Ralf shared his insights from Consensus 2024, held in Austin, Texas between May 29th and June 1st. Ralf highlighted the high attendance. “Despite its small size, the Casper booth became a focal point for discussions on tokenization, AI, and Casper’s unique offerings,” said Ralf.

Two major themes, tokenization and AI, dominated the discussions at Consensus:

“Casper has a strong story in tokenization, especially given the increasing interest from institutional investors and the importance of regulatory compliance, including KYC and Anti-Money Laundering measures,” said Ralf.

AI was another hot topic, focusing on how blockchain can enhance the transparency and accountability of AI models. Casper Labs' solution, Prove AI, was a major highlight. Prove AI uses the Casper blockchain to verify AI model usage, providing version control, access control, and other features crucial for corporate use.

Prove AI received substantial interest at Consensus due to its innovative approach to integrating AI and blockchain. Here’s what Ralf shared about this groundbreaking solution:

• Verification: Prove AI uses the Casper blockchain to verify certain facts about AI models, ensuring that their usage can be tracked and authenticated.

• Version Control: This feature allows corporations to maintain and verify different versions of their AI models, ensuring consistency and traceability.

• Access Control: Prove AI provides robust access control mechanisms, enabling companies to manage who can access and modify their AI models.

Another topic that garnered attention was the shifting focus of the Consensus event compared to previous years. Ralf noticed a stronger corporate presence, with the growing recognition of blockchain for solving fundamental issues within industries. The event also included numerous political discussions, reflecting legislative attention on blockchain, further sparking participant interest.

Check out Ralf's video update from Consensus 2024 here.

Next on the agenda was Maciej Zielinski, who provided in-depth insights into the Odra framework, a cutting-edge tool for smart contract development on Casper. Maciej started by explaining what Odra is: a Rust-based framework designed to streamline smart contract development. The goal is to enable fast, reliable, and straightforward deployment of contracts by catering to developers' need for quick builds, ease of testing, and seamless integration.

Maciej highlighted several features that make Odra stand out:

• Reusability: Odra emphasizes code reusability, enabling developers to build modular smart contracts effortlessly. By leveraging numerous pre-coded modules, developers can integrate complex functionalities rapidly, allowing for more efficient iteration and testing.

• Event Standard: Odra outputs events in a format understood by CSPR.live, ensuring smooth integration and further aligning with the Casper Suite toolset. This standardization is crucial for developing applications that require comprehensive event tracking and diagnostics.

• Broad Compatibility: Odra is not just about making Casper blockchain development easy but also bridges the gap for developers familiar with Solidity. While Solidity is popularized by the Ethereum ecosystem, Odra provides a similarly intuitive yet more powerful development experience using Rust. This compatibility encourages Solidity developers to make a seamless transition to Casper.

“Solidity and Rust serve different ecosystems, but Rust offers a more robust general-purpose language with better tools and a broader ecosystem. Odra bridges these two, making it easier for Solidity developers to adapt by maintaining familiar concepts while providing the advanced capabilities of Rust.” said Maciej.

One of the key partnerships announced was with the FATSO project. Maciej noted that FATSO had generated significant activity on the network, showcasing the community's engagement and enthusiasm for DeFi projects in the Casper ecosystem.

Looking forward, Maciej laid out the roadmap for Odra’s growth:

• Condor (Casper 2.0) Upgrade: This upcoming upgrade will bring several new features and improvements, with a particular focus on transaction costs and efficiency. Despite these changes under the hood, the interface for writing Odra will remain consistent, ensuring a smooth transition for developers.

• New VM Introduction: Odra's team is actively involved in integrating with the new VM being developed by the Casper team. The new VM is expected to bring advanced functionalities and simplify several aspects of contract development, including improved support for complex deployments and integrations.

• Browser-Side Integration: Another exciting development is enhancing browser-side integration. Odra aims to simplify JavaScript/TypeScript client development, enabling swift deployment of web applications that interact with the Casper blockchain. This will provide an auto-generated client for contracts, reducing manual coding efforts.

• Multisig Tooling Enhancements: Odra is exploring better multisig tooling to enhance Casper’s associated key functionalities. This will involve developing tools for distributing signatures, potentially through peer-to-peer networks or directly via blockchain interactions.

For developers eager to dive into Odra, Maciej recommended starting with the GitHub repository and the official Odra documentation, which includes comprehensive guides and examples.

You can also check out our blog post to learn more about Odra.

Be sure to join the next X Space in July, and don’t forget to join us for the developer community call on Google Meet if you fancy some technical discussions about Casper.