Ethereum Founder Provides Updates on the Progress of Casper After Community Development Conference

Last week, the Community Ethereum Development Conference wrapped up, and Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, provided significant updates on the progress of Casper, the Proof of Stake consensus protocol that is expected to propel the future of Ethereum.

Ethereum is the most popular platform for launching new tokens through ICOs, and in doing so, has taken a prominent role in the expansion and maturation of the crypto economy.

Etherscan counts more than 81,000 ERC-20 token contracts on Ethereum's platform, and ICOs, many of which are connected to Ethereum, have raised almost $7 billion already this year.

The Casper initiative has been in the works for years, but Buterin's comments bring a tangible start to the transition process.

"PoS is better than PoW", but the goal will be to lay out what I think are the goals that ethereum is/should be trying to optimize for.

In January, Ethereum rolled out Casper's Testnet, and crypto investors responded by driving up the price of Ether beyond $1,000 for the first time.

Last month, more details emerged on the algorithm, formally known as Casper FFG, that will propel the network's transition to a PoS model.

The price of admission is pretty steep - according to Buterin, users will need 1,500 ETH to participate in Casper staking, which over $1.1 million USD at today's prices.

What's more, the Casper protocol punishes users for things like staking pools and double voting on transaction accuracy.

Behavior norms will continue to solidify, and Casper appears poised to find its way as the engine that powers Ethereum's network.