Cliff Sarkin, Chief of Strategic Relationships for CasperLabs, and Ralf Kubli, one of the Board Members of Casper Association were guests during an AMA session hosted by Huobi.
Cliff:
Sure thing. My name is Cliff, and I am the Chief of Strategic Relationships for CasperLabs. It's great to meet everyone. By way of education, I am an attorney, but I was never meant to be a lawyer. After a few unhappy years practicing law, I joined my first start up (this is back in 2010), and I've never looked back. I love to build tech companies, and I do everthing on the business side, from raising money and putting together important deals, to business development and large scale events. I had some nice successes before blockchain, including one start-up's exit to Microsoft.
But by far the biggest and most exciting project I've had a chance to be a part of is Casper. I was fortunate enough to meet the founding team at CasperLabs in the summer of 2018, and I offiically joined in January 2019. CasperLabs first started building the Casper codebase in October 2018, and we facilitated the Casper Testnet in 2020 until mainnet launch in March of last year. 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 needs, and how we can provide a technical solution for them that uses 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. It's really great to be here in the Huobi community today. Many thanks to our host for having us - and to all of you for being here.
Ralf:
Hi, I am Ralf Kubli, one of the Board Members of Casper Association. My professional career has been spent both in large companies and in start-ups. 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.
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
Cliff:
Yes, absolutely. The Casper Network is a layer 1 blockchain and Turing-complete wasm based smart-contracting platform, backed by the only operational CBC-Casper Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm - known as Highway. Casper is a permissionless, decentralized, public blockchain.
The Network has been built from the ground up for enterprise and developer adoption. Fundamentally, any commercial enterprise and any size project that is seeking to build an application using technology is going need control over their on chain contracts, support their customers, and some guarantees that the protocol will continue to adapt and evolve as their needs change. Casper allows enterprises and developers to integrate blockchain technology into their existing systems and development processes seamlessly. Many other Layer 1 protocols believe that a full replacement of the technology stack is in order in order to make these systems "blockchain ready" or "blockchain centric." We believe that replacement of existing systems is not feasible. Rather, software is governed and developed incrementally, and the Casper technology provides for this, without sacrificing security. This is possible because of the capabilities that the Casper blockchain provides.
As a pure proof-of-stake network, Casper supports a variety of network installations. An enterprise can choose to use a hybrid deployment of Casper or use the mainnet. Key properties of how the blockchain runs can be configured at startup, and modified by a seamless upgrade process. This applies to all deployments of Casper, including mainnet. It is completely possible to move from a private, to a hybrid, to a consortium or even public network without having to restart the network. Enterprises do not need to feel locked into a particular deployment of the blockchain, they have the flexibility to include more participants as their needs change.
Casper has also been built for sustainability, with a modular architecture that allows for swapping out of consensus protocols, execution environments, and crytpographic encryption schemes. This is extremely important for the long term health of the protocol. As new research and developments take place in these areas, Casper is well positioned to take advantages of future innovation in the space. Because of all of this, enterprises and blockchain native companies alike are partnering with us to build on Casper.
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), with standards-based token issuance, as easy to use as ERC-20, tokens can easily be created on Casper with better security and performance, and the mechanisms exist to efficiently bring dApps from Ethereum & other chains. In fact, we just released Casper's new enterprise grade NFT standardc called CEP-78. For more, please see here.
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.
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.
Cliff:
To start, many blockchains require propriety programming languages knowledge to build on them. For example Ethereum uses Solidity while Cardano requires knowledge of Plutus. Casper supports Rust and AssemblyScript where most programmers with experience in existing programming languages will be able to build on Casper.
These are only a few of the notable features in Casper. There are many more. And they are host side. Which makes contracts simpler and more gas efficient. Casper was created for serious developers that want to build real world solutions.
Cliff:
We definitely understand the importance of both of these growing segments within the blockchain ecosystem. NFT's have broad application - I see the world as being full of non-fungible items. You cannot break up a chair into 100 pieces and use those pieces to purchase food - for example. It's non-fungible. NFT's are excellent for representing the world around us - on the blockchain.
We see NFT's as having very high utility 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 optional 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.
There are multiple marketplaces already integrating with the Casper Network; Metacask, 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:
Thank you, Cliff. We recognize that DeFi is important to bring liquidity and utility to the network. DotOracle has launched the first bridge on Casper - an AnySwap fork that connects Casper to to BSC, Polygon, ETH, AVAX, FTM and other EVM compatible chains. You can find the bridge here. Ferrum Network team is also launching whitelabeled bridges for BSC, ETH and Polygon- and these will be releasing shortly.
The first DEX is live at https://friendly.market - and 3 other DEX's are preparing for launch (CasperSwap, WiseSwap, Swappery) in the coming months.
There are wrapped stablecoins and wrapped assets available in Friendly Market already.
There will also be wrapped stablecoin integration via the DotOracle bridge, Change.Now and eventually a native FRAX implementation being developed on Casper.
It's possible to observe all the contracts on mainnet at https://cspr.live/contracts - more than 160 contracts on mainnet, and 5,000+ contracts on testnet. A lot of building is taking place, with production releases around the corner.
Here is a snapshot of the DeFi projects and infrastructure being built.
For an easy user experience, the Casper Network is supported by Torus Wallet, which enables users to interact with Casper without having to worry about key management. Uphold is also a popular onramp and venue to access Casper CSPR.
Cliff:
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 Proof of Stake blockchain - one that does not sacrifice security for performance. This is an extremely important point! In the pursuit of throughput, many protocols have sacrified security. The blockchain must not sacrifice security for performance. Security is valued more than performance - and one need not look beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum to see this.
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:
Ralf:
Well, here are some relvant statistics as of this week...
In addition to network activity, we have a robust, thriving community, with 31K+ developers in our Discord Channel, 188K+ followers on Twitter and 100K+ on Telegram. I encourage all of you to join the following:
Cliff:
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 companies. What we mean is that we have built - and continue to improve - a robust, public layer 1 chain that companies, governments, and orgnaizations (of all sizes) will use to build real world solutions. Even a developer that wants to build a real business using blockchain, should do so on Casper.
Businesses need capabilities in the protocol that will support their needs, such as control over contract code on chain (upgrades), ESG Compliance, Interoperability with their existing Web2 development tooling, consistent transaction costs along with customer support and professional services to help train their developers and ensure that their project is completed. We remember what happened when Cloud and the Internet were adopted - and what was needed for Enterprise adoption.
In addition, enterprise will be the largest use case - and by far the biggest market - for blockchain technology. We know that it will take time for the market to mature, but it will be a much more stable revenue and usage growth. As the image below 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.
We are in active conversations with many Fortune 500 companies, and as these projects come to fruition, we will make announcements. Here are some examples of such enterprises already building on Casper:
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.
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 begin acquiring or selling whisky casks on our new digital platform within the same day.
WISeKey, Wise.Art, and 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.
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.
To learn more about use cases on Casper, you can go to https://casperlabs.io/success-stories
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. This includes SFCs 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, and DeFi projects that want the decentralization and security of Ethereum, yet predictable low cost fees and upgradability of contracts, are building on Casper.
Cliff:
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, which will be released before the end of the year, 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. Additionally, there is a groundbreaking feature called 'speculative execution' that will allow contracts to be debugged and tested against mainnet!
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, and improved engineering velocity.
Our roadmap is publicly available here.
Cliff:
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 which will be called the Chengdu Chain, expected to go live in the next several weeks.
India - CasperLabs is developing another “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 here.
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. For more, please see IBM's blog post about the partnership.
SmartMedia Labs - 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 programmable "Smart NFTs" using the SmartMedia self-serve, no-code, drag-and-drop NFT studio. To learn more, please visit casperlabs.io
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, 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, entrepreneur, partner, validator, delegator, supporter, or token holder - makes up the backbone of who we are and what we do.
Huobi has been part of our community since Casper's mainnet launch in March of last year, and I am very excited to be strengthening our connection this week and welcoming even more Huobi community members into the Casper family. We invite and welcome all of you to join the Casper Network and be a part of what we are all building together.
