Casper - $CSPR, Asset Review

Figure A

CasperLabs created a decentralized protocol to build applications via smart contracts. The CEO, Mrinal Manohar stated the organization has brought out experts from the enterprise, cloud, and blockchain industries to build out the network. Even, members of Ethereum are building out Casper as Casper initially intended to build out Eth 2.0. “Casper” was the initial name for Eth 2.0 but was later changed to “ETH 2.0” by the Ethereum developers. Since the merge was unsuccessful with CasperLabs, they created their token known as $CSPR to build out what was supposed to be the vision of ETH 2.0.

Content:
General Information-
  1. What is Casper

  2. Casper Background

  3. Casper Funding/Collaboration

Token Information-
  1. Tokenomics

  2. Governance

Additional Information-

  1. Staking

  2. Technical Analysis

Conclusion

General Information-

1. What is Casper

Casper is the first live proof-of-stake blockchain that's built off of the Casper CBC specification. Casper aims to advance enterprise and developer adoption of blockchains by thinking ahead to meet future needs. Casper was built from the original CBC Casper specification that was designed by Ethereum developers. Casper also offers enterprises the option to build a private or permissioned application on their network. Casper also has upgrade-able smart contracts, scalable solutions via sharding, and developer-friendly by using WebAssembly.

2. Casper Background

CasperLabs is a project-based out of Zug Zug, Switzerland, and founded by Medha Parlikar and Mrinal Manohar in 2018. CasperLabs was founded by members of Casper Network who built out the first live Proof-Of-Stake blockchain. Members of CasperLabs include employees from Google, Harvard, and high-profile Ethereum members who all have relevant experience to build out the Caspers ecosystem. CasperLabs puts decentralization at its core as the main way to create a transparent, open, and permission-less system. CasperLabs also believes that there isn’t a layer-1 protocol on the market with the necessary capabilities to cater to a global market, which is why they created their own token $CSPR to combat this issue.

3. Casper Funding/Collaboration

CasperLabs has been through funding rounds with the following firms: Arrington XRP Capital, Acuitas Group Holdings, NewTribe Capital, Evangelion Capital, Megala Ventures, Leland Ventures, HashKey Capital, and more. CasperLabs also held a private ICO that raised 14 million dollars, in total CasperLabs was able to raise approximately 90 million dollars over three years through funding. CasperLabs also has some well-known advisors like Chao Deng who is a Managing Director for HashKey Capital and Trevor Koverko who is the Co-Founder of PolyMath. In October 2020, CasperLabs announced integrating Chainlink’s decentralized oracle network to safely and reliably access data for all applications built on the Network. Chainlink’s oracle integration is in-line with the focus of decentralization for the network. CasperLabs also joined Amazon Web Services(AWS) to expand access to enterprise blockchains. AWS allows developers and organizations to build on the Casper Network via product testing on both private and public networks.

Figure B

Token Information-

  1. Tokenomics

$CSPR(Casper) tokens total supply is 10,930,719,429 billion tokens with a circulating supply of 5,137,685,985. Casper Holdings AG is the parent company and has distributed the tokens as per the below. 16% of tokens are being granted over five years to developers to build on the Casper Network. 14% of the tokens are reserved for the team and advisors. 10% of the tokens are held by Casper Holding AG for equity holders, founders, and employees. 20% of the tokens are contributed to a non-profit associated with Casper, and the remaining tokens will be sold over the long term.

Figure C

2. Governance

Most Proof-of-Stake governance systems rely on token holders to vote on behalf of the network. Casper’s network believes that anyone should be able to submit a proposal to the protocol. This further follows the plan of pure decentralization. A truly decentralized network should not cost anything to participate in. Ultimately, this allows token holders or non-token holders to submit a proposal. If the community, validators, and developers all agree on a proposal then it may be passed accordingly regardless if you are holding $CSPR tokens.

Additional Information-

  1. Staking

$CSPR is the native utility token of the Casper network. $CSPR is used to pay transaction fees since it operates in a Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. This would allow stakeholders to act as validators and stake their tokens in exchange for $CSPR tokens. Currently, validators may earn up to 10.55% rewards and have no minimum required tokens. Additionally, there is no lock-up period for staking according to CSPR.live. Casper has also written a guide on how to stake $CSPR token at https://casper.network/network/blog/how-to-stake-your-cspr. It is important to know that with staking rewards their is an inflation rate of around 8% of the total supply.

2. Technical Analysis

Figure E

$CSPR’s all-time highs hit $40 and since then have been mainly down-trending. When something is mainly down-trending like $CSPR, it is best to wait and let the dust settle as bottoms take a long time to form. Currently, there is no support and the price recently hit an all-time low. So it's best to be sidelined until more data is presented. However, if the price recovers back to 0.03 cents it may* become a zone of interest.

Conclusion-

It is difficult to see an asset like $CSPR and buy it when it’s at an all-time low. However, being that Casper Network was ahead of the game in 2015 by creating the first Proof-of-Stake blockchain is quite fascinating. It gives me the confidence to look past the price and consider what the team is trying to accomplish. A truly decentralized network that anyone can participate in, public or private applications may be built on the network at the user's convenience. It will be interesting to watch what CasperLabs does to incentivize organizations to utilize their network over others. It is also important to note that currently there is no way to track how much $CSPR an address holds. Lastly, it is important to note that I believe the Casper Network will grow but isn’t correlated to the value of the $CSPR token.

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