Casper 1.5 offers improved experiences across the board for the Casper users, including streamlining the node creation process on the network, key security upgrades and a more accurate gauge for estimating future transaction costs, along with the ability to more efficiently redelegate tokens. Critically, Casper 1.5 also allows contract authors to run transactions against an active blockchain without committing to the results. With this upgrade, Casper also becomes the only Layer-1 blockchain to enable the debugging of live, composable smart contracts on mainnet, which gives enterprises more control and increases the utility of public blockchain infrastructure.
Casper is the ideal blockchain for businesses managing sensitive data, and its unique controls are further enhanced by the 1.5 update. Casper is already the only blockchain that enables upgradeable smart contracts by design. It’s an absolutely essential feature for any large-scale organization building in a blockchain environment.
Thanks to Casper 1.5, the Casper Blockchain is more accessible, efficient and secure than ever before. Some of the key improvements in the new version include:
With Casper 1.5, new nodes no longer have to sync all the way back to the genesis block in order to participate in the network. This Fast-Join functionality will considerably reduce the time required to set up a new node, making it more efficient than ever to launch a node on the Casper Blockchain in addition to saving disk space for node operators, compared to previous versions. It also introduces a much more powerful disaster recovery functionality, ensuring that critical work is not lost due to any outage – traditionally, a common pain point with blockchain deployments.
Users can now select their preferred validator while undelegating, or switching their staked tokens from an existing validator. The process will run during the unbonding period, which lasts for seven eras (generally about 14-16 hours), and will no longer require users to manually undelegate and subsequently redelegate tokens.
A new function that will enable smart contracts to see which keys signed a transaction. Along with action thresholds and weighted keys, developers now have an added layer of security by being able to see who signed past transactions – and to use those account hashes to configure different account capabilities. This enables multi-sig, role-based security functionality on Casper, further cementing it as the most secure and provisionable blockchain on the market.
Developers can now test and debug smart contracts against the live network using real production data. This approach allows them to see how a given application will perform in the wild, without having to rely on test environments. This feature is unique to Casper and addresses a significant need for businesses and independent developers alike, allowing them to debug contracts without committing the changes to the blockchain. With this feature, you can confirm when your smart contract ran and how much it costs, all against a living network. This better supports the same software development best practices, like CI/CD, that organizations use in non-blockchain environments.
Smart contracts can now choose to access the list of authorized keys, which is beneficial for multi-signature contracts and role-based security. The maximum stack height, which impacts how contracts run, has been increased, providing more flexibility and compatibility with certain software packages. This provides developers with more tools and flexibility, ensuring that the Casper network can support a wider variety of applications and use cases.
All validators should download the new Casper 1.5 update to ensure continued, seamless performance.
Finally, for a more detailed technical overview of Casper 1.5, you can read the documentation here.
