ZUG, SWITZERLAND, May 12th, 2026, Chainwire
Nine protocol initiatives that target EVM compatibility, gasless transactions, compliant security tokens, transaction privacy, AI agent micropayments, and quantum-safe cryptography
The Casper Association today published the Casper Manifest, a multi-year technical roadmap designed to make Casper Network the infrastructure layer for regulated real-world asset tokenization and the emerging machine-to-machine economy.
Building on major protocol releases delivered since mid-2025, including Casper 2.0 with deterministic finality and a multi-VM execution layer, the Manifest sets out nine coordinated initiatives around one goal: making blockchain frictionless for users, trusted by institutions, and native for machines. The roadmap brings EVM compatibility to Casper’s WebAssembly foundation, advances gasless transactions and smart accounts for simpler user experiences, and expands the compliance, privacy, micropayment, native token, and quantum-safe infrastructure needed for real-world assets and autonomous systems to operate with greater predictability and less friction.
Building the Infrastructure for Regulated Assets and Autonomous Systems
The nine core initiatives outlined in the Casper Manifest are organized around the following areas:
Access for every developer. The largest blockchain developer ecosystem builds on Ethereum tooling - Solidity, MetaMask, and thousands of audited smart contract libraries. Casper is adding full Ethereum Virtual Machine compatibility alongside its existing WebAssembly execution engines, so developers can bring their existing contracts, tools, and wallets to Casper without modification. A native token registry provides equal access to tokens from either side. One chain, two execution environments, zero fragmentation.
Blockchain that’s frictionless for the user. Someone else pays your transaction fees. Multiple steps collapse into a single action. You sign in with your fingerprint instead of managing cryptographic keys. The Casper Manifest delivers gasless transactions, batch operations, and smart accounts that enable biometric authentication - so using a blockchain application feels like using any other app.
Compliance and privacy as one system. Casper will be the first Layer 1 where regulatory compliance and transaction privacy are designed to work together. Compliant security tokens with on-chain identity verification, transfer restrictions, and jurisdictional controls - built in alignment with the ERC-3643 standard that already governs $28 billion in tokenized assets on chain. As a member of the ERC-3643 Association, Casper Association is helping to expand the standard. Alongside compliance, a multi-phase privacy roadmap delivers confidential transactions with fixed, predictable costs - and built-in tools for auditors and regulators to verify compliance without exposing transaction details to the public. Privacy and compliance as two sides of the same system, designed for the $16 trillion real-world asset tokenization market.
Native infrastructure for the machine economy. AI agents need to pay for services programmatically - per API call, per data query, per computation - without subscriptions, invoices, or human intermediaries. As a member of the X402 Foundation, Casper is implementing the X402 open payment standard, enabling machines to pay each other over HTTP in stablecoins and other fungible tokens, expecting to become the first WebAssembly-native Layer 1 with production X402 support. The same smart accounts and gasless infrastructure built for human users give AI agents scoped spending permissions and autonomous operation out of the box, providing best-in-class controls and compliance for AI agents.
Tokens as first-class citizens. User-created tokens on most blockchains are smart contracts that cost significantly more to operate than native currencies. Casper's Native Token Registry elevates every token to protocol-level status with the same fixed, predictable costs as native transfers. One pricing model for all tokens. One infrastructure layer shared across WebAssembly, EVM and any other future execution environment on Casper Network. The backbone for everything from DeFi to compliant security tokens to private, confidential transfers.
Quantum-safe from the start. No major smart contract platform has shipped post-quantum transaction signing. Casper will, with hybrid accounts that carry both classical and quantum-resistant keys during a transition period. For institutions evaluating blockchain platforms for decade-long deployments, the answer to "what happens when quantum computers arrive" will be production code, not a research paper.
“Much of the industry is focused on either maximizing hype, or iterating on concepts that service the same existing, crypto-native use cases. Few are building the infrastructure that will onboard the next billion users, the next trillion dollars in tokenized assets, or the first billion machines,” said Michael Steuer, President and CTO of the Casper Association. “Executing the Casper Manifest means that developers can bring over their entire EVM stack. For users, blockchain should be invisible. One tap. Done. For institutions, Casper’s roadmap provides on-chain compliance, transaction privacy and quantum safety. And machines need payment rails that don’t require a human, while being bound to spending limits set by their owners on their smart accounts. That’s the future-proof infrastructure Casper is putting in place.”
Timeline
The nine initiatives do not ship all at once. The first, X402 micropayments, is expected to ship in the next few weeks. Later in 2026, Casper will ship EVM compatibility, networking hardening, and compliant security tokens. This will be followed by the Native Token Registry, Gasless transactions, batch operations, and smart accounts. Transaction privacy and quantum safety build on the earlier initiatives, through 2027. Formal protocol enhancement proposals for each initiative will be published.
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