FAQ

General

What is Kaspa? Kaspa is a proof-of-work cryptocurrency that uses a BlockDAG structure instead of a traditional blockchain. It processes 10 blocks per second with ~1 second confirmation times while maintaining the security properties of proof-of-work.

When did Kaspa launch? November 2021, with a fair launch — no pre-mine, no pre-sale, and no VC funding.

Who created Kaspa? Dr. Yonatan Sompolinsky, a researcher at Harvard whose academic work on DAG-based consensus protocols (PHANTOM and GHOSTDAG) provided the theoretical foundation.

Is there a Kaspa foundation or company? No. Kaspa is fully community-maintained with no central organization. Protocol changes go through the KIP (Kaspa Improvement Proposal) process on GitHub.

Technical

How is Kaspa different from Bitcoin? Both use proof-of-work and a UTXO transaction model. The key difference is that Kaspa uses a BlockDAG instead of a blockchain, which means all mined blocks are incorporated — none are orphaned. This allows for much higher block rates (10 BPS vs. Bitcoin’s one block every ~10 minutes) without sacrificing security.

How fast are transactions? Transactions confirm in approximately 1 second. The network produces 10 blocks per second after the Crescendo upgrade.

What mining algorithm does Kaspa use? k-HeavyHash, which is mined with dedicated ASICs from manufacturers like Bitmain and IceRiver. GPU and CPU mining are no longer competitive.

What is the maximum supply? 28.7 billion KAS. The emission follows a “chromatic halving” schedule where the block reward decreases smoothly each month, effectively halving once per year.

Ecosystem

What wallets support Kaspa? Kaspa NG (desktop/mobile), the CLI wallet, WASM-based web wallets, and ELLIPAL for hardware wallet support. SDKs are available in Rust, WASM, and Python.

Are there smart contracts on Kaspa? Kaspa is building toward programmability in stages. KRC-20 tokens are live on mainnet. SilverScript (a CashScript-inspired scripting layer) is on testnet TN12. Igra, a Swiss non-profit, is developing EVM-compatible rollups. vProgs (programmable virtual machines) are in prototype.

What is KRC-20? KRC-20 is a token inscription standard on Kaspa that allows creating and transferring tokens on the network. It is live on mainnet.

Network

What was the Crescendo upgrade? Crescendo was a hardfork activated on May 5, 2025, that increased Kaspa’s block rate from 1 BPS to 10 BPS. It also introduced several protocol improvements including a sparse difficulty adjustment algorithm, improved storage mass calculations, and new opcodes.

What is DAGKnight? DAGKnight (KIP-2) is a proposed consensus protocol upgrade that would make Kaspa’s confirmation times responsive — adapting automatically to network conditions. It would also increase Byzantine fault tolerance to 50%. DAGKnight has been proposed but is not yet implemented.