We present the Casper Network, a new Turing-complete smart-contract platform, backed by a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm and WebAssembly (wasm). The network is a permissionless, decentralized, public blockchain. The consensus protocol is called Highway, and the complete paper is found in GitHub: https://github.com/CasperLabs/highway. The consensus protocol allows clients to use different confidence thresholds to convince themselves that a given block is finalized. This protocol is built on Vlad Zamfir’s correct-by-construction (CBC) Casper research.
Rust is the primary programming language for smart contracts on the Casper blockchain because of its good support for compilation to wasm. However, the platform does not make assumptions about the source language and supports libraries facilitating contract development in other programming languages having wasm as a compile target. Other essential features include an account permissions model that allows the recovery of lost keys and a permissions model to securely share state between accounts and contracts (without expensive cryptographic checks). We also provide discussions of the economics of our proof-of-stake implementation and our token policies.
We facilitate solutions for the generations of web builders and business software architects inventing the world of tomorrow through blockchain.
We believe building applications powered by blockchain should be easy, sustainable and economic. With a unique feature set that allows for flexible permissions, upgradability, energy efficiency, low latency, predictable gas fees and high security, the Casper Network is designed to support any size of project or enterprise organization use case. Casper is built to grow along with changing business requirements and developer needs.
