Kaspa is a cryptocurrency. It is the fastest, open-source, decentralized & fully scalable Layer-1 in the world. The world’s first blockDAG – a digital ledger enabling parallel blocks and instant transaction confirmation – built on a robust proof-of-work engine with rapid single-second block intervals.

Kaspa is a proof-of-work cryptocurrency which implements the GHOSTDAG protocol. Unlike traditional blockchains, GHOSTDAG does not orphan blocks created in parallel, but rather allows them to coexist and orders them in consensus. Whereby Kaspa is actually a blockDAG; you can see GHOSTDAG in action in a real time blockDAG visualizer.

This generalization of Nakamoto consensus allows for secure operation while maintaining very high block rates (currently one block per second, aiming for 32/sec, with visions of 100/sec) and minuscule confirmation times dominated by internet latency (cf. chapter 6 of the research paper for some initial benchmarks).

Visit this informative website about Kaspa at http://kaspa.org.

Video Explanations:

What is Kaspa?
Kaspa For Beginners

Kaspa was fairly launched on November 7, 2021. There was no premine and no allocated coins.

Kaspa's ticker is $KAS and is searchable on exchanges and social media.

Yonatan Sompolinsky founded Kaspa.

Learn about Yonatan here.

Here are some videos featuring Yonatan Sompolinsky on YouTube:
DAG Knight presentation - CESC Day 1 w/ Yonatan Sompolinsky
Rethink Trust 2018: Yonatan Sompolinsky, Interview
Yonatan Sompolinsky at Australian Crypto Convention
Uphold Institutional x Kaspa - Dr Martin Hiesboeck Interview with Yonatan Sompolinsky
Kaspa Israel Meetup - February 2024 - Part 3 of 4 - Yonatan Sompolinsky
Layer 1s Still Matter? Yonatan Sompolinskyi from Kaspa shares thoughts

Kaspa has a block time rate of one block per second, and the development team is currently working on a hard fork that will increase the speed up to 10 blocks per second. Yonatan Sompolinsky’s goal has been to reach at least 100 blocks per second.

You can look at an animation of the DAG visualizer here: https://kgi.kaspad.net/

Also, check out Kaspa Network Visualization and see how the DAG looks at different block speeds: https://macmachi.github.io/kaspa-network-visualizer/

Kaspa Graph Inspector also has a visual animation showing how Kaspa works: http://rustforce1.kaspa.org:8080/

Explore Kaspa's speed vs other Proof of Work (PoW) or Proof of Stake (PoS). Kaspa network is set to hardfork in April 2025 to accommodate 10 BPS. Further down the road, it will accommodate 100 BPS.

Block Speed Visualizer: https://kaspaspeed.com/

Satoshi's vision was to make people more free by creating a peer-to-peer electronic cash system that operates without intermediaries (banks, governments, or centralized entities). It ensures financial sovereignty, censorship resistance, and decentralization, allowing anyone to transact freely.

At the core of Nakamoto’s idea (it remains unknown whether they are a real person or a group of developers) was the goal of creating a decentralized electronic cash system independent of third parties. It would allow money to be sent directly, without intermediaries such as banks. Nakamoto wasn’t the first person (or people) to set out to create a decentralized system, but he is the first to have seen fit to use the proof-of-work consensus mechanism. (Source: https://tangem.com/en/blog/post/the-godfather-of-consensus-a-guide-to-proof-of-work/) 

A P2P (peer-to-peer) currency is a decentralized digital asset that allows direct transactions between individuals without intermediaries. It’s trustless, meaning no central party controls it, and transactions are verified by the network rather than a third party.

A system is scalable when it can handle a growing number of transactions efficiently without compromising speed, security, or decentralization. It should be fast, parallelized, and maintain low fees for everyone, everywhere.

• Be skeptical of unsolicited messages or offers.
• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
• Verify sources before clicking links or sending funds.
• Use well-known, trusted channels and community-verified resources.
• Never share private keys or seed phrases.
• DYOR (Do Your Own Research) before investing in anything.

From the KaspaWiki site, "Kaspa is currently only mineable with ASICs. Initially, it was possible to mine it with CPUs and even on mobile devices, and then with GPUs. However, those times have long since passed (they ended around mid-2023) because ASICs—specialized mining machines—have taken over most of the Kaspa network's hashrate. Technically, it is still possible to mine Kaspa with a GPU or even a CPU, but this endeavor results in a negative profit: you would end up paying more for electricity than you could possibly acquire by selling the mined Kaspa. Therefore, it is wiser to use the same money to directly buy Kaspa; this way, you will have more Kaspa in your possession."

For more information about how to get started mining Kaspa, visit: https://wiki.kaspa.org/en/mining

Articles:

How To Mine Kaspa: A Step-by-Step Guide
Understanding Kaspa Mining

The Kaspa Industrial Initiative (Kii) is a foundation committed to leveraging Kaspa’s high-performance Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG)-based Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to drive innovation and efficiency across key industrial and enterprise sectors. 

Kii is building a global network of companies, leaders and academics to champion the adoption of Kaspa’s next-generation platform.

Our aim is to position Kaspa as the ultimate base layer for various applications, fostering a robust ecosystem that unlocks unprecedented levels of scalability, security, and decentralisation for industrial and enterprise applications in finance, supply chain, energy, and the public sector, while promoting sustainable and ethical development.

For more information, check out Kaspa Industrial Initiative (Kii).

WarpCore is a special, easy-to-use middleware running on Kaspa’s cutting-edge blockDAG architecture, creates a direct pathway from established financial institutions to modern digital money networks—such as those running on blockchains—enabling banks and large financial companies to seamlessly plug in their existing systems and rules, send, receive, and manage digital assets without confusion or extra hassle, and adhere to global standards everyone can trust.

More than just a compliance tool or performance upgrade, WarpCore fundamentally rethinks how institutions engage in the digital economy; by uniting regulatory-grade standards with Kaspa’s highly scalable, decentralized network, it empowers financial institutions to operate confidently in a new era of global finance—making not just a step, but a leap into the future of digital assets without sacrificing trust, transparency, or performance.

Learn more at Kaspa Industrial Initiative: WarpCore.

Producers are currently fundraising to create a documentary about Kaspa titled Beyond the Blockchain: The Lore of Kaspa.

You can learn about it by watching this video:
A Look Into The Kaspa Documentary Being Created By Genesis Block Media

Documentary Proposal PDF
Community Funding Form
Community Contributor Form

For more information about the documentary, visit: https://www.genesisblockmedia.com

The Kaspa Ecosystem Foundation (KEF) provides funding, resources, and guidance. It upholds impartial principles to support the Kaspa ecosystem and advance its mission of becoming a widely used currency for everyday transactions.

KEF aims to collaborate with the community to promote the development, adoption, and sustainability of the Kaspa ecosystem, empowering individuals and organizations to leverage Kaspa technology for a robust and diversified ecosystem. A flourishing Kaspa ecosystem benefits all stakeholders. Miners gain from increased transaction activity. Holders enjoy speculative gains. Investors find opportunities in high-quality projects. Merchants boost sales with Kaspa’s expanding influence. KEF supports the Kaspa ecosystem through various means:

• Research Grants
• Developer Support/Hackathons
• Startup Incubation
• Merchant Integration

For more information, please visit the Kaspa Ecosystem Foundation's official website.

Kaspa utilizes the custom-built kHeavyhash mining algorithm. The kHeavyhash process is a matrix multiplication, sandwiched between two standard Keccak hashes (often referred to as SHA-3). This particular algorithm is computationally intensive – which enables Kaspa to be dual-mined alongside cryptocurrencies that utilize memory-intensive mining algorithms. Kaspa’s kHeavyhash is extensively supported by experienced & industry-leading kernel developers, and is integrated in numerous mining software solutions as standalone & dual-minable. Source: https://kaspa.network/mining/

The Nakamoto Consensus refers to the set of rules and mechanisms that allow a decentralized network to achieve agreement. Here’s a breakdown of its key features:

Proof-of-Work: At its core, the Nakamoto Consensus utilizes the proof-of-work algorithm, which requires participants (miners) to solve complex mathematical problems to validate transactions and create new blocks.

Decentralization: This consensus mechanism allows anyone to join the network and participate as a node, promoting a decentralized and permissionless environment.

Security and Integrity: By requiring significant computational effort to add new blocks, the Nakamoto Consensus helps secure the network against attacks, ensuring that altering any part of the blockchain would require an impractical amount of resources.

Chain Selection Rule: In the event of competing chains (forks), the Nakamoto Consensus dictates that the longest chain (the one with the most accumulated proof-of-work) is considered the valid one.

Innovation: It incorporates various innovative ideas that distinguish it from earlier digital currencies, making it a unique and robust protocol.

Articles:

What Is the Nakamoto Consensus? (Binance Blog)
What Is Nakamoto Consensus And How Does It Power Bitcoin?
What is Nakamoto Consensus? The Mechanism that Powers Bitcoin
What is Nakamoto Consensus? Securing Trust in Decentralization
Understanding the Nakamoto Consensus

Video Explanations:

Bitcoin FAQ: What is the Nakamoto Consensus? (Short video)
Cryptoeconomics - 3.2 - Bitcoin: Nakamoto Consensus (Longer video)
How does Nakamoto Consensus differ from Committee-Based Consensus?
Nakamoto Consensus and DAGKNIGHT w/ Yonatan Sompolinsky

According to Shai Deshe Wyborski: "Pruning" is the idea that it is unreasonable, unscalable, and ultimately centralized to require all full nodes to store all historical data indefinitely. "Rollups" are the idea that it is unreasonable, unscalable, and ultimately centralized to require full nodes to process the entire logic of the entire ecosystem just to verify its consistency. In both cases, finding an alternative that is comparably secure is very hard, but not impossible. In both cases, teams developing Kaspa and over Kaspa managed to provide such alternatives (standing on the shoulders of preexisting pieces of the puzzle like MLS and ZK). Immutable ledgers and on-chain computation are not the defaults. They are just compromises made due to lack of better solutions. Preferred just because they are the most conceptually simple solutions (despite this simplicity just delegating infinitely deep problems to other components, e.g. regulating processing via gas fees that are provably impossible to compute in the general case). A reality that has since changed, despite some people insisting to stay behind. Source: https://x.com/DesheShai/status/1895492007721685181

According to @KaspaFacts via X: Kaspa separates the Application Data and Consensus Data (at the pruning point). Application Data (UTXOs, account balances, and contract state) As old UTXO's are used up, they are no longer retained. Consensus Data (block headers) MLS adapted for DAG provides PoPoW without keeping ALL headers. Application Data only keeps living information. Consensus Data only keeps enough historical information to prove the work that has gone into the DAG up to the pruning point. Transactions go in the body. All the rest of the information about the block goes in the header (Parent, Mergeset, Miner, Links to previous blocks, etc.). The header is then hashed with a nonce to create a hash that is at least of the required difficulty. Source: https://x.com/KaspaFacts/status/1895521775255241006

Infographic source: https://x.com/KaspaFacts/status/1895528566181544083

Video:

Kaspa Pruning Explained
Kaspa Pruning
Kaspa Pruning Explained
KASPA PRUNING FUD DEBUNKED!! THIS IS WHY KASPA WILL BE NUMBER 1!! *MUST WATCH!*

Example:

This example was randomly pulled from the Block Explorer: https://explorer.kaspa.org/blocks/0059a769a07e82a1e9754ce8ced4a81b254c11f17859f15a4e3553b567025de5

No. You can read the full discussion about this on Telegram (view discussion here) and read what Kaspa developers are saying about KIP6 (Source: https://x.com/MichaelSuttonIL/status/1895152997149352000)

Cryptographic receipts (KIP6) will provide means to prove the existence of data retroactively, but it is the responsibility of whoever wants to retain it, not of the entire network to indefinitely store it for them. (Source: https://x.com/DesheShai/status/1895494539420283005)