## What Is Casper (CSPR)?

Launched on mainnet on March 30, 2021, Casper is the first live proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain built off the Casper CBC specification. The Casper platform is designed to boost the adoption of [blockchain technology](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/blockchain), smart contracts, and DApps on a global scale.

With its future-proof architecture, Casper is designed to ensure the platform is continually developed according to the evolving needs of its users, and that it’s maximally accessible to developers of all backgrounds. As per the official whitepaper, Casper is optimized to suit both enterprise and developer needs. Casper’s mission is to usher in a new era for Web3, as demand for intuitive, interconnected services continues to grow across the board. Casper does so by solving the adoption trilemma: offering enterprise-grade security, scalability and decentralization all within the same blockchain protocol.

## Who Are the Founders of Casper?

### Medha Parlikar, Co-Founder and CTO

Medha is one of the co-founders of CasperLabs and serves as its CTO. She started working with technology in the early 80’s, building computers in her basement. Since then, she has sent the past two decades delivering production SaaS software for major corporations such as Adobe, Omniture, and Avalara. In addition to her technical proficiencies, Medha’s strengths include building high functioning technical teams and inspiring them to deliver solutions that solve customer problems.

### Mrinal Manohar, Co-Founder and CEO

Mrinal has an extensive career as both a computer programmer and a finance professional. Before founding Casper, Mrinal was a Principal and the Technology/Media/Telecom Sector Head at Sagard Capital, a Private Equity Associate at Bain Capital, and an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company. In addition to his professional contributions to the blockchain industry, Mrinal has been personally investing in the sector since 2012 as a seed investor in Ethereum, Blockstack, Basis, Maker, Filecoin, and more.

## What Makes Casper Unique?

Casper is a unique utilization of blockchain technology and the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus method. Because of its completely decentralized approach, the network is extremely versatile in terms of use cases. Not only that, Casper boasts a future-proof design, with upgradeable smart contracts and predictable gas fees for transactions. Additionally, Casper is introducing a new standard for blockchain energy consumption, and is [136,000% more energy-efficient than Bitcoin](https://blog.casperlabs.io/new-power-usage-report-shows-the-casper-networks-impressive-energy-efficiency-relative-to-other-blockchain-protocols).

The innovative Correct-by-Construction (CBC) Casper specification is a remarkable feature of the network. This specification allows for the rapid adoption of blockchain services on all enterprise levels. By relying on the PoS consensus, Casper ensures scalability and database management solutions. Casper and the CSPR token are the result of years of research by CasperLabs.

Further, CasperLabs exists to provide enterprise-level services and support for organizations building on the Casper Network, similar to how Red Hat supports organizations building within the Linux ecosystem. Thanks to the team’s unique experience running services at enterprise software organizations like Adobe, Avalara and Google, CasperLabs is uniquely poised to elevate Casper as the de facto blockchain for the growing number of enterprise organizations that want to build in Web3 environments, but require more dedicated levels of support than are possible from open-source, decentralized projects.

## How Many Casper Coins (CSPR) Are There in Circulation?

The initial circulating supply of CSPR breaks down as follows:

* 400M CSPR released from the freely traded tranche of Casper’s Public Sale on [Coinlist](http://coinlist.co/casper).
* Approximately 183M CSPR provided as liquidity to exchanges
* The portion of seigniorage estimated to be allocated to the released tokens above to date. This number updates in real time as seigniorage is issued.

Additional tranches of CSPR are held by various ecosystem participants, including Validator Node operators, the Casper Foundation, the Team and Advisors, the DAO in charge of Developer Incentives and CasperLabs AG, as shown in the chart below.

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## How Is the Casper Network Secured?

The Casper Network relies on a PoS consensus mechanism for its network security. PoS depends on token staking to select node validators, which allows the consensus to be extremely versatile and scalable. Unlike the proof-of-work ([PoW](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/proof-of-work-pow)) consensus used by the Bitcoin blockchain, PoS does not require huge amounts of electrical or computing power to perform validations and to add new blocks to the chain.

Casper also employs the Correct-by-Construction (CBC) Casper specification, which utilizes an upgraded approach to Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) applications. Casper’s enterprise-grade architecture has completed multiple security audits, most recently with Trail of Bits in January 2021, which found zero high severity results and confirmed that Casper “showed proper use of security hygiene.”

## Where Can You Buy Casper Coins (CSPR)?

CSPR is available for trading on a growing number of exchanges, with a number of [stablecoin](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-a-stablecoin) trading pairs currently available. [Huobi Global](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/huobi-global/) is currently the most active platform for trading CSPR, and other available exchanges include:

* [OKEx](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/okex/)
* [Gate.io](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/gate-io/)
* [Coinlist Pro](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/coinlist-pro/)
* [ZB](https://coinmarketcap.com/exchanges/zb-com/)