Kaspa

The project was founded by Yonatan Sompolinsky, who is also one of the authors of the GHOSTDAG protocol, which serves as Kaspa’s underlying consensus mechanism.

Origins and Launch

Kaspa's origins can be traced back to the research work of Yonatan Sompolinsky and Aviv Zohar, who co-authored the foundational GhostDAG whitepaper in 2013. The paper outlined the theoretical concept of a DAG-based blockchain designed to address scalability concerns. However, the initial concept was not immediately implemented into a working blockchain.

Several years later, a team of anonymous developers initiated the development of the Kaspa project based on Sompolinsky and Zohar's research. The mainnet officially went live in December 2021, marking the beginning of Kaspa's operational history.

Mining and Hardware Evolution

Initially, mining was performed exclusively on CPUs for the first month after the mainnet launch. By early December 2021, a community member released the first open-source GPU mining software for Kaspa. GPUs and later FPGAs remained the primary mining hardware for around one and a half years. On April 13, 2023, ASIC miners for Kaspa were introduced, marking a significant shift in the mining landscape.

Emission Rate and Halving

Kaspa has a fixed maximum supply of 28.7 billion KAS, similar to Bitcoin. The emission rate gradually reduces through a unique monthly adjustment mechanism, aiming for a 50% reduction every year. This reduction is achieved by multiplying the emission rate by a factor of (1/2)^(1/12) each month, effectively halving the annual emission rate over a period of 12 months.

Price History and Performance

Kaspa has seen significant price growth over the past year. It began rallying in early 2023, tripling in price from $0.01 to $0.03 before pulling back. The price continued to rise, with a massive surge in interest in December 2023, resulting in a 100% spike from $0.05 to $0.1. The token hit a new all-time high of $0.189 in February 2024.

Key Features and Goals

Kaspa aims to disrupt the blockchain space by providing significantly higher scalability and transaction speeds compared to traditional blockchains. It claims to hold the answers to the so-called blockchain trilemma, which argues that one of the main obstacles facing the technology is the inability to maintain decentralization, scalability, and security simultaneously. Kaspa's native KAS token has become a multi-billion dollar asset and one of the most watched layer-1 projects.

Community and Governance

Kaspa prides itself in being a community project, with KAS distributed via a fair launch and the project being fully community-governed and community-funded. This decentralized approach ensures that everything is completely open-source and community-driven right from the start.

Kaspa (KAS) is a blockchain platform that leverages a unique combination of technologies to achieve high block rates while maintaining robust security. Here's a detailed overview of how it works:

Instant Transaction Validation

Kaspa is an instantaneous validation transaction sequencing layer, which means that miners can promptly include transaction requests into the blockchain. This is achieved by reducing the latency in the consensus mechanism, enhancing user and developer experience and reducing transaction costs. The platform's instant block times also facilitate pre-trade privacy and anonymous transactions, protecting users from exploitations such as manipulation of transaction ordering.

GHOSTDAG Consensus Algorithm

The GHOSTDAG (Generalized Hashed Directed Acyclic Graph) consensus algorithm is the core of Kaspa's technology. It allows for parallel block creation and validation, unlike traditional blockchains where blocks are created sequentially. This approach significantly enhances the blockchain's capacity and transaction throughput, enabling instant transactions at a fraction of the cost.

BlockDAG Architecture

Kaspa uses a blockDAG (Block Directed Acyclic Graph) architecture, where each block points to multiple previous blocks instead of just one. This design mitigates double spending and is the foundation of the GHOSTDAG protocol. The blockDAG is arranged in a crisscrossed chain, and transactions that align with previous transactions are integrated.

Decentralization and Mining

Kaspa's rapid block rates make mining more decentralized, allowing for profitable individual mining at minimal hash rates. The platform uses a modified HeavyHash algorithm called kHeavyHash, which is resource-efficient and integrates well with standard mining equipment like GPUs and FPGAs. This decentralized mining environment ensures that no single entity has control over the network.

Emission Rate and Halving Schedule

Kaspa employs a halving schedule for its emission rate, similar to Bitcoin. The rate at which new coins are created reduces by half yearly, but unlike traditional halving events, Kaspa implements this through a gradual monthly reduction. This approach aims to prevent inflation and maintain the value of KAS over time.

Open-Source and Community-Driven

Kaspa is an open-source project, built upon the efforts of a global community of developers. This expansive community maintains, improves, and innovates upon Kaspa's foundational technology, ensuring that the project remains decentralized, open-source, and community-driven.

Key Features

• Instant transaction validation: Miners can promptly include transaction requests into the blockchain, enhancing user experience and reducing transaction costs.
• GHOSTDAG consensus algorithm: Allows for parallel block creation and validation, enhancing the blockchain's capacity and transaction throughput.
• BlockDAG architecture: Mitigates double spending and ensures decentralization.
• Decentralized mining: Enables profitable individual mining at minimal hash rates.
• Emission rate and halving schedule: Prevents inflation and maintains the value of KAS over time.
• Open-source and community-driven: Ensures decentralization and continuous innovation.

Overall, Kaspa's unique combination of technologies and its focus on decentralization and community involvement set it apart from other blockchain projects.

Kaspa (KAS) has several strengths that set it apart from other cryptocurrency projects:

1. Energy Efficiency and Mining Accessibility: Kaspa focuses on energy efficiency and mining accessibility, making it more environmentally friendly and decentralized.

2. Instant Block Times and High Security: Kaspa's instantaneous validation transaction sequencing layer allows for fast block times while maintaining the security of Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanisms. This enables high block rates, currently at one block per second, with plans to increase to 10 or even 100 blocks per second.

3. Decentralization and Scalability: Kaspa's use of the PHANTOM protocol and its ability to handle high block rates make it a highly scalable and decentralized PoW protocol. This is particularly evident in its ability to facilitate profitable individual mining at minimal hash rates.

4. Fast and Secure Transactions: Kaspa's fast block times and high security make it ideal for peer-to-peer transactions, micropayments, and other use cases that require speed and reliability.

5. Strong Focus on Decentralization: Kaspa's partnership with Flux to launch blockchain nodes on their cloud platform further enhances its decentralization and security.

6. User-Friendly Wallet: The Kaspa wallet offers a user-friendly interface, auto-compounding functionality, and robust backup and recovery features, making it accessible to a broader user base.

7. Continuous Innovation: Kaspa's roadmap includes ongoing optimizations, such as transitioning from Golang to Rust, and implementing smart contracts, which will further enhance its performance and capabilities.

These strengths position Kaspa as a promising project in the cryptocurrency world, with significant potential for widespread adoption and use cases.

Kaspa (KAS) faces several risks that could impact its performance and adoption. Some of the key risks include:

• Development Risks: The integration of new features or technologies can pose development risks, which could lead to centralization over time if certain nodes gain too much power.
• Market Volatility: Kaspa is susceptible to market fluctuations, including bear markets and massive sell-offs. This volatility can affect its price and adoption.
• Smart Contract Risks: If smart contracts are implemented incorrectly, it could lead to hacks and negatively impact Kaspa's reputation.
• Mining and Fees: Kaspa needs to be self-sufficient in terms of fees within a short time frame, which is a significant challenge. If it fails to achieve this, it could stagnate and fail.
• Miner Abandonment: If miners decide to stop mining Kaspa, they could dump the coin, leading to a significant price drop.
• Competition: The Layer-1 blockchain space is highly competitive, and Kaspa's success relies on the efforts of its global community of miners and developers.
• Regulatory Risks: Changes in applicable laws or regulations could negatively affect the use, transfer, or value of Kaspa.
• Security Risks: Kaspa is vulnerable to code defects, security breaches, and other threats that could compromise its blockchain and supporting infrastructure.
• Liquidity and Demand Risks: Kaspa's value can be affected by liquidity and demand risks, including the possibility of forking.
• Electronic Trading Risks: Kaspa is also exposed to electronic trading risks, including cyber security threats and potential disruptions to trading platforms.

These risks highlight the importance of thorough research and risk assessment for investors considering Kaspa as an investment opportunity.

• Yonatan Sompolinsky: Founder of Kaspa, a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Harvard University, and a member of the Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) research team.
• Michael Sutton: Core developer and researcher.
• Shai Wyborski: Core developer and researcher.
• Elichai Turkel: Core developer and researcher.
• Ori Newman: Core developer and researcher.
• Mike Zak: Core developer and researcher.
• Aviv Zohar: Team member.
• Guy Corem: Team member.
• Chad Ballantyne: Team member.
• the.allfather: Business development, contributor, donor, and moderator.