Casper v2.0 Release: Key Upgrades and What They Mean for the Network

The long-anticipated Casper v2.0 is now live, marking a major evolution of the Casper Network. Formerly referred to as “Condor” during its development phase, this release introduces a broad set of architectural improvements, new features, and performance upgrades aimed at increasing scalability, efficiency, and developer usability.

Below is a breakdown of what’s new in Casper v2.0 — and why it matters.

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Key Takeaways

• Casper v2.0 introduces a modular Sidecar architecture, a binary RPC port, and native contract events.
  
   
• The new Zug consensus protocol replaces Highway for improved network efficiency.
  
   
• Casper 2.0 debuts a new transaction model, laying the foundation for better scalability.
  
   
• Native support for CSPR token burning and fee elimination introduces greater flexibility in network economics.

Architectural Shift: Introducing the Sidecar

Casper v2.0 decouples the RPC service from the main node software by introducing the Casper Sidecar. This separation allows:

• Independent upgrades of the RPC API without needing full network upgrades.
  
   
• Easier debugging and process isolation.
  
   
• Direct access to contract-level events, enabling new dApp interaction possibilities.

Binary Port: Lower-Level Access, Higher Performance

A brand-new Binary Port API enables faster, more efficient communication with nodes by bypassing JSON serialization. Key benefits include:

• Reduced network congestion.
  
   
• Lower latency in node responses.
  
   
• Direct data access from storage without deserialization overhead.

Casper provides a Binary Port Client library to simplify integration for developers.

Native Contract-Level Events (CEP-88)

Casper 2.0 introduces native event support at the protocol level. This replaces the older Casper Event Standard (CES), eliminating gas costs for storing events on-chain and improving security and efficiency.

Events are now streamed through the node’s event stream, making it easier to track contract activity off-chain with cryptographic proofs for verification.

Zug: A New Consensus Protocol

Casper 2.0 replaces its original Highway consensus with a more lightweight and efficient protocol called Zug. Key features include:

• Reduced resource usage.
  
   
• Skippable rounds for improved liveness during network partitions.
  
   
• Finer control over block times and better validator management.

Zug improves scalability while maintaining security and consensus reliability.

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New Transaction Model and Deploy Deprecation

Casper 2.0 introduces a new Transaction structure that will replace the legacy Deploy system. Transactions support:

• Wasm-less operations for more efficient interactions.
  
   
• Flexible transaction types for interacting with global state.

Deploys are still supported for backward compatibility but will be removed in a future update.

Optional Account/Contract Unification

Though not activated by default, Casper 2.0 introduces a new AddressableEntity system that unifies accounts and contracts. When activated, smart contracts will be able to:

• Hold funds directly.
  
   
• Manage their own keys.
  
   
• Interact more seamlessly with users and other contracts.

This feature will be subject to a future vote before activation.

Fee Elimination: A New Approach to Gas

Casper now supports fee elimination, a model in which gas fees are placed on temporary hold instead of being spent. There are two configurations:

• Accrued: 100% of the fee is held and returned after a set period.
  
   
• Amortized: The hold gradually reduces over time until the full amount is released.

This change aims to support new economic use cases where preserving funds is important.

Virtual Machine 2.0 (VM2): Coming Soon

Although not active in the current release, Casper is laying the foundation for a new virtual machine. VM2 will feature:

• Simplified smart contract logic.
  
   
• Support for transferable entry points and familiar features like payable.
  
   
• Better testability and schema generation for smart contracts.

Additional Enhancements

• CSPR Burn Function: Users can now burn tokens directly via the mint contract.
  
   
• Expanded FFI Access: New hashing algorithms and block metadata access.
  
   
• Deprecations: get_state_item RPC endpoint will eventually be deprecated in favor of get_global_state.

What Comes Next?

Future updates will focus on:

• Activating account/contract unification.
  
   
• Enabling VM2.0.
  
   
• Continuing deprecation of outdated APIs.

Casper's documentation has also been versioned, allowing users to compare v2.0 with earlier versions easily.