Ethereum 2.0 Development Firm CasperLabs Launches Blockchain

CasperLabs, which is helping to develop Ethereum’s of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system, has partnered with the crypto exchange BitMax to launch its PoS blockchain.

The Singapore-based crypto exchange BitMax is helping with CasperLabs’ Exchange Validator Offering (EVO) and it will operate a full node of the network at its launch to facilitate staking for retail sale participants. Retail investors will be able to buy the network’s CLX tokens.

The target capital raise is 3,000,000 USDT and CasperLabs will sell investors 10% of the total supply of 10 billion CLX. CasperLabs will put about 20% of the supply in circulation during the first year after the mainnet launch, which is expected to take place in Q3 2020.

CasperLabs is Looking for Funding

The firm will issue a validator round and all the purchased tokens including the EVO, that will be locked for 90 days after the mainnet launch.

The tokens will participate in validator staking and earn staking rewards during the lock period. When the lock period over, the token release will take place progressively over the next nine months at a rate of 1/38th per week.

The CLX will cost $0.01 per token during the EVO and would sell at a minimum bid price of $0.02 each in an eventual public sale would.

The reasoning behind the sale setup is also explained in the announcement:

“CasperLabs has made no token offerings to date and all funding has been conducted via a standard Series A equity financing. The decision not to sell tokens was based on ensuring open access to the underlying system. […] CasperLabs, together with BitMax.io, is taking a novel approach to challenging the status quo of staking power consolidation amongst institutions by conducting the industry’s first EVO.”

A New Platform for Development

Mrinal Manohar, the CEO of CasperLabs said the firm will primarily be a publisher of open-source software and does not plan to participate in the network in other ways other than hosting an EVO or operating a full node. The company is also working to make Ethereum’s smart contracts more scalable.

Also, the CEO said that CasperLabs has embraced open programming standards and support for programming languages that are not crypto-specific like Rust and AssemblyScript.

The support for other programming languages can be added by the dev team or the community, he added:

“We will not be EVM compatible or support solidity. We went the route toward fully embracing open programming standards. That being said, as Ethereum moves towards eWASM, this would be something that is reasonably easy to integrate into our contracting system as well.”

While Ethereum is already a viable transactional network that supports a number of platforms, it is growing all the time. CasperLabs is a part of the future of Ethereum, and its new blockchain may help to drive further decentralized innovation.