Casper v2.0 - Release Notes
April/May 2025
We are excited to announce the release of Casper v2.0 - formerly known as Condor, which introduces a wide range of new features, improvements, and performance optimizations aimed at enhancing user experience and system efficiency.
Casper 2.0 represents a significant upgrade with a slew of new features as well as optimizations & improvements to existing features.
Major Changes at a glance
New Features
Zug Consensus Protocol
Casper 2.0 introduces a new consensus model known as Zug (Whitepaper). The Highway protocol is effective and secure, but resource-heavy. Zug is simpler and leaner than the Highway protocol upon which Casper was originally conceived, and as such allows for improvements in network efficiency and cohesion. This in turn facilitates eventual extension of the validator list, and finer-grained control over block times.
Zug in brief
In every round, the designated leader can sign a proposal message to suggest a block. The proposal also points to an earlier round in which the parent block was proposed.
Each validator then signs an echo message with the proposal's hash. Correct validators only sign one echo per round, so at most one proposal can get echo messages signed by a quorum. A quorum is a set of validators whose total weight is greater than (n + f) / 2, where n is the total weight of all validators and f is the maximum allowed total weight of faulty validators. Thus, any two quorums always have a correct validator in common. As long as n > 3f, the correct validators will constitute a quorum since (n + f) / 2 < n - f.
In cases where the network cannot reach consensus, for example, during a partition or failure, the round is skipped without penalizing the network’s performance. In other words, skippable rounds prevent the network from stalling.
A detailed discussion of the Zug consensus may be found in the Casper documentation. For a detailed description of the protocol, please refer to the Zug Whitepaper
Multi-Virtual Machine Architecture
In Casper 2.0, we are introducing a change to the execution engine which allows transactors to specify which of many possible VMs they wish to target with their transaction.
CSPR Burn function
In Casper 2.0 users can burn CSPR token (CEP-92). This function is exposed as a burn function in the mint contract.
Contract-Level Events
In Casper 1.X, there was no option for emitting contract-level events in the node software. The best option available to developers looking to use this kind of functionality was the Casper Event Standard (CES) created by MAKE and Odra. In Casper 2.0, We have provided host side support for the emission of events. Smart contract developers may still opt to use the CES standard, however, the native implementation is recommended as the go-forward for the contract-level events
The CEP-88 reference implementation provides the template for contract-level events CEP-88. CEP-88 establishes a secure, one-way messaging channel between contracts and entities listening to a node's event stream. This standardized method of emitting contract-level events is built into the existing Casper Event Stream, requiring no additional features to Casper's SDKs.
Messages are passed by the execution engine to the node that sends them out on the event stream after execution is complete and committed. The messages sent out on the event stream contain the identity of the entity that emitted the message, the topic on which the message was emitted, the index of the message within the topic and the actual message payload. The contents of the event itself are not stored on-chain, but proofs are stored to allow for verification of events.
Events can be consumed client-side by listening to the event stream of an active node. Casper's SDKs include functions that make it easy to subscribe to an event stream and consume its inbound data.
FFI Enhancements
Casper 2.0 FFI introduces access to some additional hashing algorithms, as well as providing access to information about the block info, including hash and parent block hash. This also enables increased entropy for the casper_random_bytes function, improving the unpredictability of random outputs.
New Transaction Model
Casper 2.0 introduces the concept of a Transaction, which replaces the existing Deploy concept. Transactions are a new structure that allows several ways for users to make changes to global state. They allow for a variety of Wasm-less interactions with the blockchain. These new interactions are more efficient than Deploys and provide a level of convenience that was not previously available. More more details, see the list of available Transaction Types.
The existing Deploy model is deprecated as of Casper 2.0, and support will be removed entirely in a future major release. However, Casper 2.0 will continue to accept valid Deploys and will attempt to execute them. Most existing deploys that function today will continue to do so. However, deploys that depend on a data type or FFI function that has been altered or removed will fail to execute.
Configurable Delegation Limits
Casper 2.0 enables validators to set optional minimum and maximum delegation limit, in accordance with CEP-90.
Reserved Slots and Custom Fees
Casper 2.0 allows validators to reserve slots on their node for specific delegators, and configure custom fee percentages for those reserved slots. This feature allows a validator to provide bespoke service to contracted parties.
Factory Contract Pattern
Casper 2.0 introduces the CEP-86 Factory Contract Pattern, allowing smart contract developers to more optimally configure the installation and invocation of their smart contracts.
Contract Access to Auction
In Casper 2.0, smart contracts can now interact directly with the system auction, enabling on-chain applications to stake CSPR, earn rewards, and integrate staking yields into their native economic models.
Architectural Changes
Casper v2.0 introduces a number of improvements aimed at removing some limitations of the Casper platform and dealing with technical debt. Some of the limitations in Casper 1.X were due to architectural decisions that impeded efforts to introduce new features without breaking existing systems.
Casper Sidecar
In Casper 2.0, the existing RPC service has been moved outside of the node software itself. In Casper 1.X, the RPC service existed as an HTTP server which was built into the node software itself. This meant that the RPC server was tightly coupled to the node software, could not be updated without updating the node software, and executed in the same process space as the node. The result of this was that any extension of the RPC surface necessitated a full network upgrade to deliver.
In Casper 2.0, the JSON RPC has been moved to a separate application, known as the Sidecar. This step brings a few improvements:
- It allows for better process isolation and makes it easier to run and debug node instances.
- The Sidecar provides a way to interact with Contract-Level Events produced by node, which opens up some interesting possibilities for node interactions.
- The separation of the Sidecar into a new codebase means that enhancements to the RPC API can now be accomplished without changing the node binary, necessitating a network upgrade.
Binary Port
We have added a brand new RPC option at the binary level, the Binary Port API. This allows you to communicate with the node without the need for JSON serialization, with improvements in performance. The adoption of a binary RPC protocol brings several benefits to the Casper network:
- Reduced Network Congestion: The compact nature of binary encoding leads to smaller message sizes, decreasing bandwidth consumption and network strain. This is particularly valuable in scenarios with high transaction volumes or limited bandwidth.
- Improved Node Responsiveness: While the node still needs to process requests, binary data is often faster to handle than JSON. This can lead to quicker response times from the node, enhancing overall network performance
- Scalability: The efficiency gains from binary communication contribute to the network ability to scale and handle increased transaction loads without sacrificing performance.
- Efficient Data Retrieval: The binary port allows querying raw data directly from the database. This means the node can provide raw bytes from storage without the overhead of deserialization, further contributing to performance improvements, especially for large data requests.
Interacting with the Casper Node using the Binary Port option is not the same as using the RPC. The Binary Port allows you to interact with the node on a much lower level, which allows for performance improvements and greater scalability. To avail of these advantages, a smaller, more focused API is exposed. To ease adoption of this interface, the Casper Binary Port Client has been created. This library contains code which serves both as a repository of examples and demonstrations of how to connect to the Binary Port, and also serves as a client library to allow downstream applications to connect to the Binary Port and build functionality on top of it.
SSE Streams Combined
In Casper 2.0, the 3 event streams that exist in Casper 1.x (main, deploys and sigs) have been merged into a single event stream for more convenient consumption of events
Validator Rewards
In Casper 2.0, validator rewards are calculated differently than they were in 1.5.x. They are based on a combination of Block proposal Signature creation and Signature publication. A detailed explanation of the new methodology is available here.
Upcoming Features/Updates
Following the release of Casper 2.0 to mainnet, the following features will be activated for testing and subsequent release to mainnet in minor-version releases of the Casper protocol and node:
Virtual Machine 2.0
Building on Casper 2.0's new Multi-VM Architecture, Casper 2.1 will see the activation of the first additional virtual machine on Casper Network, "VM 2.0".
Among the improvements in VM 2.0 are:
- Removal of URefs. URefs are complicated, hard to track, and ultimately unnecessary for most contracts.
- An improved Smart Contract programming model with an emphasis on high-level logic in place of low-level implementation details, leading to improved maintainability and more concise code.
- Backwards compatibility: VM2.0 contracts can call VM 1.X contracts, allowing the two systems to coexist during the transition period.
- Transferable entry points, which allow sending tokens directly to contract entry points without needing a custom session code.
- VM2.0 code will all be valid Rust code, which allows it to execute without a complex system of test infrastructure and improves testability.
- Implementation of some features which are familiar from other chains such as the
payablekeyword - Schema generation from smart contracts, paving the way for improvements in tooling, discoverability and maintainability.
- Improved Smart Contract upgrade process.
Fee Elimination
Subject to a governance vote by the Casper Network validators on behalf of their delegators, configuration changes in a future minor release of Casper 2.0 will activate a gas fee model known as Fee Elimination.
Fee Elimination is the strategy of placing temporary holds on transactor balances corresponding to their incurred gas costs, instead of taking those costs from their on-chain balances.
Under 1.x, transactors must pay for gas directly from their purse balances. With Fee Elimination on Casper 2.0, a hold is placed on the calculated Gas Cost for a configurable period of time known as the Hold Period. Fees are therefore not forfeited by transactors, and funds are not spent to execute transactions. The scheduled release of funds placed under a hold in this way is governed by the configuration of the chainspec. There are two options:
Accrued
100% of the hold is held until the hold expires. At any given point in the duration of the hold, the effective amount of the hold is 100%. At expiry, all of the funds are again made available to the transactor.
Amortized
The effective amount of the hold is reduced linearly over the course of the hold duration. At any point in the duration of the hold, the effective hold amount is proportional to the percentage of the hold duration that remains before expiry.
Deprecations
The get_state_item RPC endpoint is deprecated in favour of the more flexible get_global_state endpoint. The deprecated get_state_item endpoint will be removed in a future release. Downstream development teams can continue to use it in the interim; however, it is recommended that they upgrade their code to reflect this change before the deprecated endpoint is removed. For more details please see here.
Comprehensive List of Casper 2.0 Updates
A detailed list of all changes, updates, and deprecations introduced in Casper 2.0 is available on this page.
Official Documentation
For reference documentation on Casper including Casper v2.0, please refer to the complete documentation available here. Worth noting is that we have implemented documentation versioning, i.e. you may select the version of the documentation you wish to view from a drop-down in the top right of the navigation bar. This allows you to compare some topics with their former version to see what has changed.
Support Channels
To raise a request for an article or blog post, or to notify us of errata or omissions, use the Issues feature in the Casper Documentation site. https://github.com/casper-network/docs-redux/issues
You can use any of our official channels to ask for more information or raise an issue.
| Description | Type | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Official Casper Support | Telegram | https://t.me/casperblockchainsupport |
Thank you for using Casper v2.0! We hope these new features and improvements enhance your experience. Please feel free to share feedback or report issues through our support channels.
Thank you,
Casper Development Team