- Casper Network has received a major core protocol upgrade, named Peregrine, which is the 2nd of 4 major releases happening in the first half of 2024,
- The Peregrine release brings faster block times, reduced gas fees, and 99% refunds for unspent gas among other critical improvements that streamline development on the Casper blockchain,
- The next two protocol upgrades will build up on Peregrine and are called Juliet and Condor.
Casper has been built from the ground up with the concept of upgradability & modularity at its core, and it has already been evolving through a series of major core protocol updates. The latest update is Peregrine, which was successfully deployed on the mainnet on February 8th, 2024. While demonstrating the capabilities of an adaptable chain, the release also brings a series of significant improvements that make Casper even more suitable for DeFi.
Unboxing Casper’s Peregrine Release: Faster Network, Lower Fees
The Peregrine release is all about flexibility and efficiency. The release slashed the transaction confirmation times– or block times, from 32 to 16 seconds and lowered the block gas limit from 10,000 cspr to 4,000 cspr for optimizing network performance and resource usage, while the average transaction cost on the network lands in the cents and opens up massive amounts of sustainable DeFi innovation.
Additionally, Peregrine introduced a new gas cost refund mechanism for contract transactions. If you don’t use all of what you paid for making transactions, you now get 99% of it back. This means that whatever the payment amount made, minus whatever was the actual gas amount, which is the unspent amount, 99% of that will now be refunded and shown in the execution effects.
Speaking of cost efficiency, the release also introduced a reduction in the control flow opcode costs, further decreasing the financial barrier for executing smart contracts, including those essential for DeFi operations like token minting, transferring, and contract interactions.
To be more precise, installation costs require 95.03% of the gas previously needed. The minting process for your first, second, or third token, has been streamlined, with gas costs going down to 25.86%-25.95% of their former selves. Transferring tokens requires just 26.98% of the prior cost. Approvals and setting token metadata have also seen significant cost reductions, now at 23.76% and 21.81% respectively.
In short, the operating expenses (mint, transfer) on Casper are now cheaper by around 80%, while the upfront costs for installation are about ~5% cheaper.
The Peregrine release has optimized network performance while ensuring sustainable growth for DeFi projects without compromising on accessibility or affordability, and that’s not all that was included in the release.
Unboxing Casper’s Peregrine Release: More Flexibility for Better User Experience
Alongside improving the network’s performance and cost-effectiveness, Peregrine release gives more flexibility to builders.
A new feature for contract authors has been added, allowing reactivating specific versions of contracts even after they have been disabled. DeFi builders on Casper can now quickly revert to stable versions in case of an update that doesn’t go as planned, ensuring that their dApps can maintain continuous operation.
The introduction of the NoSync option is another enhancement included in the Peregrine release, allowing nodes to opt out of participating in historical data synchronization. DeFi projects on Casper can streamline their operations by reducing the resource burden on nodes that don’t require full historical data.
DeFi applications that focus on current transactions and states, like trading platforms, exchanges, yield and liquidity mining platforms, loan and borrowing platforms, and stablecoin protocols typically require real-time data but don’t necessarily need to access or store the entire history of the blockchain.
Querying account information on the network has also been made simpler. Whether you’re using a public key or an account hash, the network now supports an easier way to retrieve this information. Thanks to this simplification, DeFi applications on Casper can offer a smoother, more user-friendly experience. Users can easily access their account details, facilitate transactions, check balances, and manage their investments with minimal friction.
What is Next for Casper?
With the Peregrine release, Casper moves closer to realizing its vision of laying the groundwork for the dApps that will set the standards of tomorrow. Yet, the journey doesn’t end here. Casper’s evolution will continue with two major releases in 2024: Juliet and Condor. Juliet introduces a new networking layer, while Condor will unveil a new consensus mechanism named Zug, among other impactful enhancements.
To uncover more about Casper’s strategic direction and how it’s paving the way for future innovations, delve into Casper’s roadmap.
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