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Michael Sutton

Lead Developer, Kaspa

X Channel

Raw Thoughts Re Kaspa’s Next Big Upgrade(s)

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You don’t end on a crescendo, and it is no secret that several anticipated upgrades are waiting on the sidelines for Kaspa. Primarily, the Dagknight (DK) protocol and the ZK L1<>L2 bridge. These two major endeavors may look independent, but I see strong merit in bundling them into a single hardfork (reasons below). I also argue this bundled effort is the right window to incorporate the foundational L1 changes needed to support ongoing research into MEV‑resistance and oracle‑voting.

A word on deferring DK to this point. I acknowledge that per past statements we expected to be post‑DK by now. Context for the long delay: (1) after the Rust rewrite, moving from 1→10 bps (blocks/sec) was too natural a follow‑up to ignore, and I dove into ~1‑year of work there. (2) Strong community push for smart contracts; in the absence of formal committees planning the next phase we reasoned that prioritizing smart contract enablement would let a builder community form around the Kaspa app layer, and that unleashing this potential (and its ripple effects) would let us refocus on L1 perfection without bottlenecking ecosystem growth.

This post provides a bird’s‑eye overview of active + upcoming Kaspa R&D efforts and sketches their relation graph.

DK: Dagknight is a ’22 ordering‑protocol research paper by myself & @hashdag; it evolves GHOSTDAG (GD). A (mostly written) follow‑up post will deep‑dive DK across: – practical benefits / applications of its abstract “no a priori delay bound” property – a breakdown into four main components → raw development phases – broader system / consensus implications – applied research for efficient incremental algorithms (notably the cascade voting procedure) – protocol (and paper) relaxations / simplifications – “resistance to Internet chaos”: practical limits + engineering caveats

ZK: In the past year, there has been an ongoing publicly visible effort to establish the landscape of ZK over Kaspa. The results of these efforts can mostly be viewed in Kaspa’s research forum under the L1<>L2 category. Kaspa’s approach is to support based ZK rollups, where “based” means the ZK layers / rollups / dapps fully commit to L1 sequencing—so L1 serves all three roles: sequencing, data availability, settlement. The base mechanisms to support this are largely established. The main area still under heavy research is atomic / synchronous composability (multi‑rollup transactions that land atomically). Explaining the vision and mapping current research there deserves its own dedicated post.

Why bundle DK + ZK: Their technical complexities barely overlap, so development can proceed in parallel and merge cleanly. That’s the engineering case. There is also a safety case: we (strongly) conjecture DK yields faster practical convergence of total DAG ordering. Under normal operation the delta is likely inconsequential; under powerful attack attempts DK’s convergence could be much faster—possibly by orders of magnitude. Faster convergence of total order is especially valuable for smart‑contract systems that are highly order‑sensitive. This further strengthens the case for linking the two upgrades.

Additional elements that should ship with them are support for reverse MEV auctions and oracle voting mechanisms (two of @hashdag’s ongoing research efforts with @yaish_aviv and @elimmea respectively; see his recent Sydney/HK talks), seizing the opportunity to address some of DeFi’s hardest problems using Kaspa’s unique structure. Once full smart contracts are live we will inevitably inherit the MEV + oracle weak spots seen elsewhere. By making a few minimal, high‑leverage consensus changes now, we can “apply the remedy before the blow”. Engineering cost here is negligible relative to DK + ZK while ecosystem upside is large. Here is how we can approach each:

MEV. Proposed approach: reverse auctions in which miners offer kickbacks to users for transaction‑ordering (or bundle) rights. Kaspa’s parallel 10 bps DAG already produces intra‑round competition; formalizing a kickback path captures that value for users instead of private orderflow brokers. L1 requirements are small: add a canonical kickback route and a deterministic auction‑ordering rule in consensus (how to rank conflicting bids; details are still open afaik). Game‑theoretic refinements can follow post‑fork, but a base path should exist in my opinion.

Oracles. The strategy for oracles is to leverage Kaspa’s high bps to enable a robust, real-time attestation network, with data aggregated from numerous miners each round. From an L1 perspective, the main consideration is whether to tie this system to PoW for greater security/sybil resistance. The practical step would be to add miner voting mechanics at the consensus level. This is a low-cost, preparatory change that provides significant future flexibility for L2 oracle designs.

Overall I expect dk/zk branches to begin landing soon in rk’s main repository. Looking forward to this turning into a beautiful decentralized open source coding voyage

The post Kaspa Development Milestones Revealed – 2025 – 2026 appeared first on Kaspa.

As the final curtain fell on 2022, giving way to the dawn of 2023, Kaspa emerged not merely as another player in crypto but as a burgeoning juggernaut equipped with sci-fi futuristic blockDAG technology. A game-changing architecture ready to shake the norm of traditional blockchain foundations. Its ambition was audacious, aiming to tackle the notorious blockchain trilemma by striking a delicate equilibrium among speed, security, and scalability.

In those embryonic days of 2023, the landscape of the Kaspa community bore a starkly different vibe compared to its later evolution. This initial cadre was a tight-knit crew of tech enthusiasts and forward-thinkers, united by a shared vision of what Kaspa could be — as opposed to the more moment-focused community we see today. The ripple effects of the Ethereum merge were still reverberating, setting the stage for a significant migration of GPU miners in search of fresh pastures following their upheaval. At the same time, the early murmurs of FPGA miners began to surface, hinting at the rise of a new titan in the mining domain and heralding a seismic shift in hashrate and exposure.

This era was pivotal for myriad reasons. It witnessed watershed moments like the Rust rewrite crowdfund — a move that signified more than an upgrade; it was the metamorphosis of Kaspa’s soul. The unveiling and crowdfunding of the DAG KNIGHT, a protocol that will catapult Kaspa into the forefront of cryptocurrency and computer science breakthroughs. The foray into its first mainstream exchange listing with MEXC underscored the community’s unwavering dedication to charting new courses for Kaspa. Amidst a sea of speculations about its path forward, forecasts remained as erratic as the markets in the unpredictable world of cryptocurrency. I don’t know if many foresaw Kaspa’s miraculous success within the parameters of this year. I know me and my crystal ball didn’t see it.

Early Ambitions

As 2023 kicked off, Kaspa hit the ground running, each step imbued with deliberate vigor. The community swelled with miners, traders, enthusiasts, and holders, each adding their unique spark to the Kaspa macrocosm. This surge brought an urgent call for more platforms like MEXC to trade and engage with Kaspa, setting the stage for an unprecedented push toward new exchange listings.

Petitions for Kaspa’s inclusion flooded the inboxes of virtually every top 50 exchange listed on CoinMarketCap. Also important to note that, during this phase, Kaspa’s crypto ranking was only accurately recognized on CoinGecko. A detail that only stoked the community’s fire, turning the quest for proper listing on CoinMarketCap into a symbol of broader recognition and legitimacy.

The Kaspa community, a close-knit and strategic force, dove into a series of crowdfunded campaigns, aiming to secure spots on key exchanges like Uphold, Bitget, and KuCoin. Integrating Kaspa onto these platforms was no small feat, demanding extensive time, technical support, marketing push, and manpower. More than just milestones, the listings were crucial in boosting Kaspa’s accessibility and liquidity, both vital for the lifeblood of any crypto. Especially one that prioritizes operating as a decentralized everyday currency.

An innovative turn in branding and marketing was the birth of a crowdfund spearheaded by the @Rhubarbarian. Under his leadership, this fund was dedicated to amplifying Kaspa’s marketing outreach and broadening its horizon. The Community Marketing Fund (CMF) was focused on fueling Grassroots and Organic (GRO) marketing activities and strategic boots-on-the-ground operations, underlining the community’s commitment to carving a prominent space for Kaspa worldwide.

A standout moment during this period was the Tangem and OneKey initiatives. Given Kaspa’s roots in community governance and crowdfunded nature, the constant drumbeat of fundraising began to weigh on the community. Proposals seemed to be in a never-ending loop, vying for support. Amidst this, however, the ecosystem was starting to thrive. A creative solution emerged in the form of pre-orders for Tangem and OneKey, not only easing the fundraising challenge but also addressing a crucial need — the development and dissemination of hard wallets, bridging a vital gap in cold storage solutions.

Mid-Year Progress

As 2023 reached its midpoint, Kaspa’s trajectory was nothing short of impressive. This period was dotted with significant milestones, vividly depicting Kaspa’s technological evolution and deepening community engagement.

During this period, a significant transformation unfolded within Kaspa’s mining framework, marking a new era in its technological evolution. The shift from GPU/FPGA mining to the cutting-edge ASIC miners developed by IceRiver was a revolutionary change. This move towards ASIC technology drew significant industry attention and marked a remarkable turn in the mining community’s approach. Contrary to expectations of opposition, many GPU miners enthusiastically embraced the ASIC miners. This transition was a spectacle of technological advancement, with the dedicated hardware bringing impressive gains in hashrate and efficiency. And still is.

To bridge the gap between the traditional GPU mining contingent and the emerging ASIC sphere, the establishment of new mining pools and comprehensive tutorials for solo mining ventures assisted in this transition. These efforts did more than expand the mining options within Kaspa’s ecosystem; they demonstrated Kaspa’s adherence to maintaining a decentralized network, ensuring that the mining process remained accessible and efficient for both new and seasoned miners alike. This pivotal shift diversified Kaspa’s mining landscape and solidified its reputation as a forward-thinking and adaptable community and tech.

Another stride forward was Kaspa’s integration with platforms like Chainge Finance, Zelcore, CoinPal, Now Payments, NowNodes, etc. highlighting its growing versatility and interoperability. Bringing Kaspa’s adaptability and potential for broader application to more financial and tech sectors.

This period also witnessed more crowdfunding endeavors, mainly aimed at developing a browser wallet and securing more exchange listings. Emphasizing the community’s relentless drive to enhance Kaspa’s reach and usability. The active community participation in these crowdfunding efforts was that original dedication to the Kaspa promise and their resolve to see it excel in the dynamic cryptocurrency arena.

Crossing the halfway point of 2023, the ambassador program and the CMF began exhibiting its GrassRoots, Organic marketing (GRO) strength. A few Ambassadors began to initiate live events, educating people across various regions, cultures, and nations, promoting global inclusivity.

End-Year Achievements

As 2023 wound down, the progress Kaspa had made was not just visible but strikingly innovative. The year’s closing chapters were defined by several key developments.

The launch of Wrapped Kaspa (wKAS), which was solely on ETH, now links Kaspa with other major blockchain networks like Polygon and BNB Chain. This breakthrough amplified Kaspa’s interoperability, enabling it to integrate and interact within larger ecosystems. Wrapped Kaspa’s entry into these networks opened doors to diverse opportunities in DeFi and beyond, carving out a path for broader adoption and enhanced recognition in the expansive crypto community.

Another noteworthy development was the debut of the Kaspium mobile wallet. This move marked Kaspa’s venture into mobile technology, dramatically widening its audience. The Kaspium wallet brought together ease of use, robust security features, and smooth transaction processes, making Kaspa’s advanced technology readily accessible to a broader, mobile-oriented demographic.

The birth of the Kaspa Ambassador Program earlier in the year quickly matured in Q4, from a few regional ambassadors to over 30 reps spanning the globe! They spearheaded many local meetups and represented Kaspa at conferences in places like France, Nigeria, the USA, Canada, Australia, etc.  Each was equipped through the Community Marketing Fund (CMF) and supported by the marketing team with promo, merch and educational tools like the now, infamous Battle Cards and Kaspa slide decks.

During Yom Kippur, the Kaspa network faced a cunningly timed dust attack. This challenge turned into a demonstration of its resilience and adaptability. This attack, synchronized with a key religious observance, was not merely a test of the network’s capacity but a calculated strike. In response, the Kaspa team, undeterred by limited resources and unfavorable timing, rallied with rapid innovation and cohesive community effort. With their exceptional problem-solving acuity, they crafted a multifaceted defence strategy. This strategy, carefully balancing the need to avoid a network fork and minimize user disruption, involved implementing new transaction policies and prioritizing established transactions, thus steering the network skillfully through a potentially crippling hard drive crisis.

Technological advancements kept pace with continuous enhancements to Rusty Kaspa and the Kaspa Go network. These updates focused on improving the network’s capacity for handling large transaction volumes, ensuring scalability and efficiency. This relentless pursuit of technological refinement positioned Kaspa at the forefront of blockchain innovation, showcasing its agility and responsiveness to the evolving market demands.

As the year drew to a close, Kaspa’s accomplishments and commitment to continual innovation and growth reinforced its technological infrastructure. Also broadened its appeal and utility, cementing its status as a significant contender in the greater cryptosphere. Kaspa’s journey through 2023, collective vision, technological excellence, and community-driven efforts laid a solid foundation for its future endeavors.

The Future

As Kaspa strides into the future, it carries the same steadfast resolve for innovation and a booming role in the DeFi world. The roadmap unfurling ahead is dotted with critical developments, notably starting with the eagerly awaited launch of Rusty Kaspa public Testnet 11. This release is poised to be a transformative juncture in Kaspa’s journey, bringing substantial improvements and fresh functionalities.

Elevating transaction handling capabilities remains at the forefront. To achieve the status of an everyday currency, swift and efficient transaction processing is increasingly sought-after. Kaspa is committed to expanding the horizons of transaction throughput, especially in BPS. This ambition encompasses technological strides and network stability and security assurance — pivotal elements in preserving user trust and satisfaction.

The vision for Kaspa’s future has always been about a nurturing, inclusive, and vibrant community. The community has been the cornerstone of Kaspa’s progression and triumphs, making its continued support and growth essential. This includes widening outreach, enhancing platforms for community engagement, and ensuring that community insights and participation remain central in guiding Kaspa’s direction.

Peering further into the horizon, the roadmap harbors ambitious plans for the integration of sophisticated smart contract functionalities. These advancements aim to broaden Kaspa’s utility, positioning it as a versatile platform for many applications. Additionally, increasing the blocks per second past 10 BPS, aspiring to keep the position as the fastest PoW network in existence.

The highly anticipated DAG KNIGHT protocol remains the summit objective and significant future goal for Kaspa. This protocol is expected to introduce a novel layer of innovation and efficiency to the network, further reinforcing Kaspa’s goal for 100 BPS and the first parameterless network.

Kaspa’s future is shaped by a trajectory of ongoing growth, cutting-edge technological development, and deep community involvement. With a clear vision and an ambitious set of objectives, Kaspa stands ready to meet and surpass the anticipations of its community and stakeholders in the blockchain sphere.

Not all was mentioned as it would have been a book!! But all efforts are greatly appreciated and celebrated!

The post Kaspa 2023 – Past, Present, and Future appeared first on Kaspa.

The Bitcoin Bottleneck

The Bitcoin network is facing unprecedented congestion, with a staggering 390,000 unconfirmed transactions waiting for confirmation, according to Bitcoin.com. This bottleneck has led to a 343% increase in transaction fees over the past 11 days, creating frustration for users who cannot complete their transactions in a timely manner. The main reasons for this congestion include the surge in minting and transferring of Ordinal inscriptions and BRC20 tokens, which have flooded the network, pushing the limitations of Bitcoin’s blockchain technology.

As a result of this congestion, there is currently a 16-hour wait time to transact on Bitcoin at the lowest fee. To put this into perspective, it would take 16 hours to include approximately 400,000 transactions on the Bitcoin ledger. Amid this turmoil, Kaspa emerges as an alternative immune to these issues. Kaspa, a blazingly fast, decentralized, proof-of-work cryptocurrency, is designed and proven to overcome the scalability and congestion problems that plague Bitcoin.

Kaspa’s architecture is built to address the limitations of Bitcoin’s blockchain technology and focus on network speed. At its core is the GhostDAG protocol, a directed acyclic graph (DAG) structure that allows for the simultaneous processing of multiple blocks. This innovative protocol eliminates the need for a linear blockchain, resulting in faster confirmations and higher throughput. Whereas Bitcoin can only allow a single block at a time.

Currently, Kaspa achieves a block time of 1 block per second, significantly faster than Bitcoin’s 10-minute block time. To put this into perspective, Kaspa processes 60 blocks per minute, 3,600 blocks per hour, and 86,400 blocks per day. In comparison, Bitcoin processes just 6 blocks per hour and 144 blocks per day. This stark contrast in block time highlights the immense speed advantage Kaspa holds over Bitcoin.

On Kaspa, processing the same 400,000 transactions clogging the Bitcoin network would take only 22 minutes. This is the same amount of time for just two Bitcoin blocks to be mined. And this is Kaspa’s current specs; once the Rust rewrite is complete, the network can expect up to a 30x boost in network speeds.

Kaspa’s unique design ensures its network is more resilient against congestion than Bitcoin. By employing the GhostDAG protocol, Kaspa can process multiple blocks adaptably and simultaneously, increasing the overall throughput of the network. This approach allows Kaspa to maintain fast transaction confirmations even during periods of high network activity, avoiding the bottlenecks experienced by the Bitcoin network.

Kaspa is constantly improving its technology and expanding its features to offer a better experience for its users. One of the most exciting future developments is the Rust rewrite, now live and in Alpha. Once thoroughly tested and released, Kaspa will run on a much faster and more efficient codebase allowing for a massive increase in speeds. Another upgrade in the works for Kaspa is the integration of DAGKnight. This protocol upgrade aims to upgrade the current protocol and enhance the network’s capabilities. With DAGKnight, Kaspa will become the first parameterless cryptocurrency, self-adapting to network health and latency. This increased adaptability will further solidify Kaspa’s position as a fast and efficient alternative to Bitcoin.

Another critical aspect of Kaspa that sets it apart from other cryptocurrencies is that it solves the blockchain trilemma, not just claims of a solution but actually makes the trilemma a problem of the past. All this speed and scalability without sacrificing decentralization or security, both of which are Bitcoin’s two main claims of fame. However, the scalability has been revealed to be a significant weakness. Does addressing only two areas of the trilemma matter if your network slows to a crawl or halts altogether? I guess time will tell.

As the Bitcoin network struggles to cope with overwhelming unconfirmed transactions and surging fees, Kaspa is a compelling alternative. With its innovative GhostDAG protocol, rapid block time, and focus on network speed, Kaspa is well-equipped to handle the challenges of the global market and the future of finance. Furthermore, the upcoming integration of DAGKnight will further enhance Kaspa’s capabilities, making it an even more attractive option for users seeking fast, cost-effective, and secure transactions. By providing a scalable and efficient solution, Kaspa ensures that users can enjoy fast, cost-effective transactions without worrying about network congestion.

The cryptocurrency landscape continues to evolve and grow, Kaspa is poised to stand out as a viable and promising alternative to not only Bitcoin but currency in general. Its innovative technology, adaptability, network speed, and decentralization make Kaspa a strong contender in the future of finance. Moreover, with its ability to overcome the scalability and congestion issues that have plagued Bitcoin, Kaspa offers a bright future for users seeking everyday, reliable transactions… and in an instant.

Tip: With it’s generalized Nakamoto Consensus and firm stance in the Satoshi ethos, Kaspa really is Bitcoin 2.0

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The first step of implementing DAGKnight into the Kaspa network.

The Updated DAGKnight Rises

On February 23rd, 2023, an updated version of the DAGKnight whitepaper was released, which includes new figures to illustrate the protocol, a high-level overview of the algorithm, and important related-work notes. This updated whitepaper provides the following:

• New figures to illustrate the protocol.
• A high-level overview explaining the algorithm.
• New important related-work notes.
• Marks the first step for implementation.

Kaspa Community Crowdfund

On December 18th, 2022, Kaspa held a Community Crowdfund to raise 70 million KAS to finance the development and implementation of the DAGKnight protocol. After 12 days, on December 30th, 2022, the crowdfund met its goal entirely at the community’s request. A testament to the importance of the DAGKnight protocol in the eyes of the Kaspa community.

Paper and Protocol

The DAGKnight protocol was presented as an upgrade to Kaspa’s PHANTOM GhostDAG Protocol. The newly updated whitepaper provides a detailed overview of the algorithm. This protocol is designed to resist 50% attacks without relying on network latency assumptions. Therefore, it does not need a hardcoded parameter to assume network health and self-stabilizes as the network infrastructure improves or as latency conditions suffer. Were as traditional blockchains assume this parameter to avoid security risks and instability.

The new whitepaper version includes new figures to illustrate the protocol, making it easier to understand. In addition, it outlines how it functions and differs from PHANTOM GhostDAG and traditional blockchain protocols. Also provided are important related-work notes offering insights into the research and development behind the DAGKnight protocol. These notes provide valuable insights into the algorithm and its unique features.

One of the critical features of the DAGKnight protocol is its ability to adjust block confirmation times according to real-time network conditions. This makes it more efficient and secure than traditional blockchain protocols relying on network latency assumptions. Since DAGKnight performs according to latency and the protocol is high-speed while the network is healthy. When the network is slow, additional blocks are added.

The protocol achieves this through the use of k-clusters, groups of blocks sampled from the blockDAG. By evaluating k-clusters, the protocol can select a cluster with the most network delay that covers 50% of the network and adjust block confirmations to counter an attack.

This makes DAGKnight more scalable than traditional blockchain protocols, with this k-cluster mechanism that groups blocks based on their level of connectivity. This allows for more efficient propagation of new blocks across the network, reducing the time required to add new blocks to the chain. DAGKnight will also be built on Rustlang; the rewrite from Golang will be pushing 32 blocks per second by the time of implementation with an ultimate goal of 100 BPS.

The DAGKnight will make Kaspa the first proof-of-work cryptocurrency parameterless, scalable, self-stabilizing, and adaptive. Furthermore, this upgrade to the current blockchain trilemma solution, GhostDAG, will be far more efficient and secure than traditional blockchain protocols promising an exciting evolutionary step in blockchain technology.

The updated DAGKnight whitepaper provides a valuable resource for those interested in the research and development behind the protocol. With its in-depth explanations and clear illustrations, the whitepaper offers a comprehensive yet high-level overview of the DAGKnight protocol, its unique features, and its potential to revolutionize the world of blockchain technology. The successful crowdfunding campaign and release of the updated whitepaper are promising signs for the future of Kaspa and the DAGKnight protocol.

Updated DAGKnight Paper: https://eprint.iacr.org/2022/1494.pdf

Tip: Michael Sutton is known on Twitter for: “Computer science, graph theory, parallelism, consensus; taking #Kaspa to the next level” He offers the latest in his Kaspa developments and you can follow his work on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/MichaelSuttonIL — @MichaelSuttonIL Medium here: https://medium.com/@michaelsuttonil —

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The Problem

Cryptocurrencies have been promised to be the future of money, providing a decentralized and secure means of transferring value. However, the Blockchain Trilemma, a widely held hypothesis in the crypto community, suggests that a cryptocurrency can only excel at two of the following three core benefits: security, decentralization, and scalability. Kaspa aims to challenge this trilemma with its innovative consensus and block propagation approach known as the BlockDAG.

Security

Kaspa’s security is based on the Nakamoto Consensus (NC), which uses the longest-chain rule as its core protocol. Kaspa has extended the rule to create a blockDAG that references all mined blocks within the structure, which is secured via proof-of-work by a robust network of miners and nodes. This makes Kaspa the first proof-of-work cryptocurrency to solve the orphan block problem. In the blockDAG architecture, Kaspa uses a generalized version of the longest-chain rule that considers block weight, determined by the amount of proof-of-work and references to the block in the network. Kaspa’s method enhances security and scalability and solves the orphaned block problem while adhering to the longest-chain rule.

Decentralization

Kaspa’s decision-making process is community-driven, with no company or individual controlling the network and no private allocations or premine. The network is propagated by proof-of-work, which benefits solo miners and local nodes with low variance, a low ROI-based entry, and single-second block speeds(soon less with Rustlang rewrite). This encourages a distributed network of nodes and hashrate, instead of power consolidation within a few mining pools.

Scalability

Kaspa’s BlockDAG allows for high block rates and virtually instant transaction finality up to the limits of internet latency(soon adaptable with DAGKnight). With single-second blocks, Kaspa is currently the fastest proof-of-work cryptocurrency. Furthermore, it is estimated to operate at 32 blocks per second with the upcoming Rustlang rewrite. This will make it the fastest decentralized network to date.

The End Result

Kaspa’s approach to the trilemma is not only promising, but it’s also been tested, proven, and operational since the mainnet launch. While other established blockchain projects have also made significant strides toward achieving all three core benefits, Kaspa’s unique architecture has genuinely solved the trilemma. In doing so, instead of branding the project complete, Kaspa is doubling its efforts to strengthen its approach. As the world moves towards decentralized finance and blockchain-based applications, solving the trilemma is crucial for the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies. Kaspa is ready for adoption now and guaranteeing its utilization in the future.

Tip: Trilemma —  an argument analogous to a dilemma but presenting three instead of two alternatives in the premises

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Feel free to comment and/or ask any questions.

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Easy Targets

Cryptocurrency traders, especially high-frequency traders who trade multiple times a day, are well-versed in the risks of trading decentralized cryptocurrencies. One of these risks is the potential for front-running, where someone takes advantage of a slow consensus system to manipulate or replace a transaction.

This is a known problem in decentralized systems where everyone can see the transaction before it’s actually processed. For example, in Ethereum, a transaction can take up to 15 seconds to be mined. During this time, internet bots can look at the transaction, potentially manipulate it, or replace it. This problem is mainly due to leader-based consensus (the designated leader is responsible for coordinating the process), which can be slow and give rise to front-running opportunities.

Sandwich Attack

A “sandwich attack” is one way a bad actor can simultaneously take advantage of front-running and back-running a transaction within this slow process. By doing so, the attacker tries to interfere with the communication between two parties(sender & receiver), typically by inserting themselves between the two parties and relaying the communication in an attempt to gain access to sensitive or manipulatable information. The attacker essentially “sandwiches” themselves between the two parties. This attack generally aims to place two orders surrounding the pending transaction to manipulate the asset’s prices.

Example: You are the attacker and walk into a busy deli. You see someone else placing an order for a sandwich. You quickly jump in front of the customer and place an order for the same sandwich, but now with added ingredients to make it more expensive. As the sandwich shop prepares your order, you step away, leaving the original customer empty-handed or with a pricer sandwich.

A mechanism is needed to solve this problem, which circumvents the mempool, allowing transactions to be sent to a single operator in secret without exposing it to the entire network before processing. In addition to this process, network speed is necessary to protect users and traders by decreasing the window of opportunity for front-running and other attacks.

Speed = Security

Kaspa is addressing this issue with asynchronous consensus/parallel consensus. With the Rustlang rewrite estimation of 32 blocks per second and a goal of 100 BPS, transactions can be processed within less than a second before propagating to the network. This will help prevent manipulation and front-running, making cryptocurrency trading a more secure and reliable experience for all users.

As the renowned Kaspateer @DesheShai recently Tweeted, “…speed is not just a nice feature to have, but absolutely essential for the long term sustainability of a decentralized proof of work chain.” That being the case, it’s reasonable to add that speed is also essential for security.

Another point for Kaspa in the speed/security category.

Special thanks to Discord user @ZEPP8S for the idea and for sharing this video find: DeFi Ecosystem Is Fragmenting | Dr. Yonatan Sompolinsky — DAGlabs | REIMAGINE v9.0 #33

Tip: This ‘sandwich attack’ is one of several front-running attacks. Some others include order book sniping, transaction replay, and block withholding.

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Dag Knight Consensus Research Publication: Completed

A published research paper discusses an innovative new consensus mechanism planned to be integrated into Kaspa. This new consensus mechanism, called DAGKnight, is an improvement over the GHOSTDAG protocol and is expected to result in even quicker transactions and confirmations. DAGKnight Paper.

Upgrade consensus to follow the DAGKNIGHT protocol: Funded — In Development

Motivation

DAGKNIGHT (DK) is a new consensus protocol that achieves responsiveness while being 50%-byzantine tolerant. It is, therefore, faster and more secure than GHOSTDAG (GD), which governs the current Kaspa network. Furthermore, in DK, there’s no assumed hardcoded parameter k (latency parameter), which can adapt to the “real” k in the network. Concretely, clients or their wallets in DK should incorporate k into their local confirmation policy of transactions.

Goals

• Complete the R&D work necessary to implement DK for Kaspa.
• Implement DK on Kaspa as a consensus upgrade.
• Add support and API for wallets’ transaction acceptance policy to correspond to DK’s confirmation speed.

Applied research

• Adapt the consensus algorithm to enforce a global maximum bound on network latency, which is necessary for difficulty and minting regulation, pruning, and more.
• Devise efficient algorithms to implement the DK procedures — the current pseudocode is highly inefficient. The implementation will partially utilize the optimized GD codebase, as the latter is a sub-procedure of DK.
• Research the optimal bps regarding confirmation times, and provide a recommendation.

Implementation

• Implement DK on the Kaspa rust codebase as a consensus upgrade.
• Design a transaction confirmation policy API and implement the supporting functionality in the node.
• Documentation of consensus changes and API additions.

Backward compatibility

• It breaks consensus rules and requires a hard-fork
• Adds (and potentially breaks) RPC API

DAGKnight

KASPA Rust Language Coding: Funded — In Development

Developer Michael Sutton is currently conducting a rewrite of Kaspa’s programming language from Golang to Rust. This switch will boost Kaspa’s overall performance/speed, allowing for unheard-of transactions and blocks per second with conservative estimates of around 32bps. This rewrite is an integral part of the foundation to achieve Kaspa’s future goal of reaching 100bps! Rust is a high-performance programming language that allows for intense race-ready concepts to be implemented which fully utilize modern computing hardware. This enables such things as parallelism — the ability to simultaneously process different blocks on different CPU threads.

Latest Rust Update

Mobile Wallet Development: Testing

A mobile-device wallet is currently being developed and in testing. Many in our community have expressed the need for a high-performance mobile wallet option. This mobile wallet will add to the already existing Kaspa wallet options: web wallet, desktop wallet, and Command Line Interface Wallet. Currently operational for use, it may have minor bugs and will be available for iOS and Android app stores.

Kaspium Mobile Wallet

Integrate Kaspa for use on Ledger: Funded — In Development

Thanks to a 24-hour fundraising blitz, development is underway for you to be able to send & receive your KAS quickly, securely, and easily from the safety of your Ledger. To safeguard your KAS holdings on the industry standard hardware wallet platform is just another step towards our goal of creating an everyday and safe use currency. Tangem wallet is also in Development and may arrive sooner than Ledger.

2023 White Paper: Development

Although there are numerous research papers written about Kaspa’s technology, an official white paper is being scheduled for release. This white paper will thoroughly combine Kaspa’s past research and current goals into a cohesive, consumable whole document to inform beginners and onboard developers.

Archival Node Improvements: Development

Currently, there is no P2P communication for archival nodes that allow them to exchange usually pruned data. Improvements to archival Nodes enable Kaspa to have a more thorough block explorer to revisit past transactions beyond Kaspa’s pruning point. Due to Kaspa’s pruning mechanism, transactions on standard nodes can only be visited three days in the past. With Archival Nodes, this will no longer be an issue allowing for more historical data sets to be retrieved.

Smart Contracts Implementation : Planning

Kaspa aims to become the fastest, most scalable, and most secure Layer-1 PoW crypto. And while Kaspa has already reached this benchmark, some fine-tuning still exists for peak performance. However, performance for the sake of performance is not the end goal of Kaspa. The broader goal is to create the ultimate Layer 1 to implement smart contracts, Defi, and Layer 2 applications over it. Kaspa hopes that a future ecosystem will arise on Kaspa that will be as strong as the foundation and wonderful community that helped birth it.

Tip: Development takes time. Most of Kaspa’s development is like coding into the unknown, feeling around a pitch-black cave for a way to build a house. We would instead the devs take their time and get it right than get it wrong by rushing and pressuring them. Patience is vital for success.

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You can also find me on the Kaspa discord — Bubblegum Lightning

The post Kaspa Developments and Status appeared first on Kaspa.

BPS/TPS

BPS (Blocks Per Second) measures the number of blocks added to a blockchain in a given second. A commonly used metric to evaluate the performance and scalability of a blockchain network. The higher the BPS, the faster the network can process and confirm transactions and the greater its overall throughput capacity.

Transactions per second (TPS) measures the number of transactions a blockchain network processes in one second. A high TPS rate indicates that a blockchain network can process a large number of transactions in a short amount of time on average.

BPS is often seen as the better metric in blockchain systems, as blocks are the fundamental unit of data in a blockchain. A higher BPS value indicates that the blockchain is able to commit transactions more frequently. Therefore, a higher BPS is seen as a sign of a more efficient and secure network.

On the other hand, TPS is a more direct measure of the transaction-processing capacity of a blockchain. It is often used to compare the performance of different blockchain platforms. TPS is a good metric for evaluating a blockchain’s practical utility for applications requiring a large TX throughput.

Analogy: If we say that BPS stands for Books Per Second, this measures how fast a librarian can add books to a library. The pages in the book would be the transactions. The TPS number could change by how many pages are in the book or by how fast the books are added to the library. Also, the quicker the books can be added, the faster the books can be found on the shelf, confirming the books have been added — confirming both the pages/transactions and books/blocks. A page, in this case, cannot be confirmed without being inside the book.

Transactions cannot be confirmed without block confirmation, at least in the battle-proven Nakamoto consensus. In that case, BPS can be argued as the more critical metric and can potentially increase TPS proportionally with an increase in BPS.

However, BPS and TPS are both crucial for decentralization, decreasing the entry barrier for both pool and solo mining. Each helps in its own way.

Speed = Decentralization

By increasing the BPS, you reduce the percentage of mining power required for a sustainable pace of Return on Investment (ROI). High BPS is essential for small miners’ accessibility and entry by increasing the odds of generating a profit for participating in securing the network. The more miners, the more decentralized, especially solo miners. Additionally, Kaspa can support up to NINETY MILLION monthly profitable solo miners. Secondly, the increased block rate dramatically reduces the variance or a deviation interval in time between two blocks, helping with a more consistent reward/revenue generation.

In this case, the benefit of a high BPS would only apply to a single-state architecture, such as Kaspa’s BlockDAG. In sharded systems, the ROI time remains high despite the overall high BPS as the miner has to commit in advance to a chain.

When it comes to pool miners, a high TPS shines. POW chains, especially deflationary ones, block rewards will diminish over time, and fees become the compensation for miners’ work. So transaction fees are expected to increase as time goes on, and so will the waiting time for an ROI that makes sense to cash out due to accruing their fees from the pool (solo mining eradicates this issue). The higher the TPS, the lower the fees. 1000 times higher TPS = 1000 times lower fees.

How TPS scales with BPS is tricky in DAGs. The same transaction can exist on parallel blocks, and only one of the miners will obtain the reward. However, at least 62% of the transactions in each block will be unique, and Kaspa expects to see at least 80% of the transactions be unique. Reference to where 62% came from and the benefits of speed for decentralization can be found at @DesheShai Twitter thread. One of the geniuses behind Kaspa and it’s development.

If Kaspa’s block sizes are the same as BTC, but Kaspa churns out 9000 more blocks than Bitcoin, then the number of unique transactions will be at least 6000 times higher.

Both BPS and TPS play a vital role in maintaining the longevity of POW and are more than just features of a chain. They have significant impacts on the economy, functionality, and ecosystem as a whole.

Tip: Confirmation times can also be associated with blockchain speed. This post was an exclusive spotlight on BPS and TPS since these are common and competitive benchmarks.

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SHAI (DESHE) WYBORSKI: MEDIUM

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The post Blocks Per Second vs. Transactions Per Second appeared first on Kaspa.

Sir Knights

On December 18th, 2022, Kaspa held a Community Crowdfund to raise 70 million KAS to finance the construction and implementation of the DAG KNIGHT protocol. After 12 days, on December 30th, 2022, the crowdfund met its goal entirely at the community’s request. So, what is the DAG KNIGHT protocol, and why did the Kaspa community want it so badly?

The DAG KNIGHT Protocol, written by Michael Sutton and Yonatan Sompolinsky, is a three-year work of genius and consensus upgrade for Kaspa’s PHANTOM GHOSTDAG Protocol. KNIGHT was set in motion with the goal of resisting 50% attacks without knowing the network latency ahead of time.

Typically, blockchain protocols assume a parameter of network delay for best and/or worst-case scenarios without the ability to adapt to real-time latency. This assumed latency parameter keeps blockchains restrained to slower confirmation times to avoid security risks and instability.

A 50% or 51% attack occurs when a group or entity owns more than 50% of the nodes on the network, granting the controlling parties the ability to alter the blockchain. However, with network delay left unaddressed, if latency spikes, the percentage of ownership needed for an attack decreases. Subsequently leaving the chain more susceptible to an attack. To fix this, blockchains sacrifice block confirmation time to account for the ailing network health by setting an estimated/assumed network delay parameter.

The White (Green?) DAG KNIGHT

This is where the DAG KNIGHT in shining armor comes into play. The KNIGHT protocol actively evaluates and responds to the network conditions and adjusts block confirmation times accordingly.

Once the Kaspa rewrite completes, DAG KNIGHT will be developed on a network that is already able to push 32 blocks per second!

Not only is that blazing block speed impressive, but when applying KNIGHT to our advancing internet infrastructure, the protocol really starts to shine. As the internet improves and inevitably becomes faster, Kaspa won’t be stuck with an aging 10-minute or even 1-second block time. Instead, it will be parameterless and fully adaptable.

So now that we know with DAG KNIGHT, this latency cannot be defined until network conditions are evaluated by the protocol(parameterless). Let’s dive under the surface and see how the protocol evaluates the network.

Cluster Around

The protocol starts by analyzing groups of blocks sampled from the DAG called k-clusters. On examining these k-clusters, the protocol selects a k-cluster with the most network delay that also covers 50% of the network. Then, with this valid k-cluster, the protocol adjusts the block confirmations to a sufficient speed to counter an attack. By doing so, KNIGHT is constantly adjusting for the lowest latency valid k-cluster with 50% coverage.

Since KNIGHT performs according to latency and the protocol is high-speed while the network is healthy. When the network is slow, additional blocks are added. Through this process, DAG KNIGHT finds valid k-clusters and references honest nodes to secure chain ordering, adding another layer of security to GHOSTDAG. Also, transactions may not be confirmed if GHOSTDAG suffers excessive delays and the latency bound is violated (due to an anomaly). KNIGHT, however, will remain intact at the cost of speed and is self-stabilizing.

DAGKNIGHT is the first proof-of-work protocol with an ordering rule that is parameterless, scalable, self-stabilizing, and adaptive.

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Feel free to comment and/or ask any questions.

You can also find me on the Kaspa discord — Bubblegum Lightning

The post The DAG KNIGHT Protocol — Elevating Kaspa appeared first on Kaspa.