KaspaKAS

Kaspa (KAS) is an open-source, decentralised Layer 1 network secured by Proof of Work. Its mainnet launched on 7 November 2021 without a premine, initial coin offering or preallocated coins. KAS is the network’s native cryptocurrency, used for transaction fees and distributed through mining rewards.

Kaspa uses a directed acyclic graph of blocks, known as a blockDAG. Its GHOSTDAG protocol allows blocks produced in parallel to coexist and establishes their ordering through consensus. This architecture is designed to support frequent block production while retaining permissionless mining and independent transaction verification.

The network uses the kHeavyHash mining algorithm. Following the Crescendo upgrade in May 2025, Kaspa increased its mainnet block rate from one to ten blocks per second. Rusty Kaspa provides the network’s Rust-based full-node implementation and related software libraries.

Kaspa’s emission schedule reduces mining rewards monthly, producing an approximate halving of the issuance rate each year. Total scheduled issuance is approximately 28.7 billion KAS, with small differences between published estimates arising from emission calculations and rounding.

The Toccata upgrade, activated on 30 June 2026, expanded Kaspa’s native programmability through covenants, transaction introspection and zero-knowledge proof verification. These features allow spending conditions and application state transitions to be enforced through programmable UTXOs. Developer tools supporting these capabilities continue to evolve.

The wider ecosystem includes self-custody wallets, block explorers, mining infrastructure, developer SDKs and community research channels. Protocol development and improvement proposals are published through open-source repositories and public technical discussions.