Kaspa (KAS)

Kaspa (KAS) is a proof-of-work Layer-1 cryptocurrency built on a BlockDAG, a generalisation of the traditional blockchain that allows multiple blocks to be produced and confirmed in parallel rather than in a single linear chain. The network uses the GHOSTDAG consensus protocol, a successor to the earlier PHANTOM paper, which orders parallel blocks into a deterministic sequence without discarding orphans. KAS is mined with the kHeavyHash algorithm and was designed to deliver near-instant transaction confirmation on a fully decentralised, permissionless network.

Kaspa launched its mainnet in November 2021 as a fair launch: no premine, no ICO, no founder allocation, and no insider distribution. The project is maintained by an independent community of developers and contributors operating under the Kaspa Foundation, with development direction set through public proposals rather than centralised governance. Since launch, the network has gone through several throughput upgrades, raising the block rate from one block per second towards the ten-blocks-per-second target enabled by the Crescendo hardfork.

KAS has a fixed maximum supply of roughly 28.7 billion coins, distributed through a deflationary emission curve that approximates a smooth geometric decay rather than discrete halvings. Circulating supply currently sits near 27.4 billion, meaning emission is well past its peak. The token is used to pay transaction fees and as a payment asset, with no built-in smart contract layer at the base protocol level. A Layer-2 environment with EVM compatibility is in active development. The official explorer at kaspa.stream, the wiki at wiki.kaspa.org, and the GHOSTDAG paper linked below are the main references for verifying network state and protocol details.