The Importance of Scaling Layer 1 Blockchain at Casperlabs With Medha Parlikar

With Medha Parlikar CEO of Casperlabs

Tell us interesting details about what you will be working on in collaboration with Ethereum and how it will help Ethereum.

The past 18 months is when I stepped into the blockchain space!  Exciting!  Founded CasperLabs because another project failed to achieve its mission because of bad management.  We are here to discuss how we can scale layer 1 blockchain- and why this is important to do!

We believe that proof of work must be replaced by proof of stake, without centralized control.”
As you are aware, Vlad Zamfir is a researcher for Ethereum.  When we founded CasperLabs, we did so with the express intent of building a layer 1 solution that is based on the CBC-Casper algorithm. It is natural for Vlad to be involved as a result.

Why did they decide to bring Zamfir on? What about him brings value to the community and company?

It’s natural that Vlad would join the effort, as we are working to implement his vision.  Vlad doesn’t believe in compromising decentralization for scalability.

Why is your platform fully decentralized? Is this an important distinction from Ethereum and other platforms?

The CBC Casper protocol allows for anyone to join the network as a staked validator at any time without permission.  Any validator can also leave the network when they wish.
Why is PoS so critical for achieving true scalability?

It’s much more efficient than a proof of work, as no hashing is required prior to proposing a block.  This makes block proposal much more frequent. Furthermore, CBC Casper has properties that enable composite sharding – where a single consensus protocol operates on many homogenous shards.

How does CasperLabs proof of stake protocol differ from what is being released later this year on Ethereum?

CasperLabs is releasing a blockchain that uses CBC-Casper.  CBC Casper is a complete consensus protocol.  Ethereum is releasing FFG Casper, which takes advantage of the safety properties of Casper and applies them to a proof of the work chain.

In terms of potential partnerships with Ethereum, where do you see the greatest connectivity and mutual benefit?

We are working on liveness research with Vlad and other Ethereum researchers presently, which will be completed soon.  Our next research project will focus on homogenous sharding.  Our research is freely available to Ethereum foundation researchers, and we will continue to work closely with Vlad and others from Ethereum.

Where do you see blockchain technology gaining most traction going forward?

I see a lot of tooling being developed, that will abstract away the blockchain away from application developers. Blockchain is a protocol, not unlike HTTP. Web developers today don’t concern themselves with HTTP at all.  The same thing will have to happen with blockchain in order to gain traction with the broad developer base.  These solutions will provide both scalability and usability to layer 1 protocols.

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