The fastest proof-of-work · blockDAG

Kaspa, at its best.

Kaspa keeps Bitcoin's proof-of-work but trades the single-file chain for a blockDAG — blocks are mined in parallel and ordered by GHOSTDAG, so it runs fast without giving up security. Consider this the friendly, hands-on tour its (famously fanatic) community wishes everyone got: crank the visualizer to 100 blocks a second, mine a block, race a transaction, and see what the fuss is about.

Track KAS price on Luck.fyi → Why fans call it the best ↓

"Best" here means the technology Kaspa fans love — not a claim that it's the best investment. Nothing on this site is financial advice.

Fair launch · 0% premine10 BPS live since 2025~10s to full security
blue set (ordered)red (out of order)
Speed
~10 blocks/sec
KAS price
—
live on deploy
Market cap
—
CoinGecko
Circulating
—
of 28.7B max
Block speed
10 BPS
~100 ms blocks
DAA score
—
virtual height
Hashrate
—
kHeavyHash PoW
KaspaKAS
—
Loading chart…
Source: CoinGecko · info only, not financial advice. Track more crypto prices →
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kaspa.best, literally

Why fans call Kaspa "the best".

Ask the Kaspa community — some of the most devoted in all of crypto — and you'll get a list. Here's the honest, technical version of why, plus a clear note on what "best" does and doesn't mean.

⚡ Fastest PoW, by far

10 blocks per second today (100 ms each), with 32 and 100 on the roadmap — the quickest proof-of-work network running. Seconds to confirm, not minutes.

🪂 Truly fair launch

No premine, no ICO, no VC, no team or foundation allocation. Every KAS was mined. For purists, the cleanest start since Bitcoin itself.

🕸️ It scales the chain itself

GHOSTDAG keeps every parallel block instead of orphaning it, so speed rises without weakening the 51% security assumption. That's the headline innovation.

🔓 Open & decentralized

Open-source and community-funded, with no gatekeepers. Development happens in the open on GitHub; anyone can mine, run a node, or build.

🪙 Sound, smooth money

A hard cap near 28.7B and a reward that halves yearly in tiny monthly steps — deflationary by design, without Bitcoin's abrupt four-year cliffs.

🧠 Serious pedigree

Founded by Yonatan Sompolinsky, whose earlier GHOST research influenced Ethereum. The DAGKnight protocol pushes the science further still.

To be clear about "best": we mean the technology and principles this community is passionate about — speed, fairness, and the blockDAG design. We are not saying Kaspa is the best cryptocurrency to buy, or that its price will rise. Crypto is volatile and risky, every project has trade-offs, and nothing here is financial advice. Always do your own research.
The 30-second version

What is Kaspa?

Kaspa (ticker KAS) is the first cryptocurrency to run the GHOSTDAG/PHANTOM protocol in production — a generalization of Bitcoin's consensus that turns the chain into a directed acyclic graph of blocks. Same proof-of-work trust; dramatically more throughput.

Founded by Yonatan Sompolinsky Launched 7 Nov 2021 Consensus GHOSTDAG (PoW) Mining kHeavyHash Model UTXO, like Bitcoin 1 sompi = 0.00000001 KAS No premine · ICO · VC

The BlockDAG, in 3D

Unlike a single chain, Kaspa lets blocks be created in parallel and reference multiple parents — so throughput scales without orphaning work. Drag to orbit, hover a block to inspect it, and watch confirmations sweep through.

Speed
Zoom
Loading 3D visualizer…
Tool · proof-of-work

Mine a block in your browser.

Proof-of-work is just guess-and-check: change a number (the nonce), hash the block, and hope the hash starts with enough zeros. Pick a difficulty and watch your device hammer away — exactly what miners do millions of times a second.

Target 0000…
Avg attempts to solve ~65,536

Simplified demo using SHA-256 in your browser. Kaspa's real algorithm is kHeavyHash, but the guess-and-check idea is identical.

Ready
Press start and your browser will try millions of nonces, looking for a hash that begins with the required zeros…
Hashrate
0 H/s
Attempts
0
Elapsed
0.0s
The core idea

A chain holds one block at a time. A DAG holds many.

In a normal blockchain, two blocks found at once compete — one wins, the other is orphaned, and that wasted work caps how fast you can safely go. Kaspa lets every valid block in and orders them afterwards. (Scroll back up and crank the visualizer to 100 BPS to see it.)

Traditional blockchain

  • One block per height — a single file
  • Parallel blocks become orphans; work is wasted
  • Faster blocks = more orphans = less security
  • Bitcoin: 1 block / 10 min, ~60 min to settle

Kaspa blockDAG

  • Each block references many parents
  • No valid block is ever discarded — no orphans
  • Speed scales without sacrificing 51% security
  • 10 blocks / sec · ~1s first confirm · ~10s full
Tool · settlement speed

Race a transaction: Kaspa vs Ethereum vs Bitcoin.

Same payment, three networks. Watch how long each takes to reach a confident confirmation. Time is simulated and compressed, but the ratios are real.

Simulated elapsed: 0.0s
⚡ Kaspa~1 sec
✓ confirmed
♦ Ethereum~15 sec / block
✓ confirmed
₿ Bitcoin~10 min / block
✓ confirmed

Kaspa reaches a first confirmation in about a second and full probabilistic security (comparable to ~6 Bitcoin confirmations) in roughly ten seconds.

How the DAG stays in order

GHOSTDAG: keep every block, agree on the order.

GHOSTDAG identifies the well-connected, honest blocks — the blue set — and orders them first, then slots the rest in deterministically. Every node lands on the same history, and an attacker can't cheaply reorder it.

🧩 Many parents

A block points to every tip it can see, weaving the DAG together instead of picking one winner.

🔵 The blue set

Cooperative, well-connected blocks are coloured "blue" and ordered first; isolated or adversarial "red" blocks come after.

🛡️ Bitcoin-grade trust

The same 51% proof-of-work assumption holds — GHOSTDAG just removes the speed ceiling that orphaning imposed.

Mainnet hardfork · 5 May 2025

Crescendo took Kaspa from 1 → 10 blocks per second.

Block time dropped 1000 ms → 100 ms. The per-block reward fell 55 → 5.5 KAS — but with 10× more blocks, total emission is unchanged. It also shipped the storage-mass solution (KIP-9), introspection opcodes (KIP-10) and transaction payloads (KIP-14) that lay the groundwork for smart contracts, completing the move to the Rusty Kaspa client.

10×
faster (1→10 BPS)
100 ms
target block time
5.5
KAS reward / block
5
KIPs activated
Upcoming hardfork · the next movement

Toccata: Kaspa becomes a programmable Layer 1.

If Crescendo was about speed, Toccata is about programmability. It turns Kaspa from a fast payment rail into a full smart-contract platform — native tokens, covenant scripting and zero-knowledge verification, all on the proof-of-work base layer, with no new virtual machine. It activates automatically at DAA score 474,165,565 — targeted for around 30 June 2026.

Native
KRC-20 tokens on L1
SilverScript
smart-contract language
ZK
native proof verification
95%+
supply already circulating

🚀 Core innovations

  • Covenants++ — recursive spending rules and advanced transaction introspection.
  • SilverScript — a native, highly efficient language for building Kaspa smart contracts.
  • Native tokens (KRC-20) — scalable token issuance built directly into the Layer 1 base.
  • ZK-proof verification — a native OpZkPrecompile to verify off-chain zero-knowledge proofs.

⛏️ Miner & pool requirements

  • Software updates — pools must support the new Transaction v1 structures.
  • New fee formula — a base fee of 100 sompi × max(compute grams, 2 × tx bytes).
  • Revenue sustainability — fee mechanics help support miner revenue as block emission declines.

⚙️ Node operators & infrastructure

  • Required client — migrate to the latest Rusty Kaspa core-engine release.
  • Zero database wipe — backward compatible; no full resync required.
  • Activation — launches automatically at DAA score 474,165,565 (≈ 30 June 2026).

📈 Ecosystem & tokenomics impact

  • True programmability — from a fast payment layer to a complete L1 ecosystem: DeFi, NFTs, apps.
  • Fair-launch advantage — smart contracts arrive on a chain with over 95% of supply already circulating, so there's no insider unlock overhang.
Upgrade status note. Toccata is an announced, DAA-triggered hardfork; the calendar date is a projection from the activation DAA score and can shift, and final parameters are set by the Kaspa developers. Verify against official sources before relying on any detail. Nothing here is financial advice.
Layer 2 · live now

Igra: EVM smart contracts on Kaspa, today.

Toccata makes the base layer programmable — but Kaspa fans don't have to wait for smart contracts. Igra Network, an independent project from Igra Labs, already delivers them as a decentralized, EVM-compatible Layer 2 built on Kaspa's proof-of-work blockDAG. It reached public mainnet in 2026, finally giving Kaspa's large user base somewhere to actually do DeFi.

EVM compatible 3,000+ TPS Sub-second inclusion iKAS gas (1:1 KAS) Audited by Sigma Prime

🔁 A "based" rollup

Kaspa miners sequence Igra's transactions directly, so ordering and data availability come from the L1 itself — there's no separate centralized sequencer to trust.

🛡️ MEV-resistant by design

Miners order transactions without seeing their contents, resisting front-running, censorship and MEV at the protocol level rather than as an app-layer patch.

⛽ Fuelled by iKAS

KAS wraps 1:1 to iKAS through a trust-minimized bridge backed by KAS locked on the L1, and iKAS pays the gas for every Igra transaction.

⚡ Built for DeFi

3,000+ TPS and sub-second inclusion, riding Kaspa's 10 BPS DAG. Launch partners include Kaskad (Aave-style lending), ZealousSwap (a DEX) and Hyperlane (cross-chain + stablecoins).

🧪 Battle-tested

Its testnet processed 730,000+ transactions across 21M blocks with zero state divergence, and a Sigma Prime security audit completed clean before mainnet.

🤖 Agent-ready roadmap

Igra Labs plans a second-generation engine with Block-STM parallel execution and machine-to-machine payment infrastructure in the second half of 2026.

igralabs.com
Official Igra Network site↗ Explore tokens & KRC-20
kas.fyi↗
Heads-up: Igra is an independent, third-party network — not the Kaspa L1 or core team — and it's young. Bridging KAS to iKAS and using new DeFi protocols carries smart-contract and bridge risk, and funds can be lost. Verify every contract and URL yourself, start small, and remember nothing here is financial advice.
Tool · tokenomics

Explore the "chromatic" emission.

Kaspa caps supply at 28.7 billion KAS. After a short pre-deflationary phase it entered the chromatic phase: the reward shrinks every month by (½)^(1/12), so it halves once a year — but smoothly, in twelve tiny steps. Drag through time to see it.

Block reward then —
Approx. supply mined —
% of 28.7B cap —

Illustrative model built from Kaspa's real chromatic formula. The live circulating figure is pulled from a public API up top.

Cumulative supply approaching the 28.7B cap. The marker tracks your slider.
Tool · units

KAS · sompi · USD converter.

Like Bitcoin has satoshis, Kaspa has sompi — and there are 100,000,000 of them in one KAS. Type in any box; the others update. USD uses the live price when available.

KAS
sompi
USD
Full price & charts on Luck.fyi →
Tool · self-custody

Kaspa seed phrase & paper wallet generator.

Kaspa wallets use the same BIP39 standard as Bitcoin — 12 or 24 words that are your wallet. Generate a valid phrase with real entropy and a SHA-256 checksum, entirely in your browser, then lay it onto a printable Kaspa recovery sheet. Nothing is ever sent anywhere.

⚠️For learning & testing only. Never secure real KAS with a phrase generated on any website — including this one. For real funds, generate your phrase on a hardware wallet, offline. See Safety below.
Choose 12 or 24 words, then tap Generate phrase 🎲
🪙

Turn it into a printable paper wallet

Same length toggle above. Pick a theme, generate, then save as an image or print. It stays blurred until you tap to reveal.

Card theme
Add an optional name, then tap Make paper wallet 🪙

✓ Great for

  • Learning how Kaspa seed phrases and backups actually work, hands-on.
  • Demos, recovery practice, and test funds.
  • A clean, printable template you fill in by hand from a hardware wallet.

✕ Never for real savings

  • Saving the image can sync to cloud photos; malware can read files and screenshots.
  • Shared or networked printers may keep a copy in memory.
  • For real KAS, generate on an offline hardware wallet and never let the phrase touch a connected device.
Anyone who can read these words owns the wallet. This generator runs entirely in your browser — nothing is sent, logged or stored — which makes generating and viewing genuinely private. But "safe to generate" is not "safe to guard real savings with." Treat a real paper wallet like cash you can't cancel: keep it offline, private, and backed up in more than one safe place. No exchange, wallet or "support agent" will ever legitimately ask for your phrase — every such request is a scam.
Sound money

Tokenomics at a glance.

28.7B max

Hard-capped supply (~29B in code). Over 95% is already circulating, with the rest minted on a smooth declining schedule.

0% insiders

No premine, no ICO, no VC, no team or foundation allocation. Every KAS was mined — the same fair-launch ethos as early Bitcoin.

Smooth halving

The reward halves yearly via tiny monthly cuts of (½)^(1/12) — deflationary, but without Bitcoin's four-year cliffs.

Tool · test yourself

The Kaspa quiz.

Six questions. No pressure — each answer comes with the why.

—
Jargon, decoded

Tap a card to flip it.

BlockDAG

tap to flip

A directed acyclic graph of blocks — parallel blocks coexist instead of forming one chain, so none are wasted.

GHOSTDAG

tap to flip

The consensus that orders all those parallel blocks into one agreed history by finding the well-connected "blue" set.

kHeavyHash

tap to flip

Kaspa's proof-of-work algorithm, based on matrix multiplication — mined by GPUs, FPGAs and ASICs.

Sompi

tap to flip

Kaspa's smallest unit, like a satoshi. 1 KAS = 100,000,000 sompi.

Crescendo

tap to flip

The May 2025 hardfork that lifted the network from 1 to 10 blocks per second.

DAGKnight

tap to flip

A next-generation, parameterless consensus under research, aiming for even faster, safer ordering.

UTXO

tap to flip

The "unspent output" accounting model Kaspa shares with Bitcoin — coins are discrete chunks, not balances.

KRC-20

tap to flip

Kaspa's token standard — becoming a native Layer 1 feature with the Toccata upgrade.

SilverScript

tap to flip

Kaspa's native high-level smart-contract language, compiling straight to Kaspa script — no separate VM.

Toccata

tap to flip

The upcoming hardfork that brings native tokens, covenant scripting and ZK verification — Kaspa's programmable-L1 moment.

Igra

tap to flip

An independent EVM Layer 2 on Kaspa, bringing Ethereum-style smart contracts and DeFi today, with KAS bridged 1:1 to iKAS for gas.

Where it's going

From a fast coin to a programmable settlement layer.

Fair launch & 1 BPS Done · 2021

Mainnet live with GHOSTDAG, no premine, kHeavyHash mining.

Rusty Kaspa rewrite Done

The Go client reimplemented in Rust for the performance to scale block rates.

Crescendo — 10 BPS Done · May 2025

100 ms blocks; KIP-9/10/13/14/15 activated, enabling payloads for smart contracts.

Higher block rates Future

The push from 10 toward 32 and 100 BPS as Rusty Kaspa and the network mature.

DAGKnight consensus Research

A next-gen, parameterless consensus targeting even faster, safer ordering under heavy load.

Securing the network

Mining with kHeavyHash.

Kaspa uses kHeavyHash, a matrix-multiplication PoW. It mined first on GPUs, then FPGAs, and is now in the ASIC era (e.g. IceRiver). The high block rate makes solo and small-scale mining far more viable than on slow chains.

GPU → ASIC

Started GPU-friendly; specialized ASICs now lead hashrate, with GPUs still mining smaller setups and testnets.

Solo-friendly

Blocks land every fraction of a second, so reward variance is low — small miners earn steadier income.

Energy profile

kHeavyHash is built for efficient parallelization; like all PoW, real impact depends on hardware and energy source.

Look inside the DAG

Explorers & ecosystem.

Watch blocks land in parallel, then grab a wallet and find KAS on the market.

kas.fyi Top pick
Explorer + tokens + analytics↗ Kaspa Explorer
Blocks & transactions↗ BlockDAG visualizer
Official live DAG view↗ REST API
Programmatic network data↗
Hold KAS

Wallets.

KAS is a UTXO coin — self-custody and hold your own keys. Download only from official sources.

Tangem 10% off
Hardware cold storage · our pick↗ Kaspium
Popular mobile wallet↗ KasWare
Browser extension · KRC-20↗ Kaspa NG / KDX
Desktop full-node wallet↗
Buy & trade KAS

Where to get KAS.

Two exchanges that list KAS — use whichever is available where you live. Listings change, so always verify before depositing.

Buy KAS on WEEX → Buy KAS on BTCC →

Exchange and hardware-wallet links are referral links — using them may earn kaspa.best a commission at no extra cost to you. They're not endorsements, and nothing here is financial advice.

Getting started

How to get KAS.

Get a wallet

Install an open-source Kaspa wallet and back up your seed phrase offline.

Buy on an exchange

Get KAS on WEEX or BTCC, whichever is available where you live.

Buy & withdraw

Purchase KAS, then withdraw to your own address — not your keys, not your coins.

Track it

Follow the live price, charts and history on Luck.fyi.

Not financial advice. Crypto is highly volatile and you can lose some or all of your money. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell. Do your own research, verify every URL and contract, and only risk what you can afford to lose.
Standards & trust

Accurate, sourced, and honest about what this is.

🔎 Independent

An unaffiliated educational hub. We don't sell KAS, custody funds, or give financial advice — we explain how Kaspa works and link you to the official sources.

📚 Sourced

Facts here track Kaspa's own documentation, the GHOSTDAG/PHANTOM research and the Crescendo KIPs. Verify anything against the references below.

🧮 Reproducible

Every tool runs in open client-side JavaScript — the miner really hashes, the emission curve uses Kaspa's real chromatic formula. No black boxes.

Sources & further reading

kaspa.org↗ Kaspa Wiki↗ Developer docs↗ Rusty Kaspa (GitHub)↗ KIPs (Crescendo)↗

Last reviewed June 2026 · Maintained by kaspa.best · Spotted an error? It should be corrected — always verify against official sources before acting.

Straight answers

Kaspa FAQ.

Is Kaspa just another Bitcoin clone?
No. It keeps Bitcoin's proof-of-work, UTXO model and fair-launch ethos, but replaces the single-file chain with a blockDAG ordered by GHOSTDAG — running thousands of times faster while keeping the same security assumption.
What was the Crescendo upgrade?
A May 2025 mainnet hardfork that raised the network from 1 to 10 blocks per second (100 ms blocks), cut the per-block reward 10× to keep total emission flat, and activated KIPs that enable transaction payloads for smart contracts.
How many KAS will there ever be?
A maximum of ~28.7 billion (hard cap ~29B in code). Over 95% is already in circulation, and the rest is minted on a smooth schedule that halves the block reward each year.
Did the team or VCs get coins?
No. There was no premine, no ICO, and no allocation to founders, a foundation or venture capital. Every KAS was mined; development is funded by donations and miners.
What is the Toccata upgrade?
Toccata is Kaspa's upcoming hardfork that adds native programmability to the base layer: native KRC-20 tokens, covenant scripting via the SilverScript language (Covenants++), and zero-knowledge proof verification — all without a separate virtual machine. It activates automatically at DAA score 474,165,565, targeted for around June 2026, and notably brings smart contracts to a chain whose supply is already over 95% circulating.
Does Kaspa have smart contracts?
Two ways. On Layer 2, the independent Igra Network already runs EVM smart contracts on top of Kaspa today. At the base layer, the upcoming Toccata hardfork (targeted ~June 2026) adds native KRC-20 tokens, SilverScript covenant scripting and ZK verification — making the L1 itself programmable while keeping proof-of-work.
What is Igra?
Igra Network is an independent, EVM-compatible Layer 2 from Igra Labs, built as a "based rollup" on Kaspa's proof-of-work blockDAG. It brings Ethereum-style smart contracts and DeFi to Kaspa now, with KAS wrapped 1:1 to iKAS as the gas token, and reached public mainnet in 2026. It's a separate project from the Kaspa L1 and carries its own third-party, early-stage risks.
Is this an official Kaspa site?
No — this is an independent, community-built demo hub for learning, not affiliated with the Kaspa project. Always verify against official sources like kaspa.org.
Kaspa paper wallet