Vlad Zamfir is a blockchain developer and former Ethereum Foundation researcher who currently serves Ethereum research and development startup CasperLabs as Lead Consensus Protocol Architect. Born in Russia, Zamfir moved to the American continent early on in his life, studying at the University of Guelph. Prior to this work as a researcher for the Ethereum Foundation, Zamfir worked as a mathematics and statistics teacher in Canada. It was following his departure from the Ethereum Foundation that Zamfir was appointed the chief architect of CasperLabs.   

The CasperLabs team is currently spending much of its time and resources in developing solutions for the Casper Protocol, a much anticipated upgrade for the Ethereum network which is seen as being one of the most important upcoming upgrades for Ethereum, because it would bring a Proof-of-Stake protocol to the network. 

Zamfir has said that he believes Proof-of-Stake protocols are more secure than Proof-of-Work protocols, and has also stated that the Ethereum blockchain, as is, is not scalable and secure - though he did not say this as a slight, rather suggesting that Ethereum was an experimental technology that was still seeing improvement and that “critical mission applications” are best avoided on Ethereum. Despite this, and also saying that Bitcoin and Ethereum may not be able to upgrade their protocols, he still believes that Ethereum is safer than most blockchains. 

CasperLabs has received funding from the likes of ArringtonXP and Acuitas for its initiatives, raising $14.5 million in a Series A funding round. The startup’s particular approach to developing solutions for Casper is called Correct by Construction. This approach is described as providing scaling solutions without sacrificing decentralization, with the team using the WebAssembly standard to develop solutions.