, coupons, KYC, and so on. This is why there is so much focus on NFT based contracts. Casper's CEP-78 contract uses a factory pattern, it can be used to install many different types of NFT contracts. Casper NFT's offer mutability of on chain metadata, enabling the NFT's to track changes to the state of it's associated asset. Casper contracts function like ordinary software, it's up to the contract author to determine what the upgrade pattern is. Because the VM on Casper is purpose built, it is possible to consider bringing the NFT standard host side, making the transactions faster, lighter and more gas efficient. This will be explored after 2.0 is released.
There are multiple marketplaces already integrating with the Casper Network; Metacask.io, Dmusic and DGallery, Wise.Art, Friendy.Market, CasperNFT.market and even one of our enterprise clients, IPwe, utilizes our NFT Technology. I'll let Ralf discuss some of the DeFi implementations that are being built on the network as well.
Ralf: With regard to DeFi, the first bridge is now live. This is DotOracle (an AnySwap fork utilizing a Dot.Oracle UI), which bridges Casper to to BSC, Polygon, ETH, AVAX, FTM and any other EVM compatible chains. The DotOracle bridge accessed at https://bridge.dotoracle.network.
Ferrum Network is also launching whitelabeled bridges for BSC, ETH and Polygon slated for July or August launch date. There are DEX's + AMM’s being developed by Friendly.Market, CasperSwap, WiseSwap , Swappery which are planned to launch in the coming months. There will also be wrapped stablecoin integration via the DotOracle bridge, Change.Now and eventually a native FRAX implementation being developed on Casper.
Here is a snapshot of the DeFi projects and infrastructure being built.
The Casper Network is supported by Torus Wallet (accessible at https://casper.tor.us/) for Web3, NFT and token comp (erc-20-like) functionality and also includes Fiat on/off ramp functionality incorporated into the wallet via Simplex.
At Casper Association we are very excited about NFTs, but not just in the form of pictures, BUT ALL kinds of files, data, creator product, invention, etc. In the coming weeks, you will see innovations around NFTs on Casper, immediately accessible to the community. NFTs will be discoverable in the cspr.live, (and the future Casper Wallet), an easy to use minting function will be available, with decentralized storage accessible for any user. And in the near future, the Association will demonstrate highly secure minting options available on the Casper Network.
Q: This question goes to Medha... For those in our community who know about other layer 1 blockchains like Ethereum, Tezos, Algorand, Cosmos, Hashgraph, etc), can you explain how Casper is different and in what ways its superior?
Casper is unique in that it is the first provably live and provably safe version of CBC Casper ever built. In that way, it is arguably the only fully decentralized, highly secure, and scalable blockchain.
That said, the Casper Network is a layer one chain and thus, in the broad sense, any layer one could be considered competition, including by not limited to:
Hyperledger Fabric & Corda: enterprise-focused chains but only permissioned versions and lacking critical features which Casper has built.
Hedera Hashgraph: highly centralized and persissioned, lack of substantial developer adoption, and few notable applications actually built.
Solana: highly centralized, difficult for developers to adopt, not a preferred choice for Enterprises, and signifcant hardware requirements.
Polygon: not a layer 1, EVM based smart contracts, and solidity developers are hard to recruit and retain for enterprises.
Fantom: EVM-based smart contracting engine. Solidity developers are hard to recruit and retain for enterprises.
EOS: while PoS, the network is very centralized (only a few, large token-holding block producers get the vast majority of rewards), and there are no significant partners or enterprises onboard.
Stellar Lumens: minimal enterprise adoption, and overwhelming content for developers.
Algorand: no turing-complete smart contracts and not mathematically secure. Technical documentation is outdated and not as in-depth as Casper’s.
Ethereum: challenged with scalability issues, network latency, and exorbitant gas fees in current state.
In addition to the shortfalls of the layer ones mentioned above, we’ve prepared the slide below to identify how Casper differentiates from other blockchains across several particular features.
Q: The Casper Mainnet launched on March 31st of last year, so it's been live for about 16 months. Ralf, tell us a little about the usage on and growth of the network?
Ralf: Well, here are some relvant statistics as of this week...
In addition to network activity, we have a robust, thriving community, with 30K+ developers in our Discord Channel, 180K+ followers on Twitter and 100K+ on Telegram. I encourage all of you to join the following:
Q: Also for you Ralf, when we think about CSPR, what are the uses for the Casper's network token?
Ralf: CSPR the layer one network token for Casper (like ETH is on the Ethereum Network) which havs two primary functions:
1. to pay for transactions that use the resources in the network (which fees are allocated to validators and also ensure that the resources in the network are not abused); and
2. to provide economic security via stake in consensus.
Beyond these basic functionalities of the token described above, the Casper Network (and its native token) are built from the ground up with the unique features that enterprises demand to build their business critical applications and, as such, are expected to have a myriad of use cases as described above in questions 3 and 4. In addition, DeFi and NFTs are being launched on Casper as well, because the protocol’s unique features are well suited for those crypto-centric areas.
Q: Back over to you, Medha. You've spoken about Casper being an enterprise-grade blockchain. Can you explain a little more about what you mean and give some examples of enterprises who are building on chain?
Medha: That's a great question. Thank you for asking it. When we say "enterprise-grade," we don't mean Casper is a blockchain only for large, fortune 500 companies. What we mean is that we have built - and continue to improve - a robust ayer 1 chain that companies, governments, and orgnaizations (of all sizes) can easily adopt. Specifically, this means: familair tooling and programming languages, low and consistent transaction fees, smart contract upgradaility, network-wide upgradabiliy, customer support, and a professional services team to build with and for our customers. In the same way the other enterprise software companies like AWS or SAP have built very professional SAAS & services offerings, we have built this in Casper. It's what every enterprise, large or small, should expect from a blockchain.
In addition, Enterprise will be the largest use case for Blockchain, but it will take a longer time (But will be a much more stable revenue and usage base) . As this image shows, CIOs and CTOs of leading companies say they will spend 10s of billions of dollars on Blockchain infrastructure in the coming 5-10 years and we are uniquely positioned to take significant market share Here are some examples of such enterprises already building on Casper: Please note we have dozens in the pipeline including several fortune 500s, but we are NDA and will share details as more is build.
IPwe - CasperLabs has built an NFT-based chain of custody solution for IPwe's public patent records on the Casper public blockchain. Patents are created and securely stored as NFTs, so that they are traceable and tradable. Our ability to deliver real-time proof of ownership makes patent transactions simpler and more cost-efficient, and lays the foundation for a consortium of patent owners, patent offices and verifiers to grant, publish, own and transfer patents.
Metacask - Metacask sought to modernize the high-end whisky market by creating an innovative new business model that would democratize the market and provide access to new growth audiences. CasperLabs translated this bold ambition into a seamless user experience by building NFTs representing whisky casks, and enabling investors to quickly register an account, complete a verification check, fund their wallet with crypto, and begin acquiring or selling whisky casks on our new digital platform within the same day. This expanded the geographies in which Metacask had operated, enabled a new generation of investors and customers to participate in the market for rare whisky casks, and lowered the client’s go-to-market costs.
WISeKey / Wise.Art / WISeSat - WISeKey is a publically traded digital security company (NASDAQ: WKEY), using the Casper Network for their NFTs. One great use is the WISeSat.Space constellation, launched with SpaceX, that enables the direct connection of satellites to IoT devices. WISeKey will soon have so many satellites in orbit that data from IoT devices anywhere on earth can be saved and protected on the blockchain. Imagine an IoT device inserted in a vaccine supply box, so that health providers know the location of the supply and whether it has been compromised by someone opening the box or storing it at the wrong temperature. Data stored on the Casper blockchain provides critical, reliable communication on the location and condition of goods in the supply chain.
DMusic - Dmusic works with some of the biggest names in the music world. These artists are innovators who want to create uniquely valuable experiences for their fans. In partnership with Haute Living and Megalodon, Dmusic's bold ambition is to simplify the music industry, transforming artists into platforms that enable music lovers to connect in entirely new ways with their favorite artists, and even share in revenue creation. Since Casperlabs specializes in the adoption of blockchain and rapid onboarding of developers, we are helping our Dmusic show powerhouse innovators and entrepreneurs in the music world how to monetize far more than their music. Limited edition music NFTs will be the first assets to be offered by Dmusic artists, and any aspect of their brand can now be tokenized and shared through Casper’s secure, energy-efficient and low-cost NFT technology.
To learn more about CasperLabs success stories, please go here: https://casperlabs.io/success-stories
Q: Thank you, Medha. You've mentioned the importance of Capital Markets to the Casper. Can you tell us more about how you build financial infrastrucuture on the Casper Network? Can this go beyond what we know exists today?
Medha: CasperLabs is building the next generation financial system with Blockchain. Together in a joint venture with Ariadne. The project is called NucleusFinance.
A) Tackling the issues of inhouse reconciliation, lack of standardization, segregated data lakes within financial service companies
B) The JV will offer an end-to-end finance system based on standardized, algorithmic financial contracts with life cycle management and included tokenization capabilities which will result in:
1) Decreased costs, while increasing efficiency within financial service companies
2) Deep financial insights through machine-readable financial contracts
3) Real-time verifiable audits through the immutability of the Blockchain
4)More efficient tradeability and securitization of financial contracts through tokenization
Additional features will include:
A) On-Chain elements with Off-Chain computation in a trusted execution environment to utilize the best of both worlds
B) Agnostics payment channels (Fiat, Cryptocurrency and CBDC)
Q: Ralf, the association also has stated Capital Markets as an area that is important. What is the Association doing in this area?
Ralf: The Casper Association is looking to enable a true open source and open access for the kind of technology which will enable financial innovations on blockchains. This can be DeFi but also other financial applications which will be enabled by blockchain.
We strongly believe that only Smart Financial Contracts (SFCs) built on the open source ACTUS standard will provide the basis for consistency, interoperability, and scalability of blockchain based financial solutions.
- Smart Financial Contracts (SFC) based on ACTUS open source standard for TradFi.
- Systemically relevant Blockchain financial solutions with SFC.
- Institutional grade DeFi with the security (and speed) required by Financial Markets
- DeFi projects that want the decentralization and security of Ethereum, yet predictable low cost fees and upgradability of contracts, are building on Casper.
Q: Medha, what does Casper's roadmap currently look like? How does Casper adapt to changes in this fast-paced ecosystem in terms of roadmap prioritization.
Medha: I am super excited about what's on the horizon for Casper. Coming up soon is release 1.5 and then a major network update in Casper 2.0.
With upgrade 1.5, it will be easier for new nodes to join the network. It also has a lot of interesting features, such as redelegate. 1.5 will reduce disk usage, making nodes easier and cheaper to run. This makes the network more robust and secure - because running a validator is more affordable.
Casper 2.0, anticipated for early 2023, will dramatically improve performance with another new consensus protocol (codename Zug), provide new capabilities for smart contracts as well as an exciting new gas fee mechanism. Examples are contracts that can pay for themselves, contracts that can stake the network and contracts that can have delegated keys for upgrades. In addition, Casper 2.0 will include faster block times, host side DeFi, and improved engineering velocity.
Our roadmap is publicly available here at: https://github.com/casper-network/roadmap/projects/2
Q: One last question, and this one is for both of you... What about Casper are you most excited about right now?
Medha: Among the many things I'm excited about - and we touched on a lot of them here, today - I am particularly proud of the recent partnerships we have begun. Here are just a few:
China - The vision of China’s Blockchain-Based Services Network (BSN) is to bring low-cost, efficient, and flexible blockchain development environments to government departments, businesses, and developers. BSN asked CasperLabs to create an adaptation of Casper that would meet very specific local needs. CasperLabs provided local advisory and development support for BSN to go live on Casper so that applications would be easy to build on the protocol and specific local regulatory requirements would be met. We also created a special fork of Casper that met the custom requirements of this Open Permission Based project.
India - CasperLabs is developing the first “open, permissioned network” based on the Casper Technology for implementation of Government of Telangana Blockchain initiatives. Telangana’s adoption of blockchain technology will empower policy makers and government officials to facilitate more sustainable, efficient and secure government processes while simultaneously opening up new entrepreneurship opportunities for both private and public sectors. For more, please see: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220524005984/en/CasperLabs-to-Provide-Open-Permissioned-Network-for-Implementation-of-Government-of-Telangana-Blockchain-Initiatives
IBM - We at CasperLabs recently deepend our partnership with IBM, having co-built the first atomic cross-chain swap of fungible and non-fungible tokens between an instance of a Hyperledger Fabric private network and the Casper Blockchain. The swap is modeled using the HTLC protocol and implemented using CasperLabs’ smart contract SDK, TypeScript SDK and Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Labs Weaver: DLT Interoperability Framework at https://labs.hyperledger.org/weaver-dlt-interoperability/
The technology enabling secure swaps between potentially different classes of tokens residing on different networks, and particularly the hybrid public-private exchange is critical for increasing the liquidity of blockchain-enabled markets. CasperLabs is working with IBM to develop lightweight, secure bridges for both private and public blockchain networks, to be delivered as an enterprise-grade, customizable software product. For more, please see IBM's blog post about the partnership: https://www.ibm.com/blogs/blockchain/2022/05/hybrid-networks-ibm-blockchain-services-casperlabs-davos-2022/
BLOCKv - We have partnered with a leading Web3 & NFT platform SmartMedia Technologies and its network partner, BLOCKv, which will allow enterprise users to rapidly design, develop and deploy BLOCKv-powered "Smart NFTs" using the SmartMedia self-serve, no-code, drag-and -rop NFT studio. Built on the Casper Network, this partnership will offer services for companies and brands that want to benefit from BLOCKv's industry-leading NFTs and Casper's streamlined, enterprise-focused blockchain capabilities. To learn more, please visit https://casperlabs.io/blog/breakthrough-moment-for-nft-adoption/
Ralf: Wow, this is a great question. And it's a bit of a difficult one, since we at the Casper Association are excited about so many things happening on Casper, like DeFi (bridges, swaps, DEXs, AMMs, and liquidity pools), NFT use cases and NFT marketplaces, Nucleus Finance, developer tools and onboarding, events & conferences, and so much more. But if I were to say the most exciting thing right now, it would be COMMUNITY.
Casper has a thriving global community, and it continues to grow is size and passion. Every person - whether he or she is a developer, entruprenuer, partner, validator, delegator, supporter, or token holder - makes up the backbone of who we are and what we do.
I am very excited to welcome the Bitget community into the Casper family and honored for Casper to be joining the Bitget community. We invite and welcome all of you to join the Casper Network and be a part of what we are all building together.
