CasperLabs announces Vlad Zamfir collaboration

Earlier this year, Ethereum Foundation researcher Vlad Zamfir announced that he was in talks with Casper Labs, a R&D startup funded by ADAPtive Holdings, to work on the development of his Casper proof-of-stake solution.

And now CasperLabs has confirmed his appointment as Lead Consensus Protocol Architect.

“Blockchain technology has created an opportunity for protocol to solve problems that previously required more reliance on corporations and more trust in authority. The tech is still nascent, and it’s possible that protocols deployed today will not fulfill the promise of blockchain technology,” said Zamfir, who once famously caused a stir when he stated that Ethereum was not safe, scalable and was an immature technology.

He went on to stress his belief in the possibility of decentralised, scalable, and secure public proof-of-stake consensus protocols that are much more usable and secure than existing blockchains, and which will eventually make mining and Nakamoto consensus obsolete. “However, I am not sure if the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchain communities are going to be able to upgrade their protocols.”

Zamfir concluded: “I’m excited that CasperLabs has taken an interest in implementing a scalable blockchain protocol from the CBC Casper family of protocols, and hope that their efforts are both independently successful and put pressure on other projects (like Ethereum) to adopt the technology. I am very grateful for CasperLabs’ support of my research and look forward to working with them to see it become a reality.”

Further info here.

‘lol at crypto journalism’

Zamfir has not been happy at some of the reporting of his CasperLabs gig, in particular the claim that he would be stepping back from Ethereum.