It keeps the core things Bitcoiners care about:
✅ Proof-of-Work
✅ UTXO model
✅ permissionless decentralization
✅ open-source, fair launch ethos

But it introduces an architecture Bitcoin would never adopt without becoming a different system entirely: BlockDAG consensus (GHOSTDAG), which allows parallel blocks while preserving ordered consensus.
See Links to Github, community chats forums white papers and other Dev resources on http://kaspa.org

1) Beyond “digital cash”: Kaspa aims at sovereign settlement infrastructure
Bitcoin proved digital scarcity. The next stage is neutral, sovereign settlement at real-world speed.
Kaspa’s argument is bigger than payments: Kaspa is positioning as a universal settlement grid, essentially “Sovereignty as a Service” as its been said by @hashdag and @michaelsuttonil

Kaspa will be Meaning settlement infrastructure that can be:
✅ Global
✅ Neutral
✅ Real-time
✅ Permissionless
✅ Not controlled by a state, corporation, or validator cartel

This matters because the modern world is moving toward:
✅ Always-on markets
✅ Machine-to-machine payments
✅ Real-time trade and logistics
✅ Programmable compliance and reporting
✅ Tokenized assets and settlement rails

That future needs settlement that is fast enough to keep up.

2) Kaspa fills Bitcoin’s gaps without abandoning Bitcoin’s values
• Bitcoin’s base chain is intentionally slow and conservative. It wasn’t engineered for real-time settlement.
• Kaspa keeps PoW, but changes the throughput assumptions.

Kaspa’s network generates:
⚡️10 blocks per second
⚡️fully confirmed transactions in about 1 second

That’s why the comparison isn’t “Kaspa beats Bitcoin.”

It’s: Kaspa extends Bitcoin’s vision into a new performance envelope.
✅Bitcoin is sound scarcity.
✅Kaspa is sound settlement.

3) The broader altcoin problem: trilemma, MEV, parasitic L2s
Most altcoins “scale” by changing the rules of the game:
• Proof-of-Stake and validator politics
• governance capture and insider power
• centralized sequencing, bridging assumptions
• ecosystems where L2s extract rent while security and neutrality become fragmented

Kaspa solves scaling at the consensus layer using BlockDAG rather than relying on centralized validators or a stack of parasitic layers.

4) Adoption movers: independent orgs pushing real integration
Every blockchain’s final vulnerability is not tech. It’s adoption.

Some online community stats:
• Largest X Account – 246,649 followers @kaspaunchained
(plus 1000’s of Kaspa focused content creators)
• Telegram: 37,474 Members
• Discord 55,482 members

Kaspa is unusual because it’s not just hoping adoption happens. It has independent initiatives designed to drive it.
• Consistently innovating and flawlessly delivering from Genesis to the RUST Rewrite to Crescendo and now looking towards VProgs, Covenants, Oracles, DagKnight.
• Kaspa Industrial Initiative (@KaspaKii): focused on enterprise and industrial adoption across finance, supply chain, energy, and public sector pathways.
• WarpCore (KII initiative): middleware designed to bridge traditional institutional rails and standards into Kaspa settlement logic, including ISO 20022 alignment.
• Kaspa Ecosystem Foundation ( @Kaspa_KEF): separate ecosystem organization supporting long-term growth and development support.
Whether people agree with every approach or not, the point is: Kaspa has serious adoption scaffolding forming around it.

5) Proof the ecosystem is real: applications and events already shipping
Settlement infrastructure is proven by builders and real outputs, not promises.
Kaspa already has live ecosystem activity beyond “store of value” narratives:

Apps and primitives:
• Kaspa Name Service (@knsdomain): .kas domains and identity layer
• @kasiamessaging Messaging: encrypted decentralized P2P messaging built on Kaspa L1 transactions
• K-Social: ( http://k-social.network) Like X but decentralized and powered by Kaspa
• @KasMaporg – Mapping the Kaspa community, merchants and events
• Numerous decentralized Wallets, Explorers, DEXs, and more.

Events (real-world proof of adoption momentum):
• 100s of Global Events and Meetups since 2022
•Kaspa Experience (@KaspaExperience
– Berlin 2025): a full community conference showcasing the ecosystem and real-world adoption energy
• @kaspathon: a community-organized hackathon designed to test and showcase Kaspa’s latest builder capabilities

This is what matters: you’re watching a network evolve from a coin into a settlement-grade ecosystem.
This isn’t really #Bitcoin vs #Kaspa.
Bitcoin remains a benchmark for digital scarcity and first mover.
Kaspa is what happens when you take that same PoW ethos and push it into a new technical category: real-time, sovereign, scalable settlement infrastructure.
If the modern world is heading toward real-time settlement, Kaspa is one of the only networks attempting that future without abandoning the foundational decentralization model.

So….
Bitcoin:
• exposed the problem
• created an alternative store-of-value
• became a protest symbol against fiat + banking capture
• Was first to market for this new technology

Kaspa:
• keeps the same ethos (PoW, decentralization)
but focuses on the infrastructure layer
• aiming at real-time, high-frequency settlement and coordination. Not just money that holds value, but the backbone for real-time systems: finance, identity, trade, and data.

PS. One of the best “aha” moments is when we show 10BPS on a BlockDAG visualizer. 🙂

Kaspa’s story has always been about solving what others said couldn’t be solved: achieving high throughput in proof of work without increasing L1 complexity or weakening decentralization. Now, as builders begin exploring what’s possible on top of that foundation, a new question emerges: how do we enable rich programmability around a fast Layer 1 while keeping the base protocol minimal and easy to verify?

The conversation has become crowded with terms like vProgs, rollups, sidechains, and L1 tokens such as KRC-20. Each points toward a vision of programmable money and data, but they live on different timelines and serve different purposes. Some exist now, others are still being written into Kaspa’s long-term design, some may evolve or become redundant.

This document maps that landscape. It separates the near-term tools that developers can use today, like Igra’s based rollups, from the long-term direction of Kaspa Core’s verifiable programs (vProgs). It also places sidechains and on-chain token standards in context, showing how these approaches can coexist, evolve, and find their natural roles as the ecosystem matures.

The goal isn’t to crown a winner, but to bring clarity. By understanding where each layer fits, and when it fits, we can align the community’s expectations and accelerate the collective vision: a verifiable, and sovereign digital economy built on Kaspa.

The Kaspa Programmability Landscape

Near term: Rollups on Kaspa give real programmability now. Igra’s based rollup approach is the most active track today, with public nodes and EVM tooling coming online. igralabs.com+1

Long term: vProgs are Kaspa’s native execution vision for verifiable programs with off-chain execution and on-chain verification, designed to keep L1 lean while enabling rich logic and synchronous composability. Kaspa Research+2Kaspa Research+2 

For more insight into vProgs and the Kaspa Core roadmap, read the Kaspa vProgs Architecture Overview.will be a kaspa.org blog and Youtube link

Sidechains and app-chains: Useful for sovereignty and specialization, but they are separate consensus domains that do not inherit Kaspa L1 security by default. Dymension’s RollApps are an example of this design space. docs.dymension.xyz

L1 “programmability” today: KRC-20 (Kasplex) and similar inscription style protocols live on L1 as data. These are helpful experiments, but much of this functionality is expected to migrate to L2 environments as they mature. docs-kasplex.gitbook.io+1

The Landscape

vProgs on L1: Kaspa’s native verifiable programs model. Execute off chain, verify on chain, keep L1 fast and lean. Targets synchronous composability without sacrificing sovereignty of programs. Timeline is long term and tied to core protocol work alongside DagKnight era improvements. Kaspa Research+1

Rollups on Kaspa (L2): Pragmatic route to programmability now. Sequencing leverages Kaspa’s blockDAG. Igra Labs is building a based rollup stack with EVM support and bridging modules, shipping testnet infra and public endpoints. Kaspa Research+2igralabs.com+2

L1 inscriptions and KRC-20: Data insertion plus indexing on Kaspa L1. Useful for tokens and NFTs, while L2 environments will handle use cases that benefit from richer logic and more complex state. docs-kasplex.gitbook.io+1

Sidechains and app-chains: Separate chains with their own consensus that connect to Kaspa. Good for sovereignty and customization, but security depends on bridges and the sidechain’s validator set. Dymension RollApps illustrate this pattern. docs.dymension.xyz

What ships when

Near term, community can build today

• Deploy dApps to EVM environments that sequence on Kaspa through Igra’s stack. Public test nodes and RPC are available. Kaspa
• Use KRC-20 or inscription style patterns when you only need simple on-chain data and indexing, not complex logic. docs-kasplex.gitbook.io+1

Mid to long term, core protocol goal

• vProgs deliver native, verifiable program execution with on-chain proofs, designed for synchronous composability and high throughput. Community research threads lay out pruning, composability, and L1↔L2 design questions. Kaspa Research+1
• Some of these capabilities may also appear through based rollups combined with L1 ZK facilities, since certain elements of the vProg architecture can be explored without the complete vProg mechanism. This remains an active area of research.

How they differ

Sources on vProgs design and goals, and L1↔L2 research threads. Kaspa Research+1
Igra architecture and public endpoints for near-term dev work. igralabs.com+1
Kasplex KRC-20 docs and overview. docs-kasplex.gitbook.io+1
Dymension RollApps overview. docs.dymension.xyz

* vProgs are rollup-like and fit within the broader rollup family, but they differ from classical L2 rollups because they are sequenced by Kaspa L1 and designed for synchronous composability instead of operating as separate chains.

Evolution path without confusion

1. Start on L2: Ship apps on Igra’s EVM rollup. You inherit Kaspa L1 ordering, get mainstream tooling, and can move fast while vProgs mature. igralabs.com+1
2. Graduate features to vProgs over time: Critical logic that benefits from native verification and tighter L1 guarantees can migrate to vProgs once available. Research is already outlining composability and pruning requirements. Kaspa Research+1
3. Use sidechains only when sovereignty outweighs L1 settlement benefits: Choose this when you need your own parameters and do not require Kaspa’s L1 security for every step. docs.dymension.xyz
4. Treat KRC-20 as a bridge, not a destination: Great for lightweight tokens or proofs of concept. docs-kasplex.gitbook.io

Frequent misconceptions

“vProgs are just another name for rollups.”
Yes and No. vProgs are a type of rollup in architecture, but not classical rollups. They are an L1-integrated rollup architecture with off-chain execution, on-chain verification, and native sequencing. Classical rollups run as separate L2 chains, while vProgs are built directly into L1 semantics. Kaspa Research+1

“vProgs are smart contracts running on Kaspa L1.”
No. vProgs are an architecture for apps running next to L1, with ZK verification and shared state standards. Not executing on-chain. Kaspa vProgs yellow paper

“Rollups on Kaspa cannot be EVM or practical now.”
Igra’s stack explicitly targets EVM compatibility and has published litepaper and public endpoints for builders. igralabs.com+2X (formerly Twitter)+2

“Kaspa L2s work like Ethereum rollups.”
No. Based rollups have no centralized sequencer — transactions ordered directly by Kaspa consensus. Fundamentally different model, with different security assumptions and economy. Igra litepaper

“L2s compete with vProgs.”
No. Based L2s are proto-vProgs. As ZK VMs, state composability standards, and native verification mature, L2s evolve into full vProg architecture. From Rollups to vProgs

“Covenants alone enable programmability.”
Partial. Covenants give conditional spending (asset scripts, token standards). Add ZK verification = foundation for sovereign composable vProgs. Both needed. Kaspa Research

“vProgs guarantee liquidity defragmentation.”
No. vProgs need unified asset layer. Without base-layer token standard, each vProg issues wrapped tokens = fragmented liquidity, broken ecosystem. The architecture enables composability, but only if value can move smoothly between vProgs. vProgs Yellow Paper

“ZK opcodes = vProgs.”
No. ZK opcodes provide L1 foundation. Production vProg ecosystem requires mature stack: battle-tested ZK VMs, composability standards adopted across builders, dev tooling, auditors familiar with sovereignty model, legal frameworks. These will be developed through builder ecosystem collaboration and iteration cycles

“KRC-20 is Kaspa’s smart contract system.”
KRC-20 is a data insertion and indexing protocol on L1. It is not a full contract VM. L2s are expected to take over richer programmability. docs-kasplex.gitbook.io+1

“Sidechains equal L2.”
Sidechains are separate consensus domains. They do not automatically inherit L1 security. That trade-off is intentional for sovereignty and performance. Dymension’s docs describe this explicitly. docs.dymension.xyz

Community confusion called out by builders themselves:
Igra publicly clarified language about inspiration and scope to reduce misreadings about “competing with Kaspa core.” This helps separate near term rollups from long term vProgs. X (formerly Twitter)

What to use, when

• Payments, DeFi, EVM tooling, quick integrations: Rollup via Igra. Build now, connect existing wallets and infra, plan a future on-ramp to vProgs for critical parts. igralabs.com+1
• Native verifiable apps with L1-level guarantees and fine-grained composability: vProgs, once ready. Track research threads and proposals. Kaspa Research+1
• Specialized zones or domain-specific throughput where you accept separate consensus: Sidechain or app-chain. docs.dymension.xyz
• Simple tokens or proofs on L1 for now: KRC-20. Expect migration to L2 as ecosystems mature. docs-kasplex.gitbook.io

Kaspa’s architecture is not a single lane, but a highway system under construction. Each route, L1 vProgs, L2 rollups, sidechains, and experimental on-chain standards, serves a different purpose, yet all lead toward the same destination: scalable, verifiable freedom.

The next few years will be about connecting those routes. Rollups will deliver real applications first, proving what is possible on Kaspa’s settlement layer. Sidechains will test sovereignty and specialization. Meanwhile, vProgs will continue to take shape inside Kaspa Core, preparing the protocol for a future where logic and proof coexist natively.

Builders, researchers, and users all contribute to the direction of this ecosystem. Clarity matters, knowing what belongs on L1 and what grows around it. As these pieces mature, Kaspa stands to become a standard for settlement and a secure base for providing sovereignty as a service to applications, chains, and users.

The evolution of financial settlement infrastructure has followed a predictable path, from SWIFT’s analog message relays, to RippleNet’s tokenized cross-border corridors, to the next generation of decentralized value exchange. Each system has improved speed and accessibility, yet each remains limited by structural centralization.

WarpCore, being developed by the Kaspa Industrial Initiative (KII), represents the next step. Built on Kaspa’s Proof-of-Work blockDAG, it introduces a decentralized architecture for instant, programmable, and censorship-resistant settlement. Where SWIFT relies on intermediaries and RippleNet on controlled validators, WarpCore operates as an open, autonomous layer for global finance, executing transactions, compliance logic, and liquidity management directly at Layer 1.

This article outlines how Kaspa’s architecture, together with the upcoming DagKnight and vProgs advancements, can deliver a universal settlement framework capable of replacing legacy systems and uniting institutional, enterprise, and decentralized markets on a single infrastructure.

Kaspa Fixes This

Kaspa’s blockDAG architecture delivers decentralized settlement at global scale. The network achieves parallel confirmation of multiple blocks without sacrificing security. With the coming vProgs and DagKnight upgrades, Kaspa will move beyond payments into programmable finance, where compliance, liquidity, and automation operate directly at Layer 1. This framework establishes a foundation for real-time, enterprise-grade digital infrastructure designed for global use.

1. Faster Cross-Border Settlement

❌ RippleNet improves international payment speed, reducing settlement from days to seconds. However, it remains dependent on validator networks and corridor liquidity.

✅ Kaspa achieves greater speed and reliability through its blockDAG structure. The GHOSTDAG protocol allows multiple blocks to confirm in parallel every 100 milliseconds, producing continuous throughput without congestion. The coming DagKnight will further optimize consensus, delivering near-instant finality at scale. This creates true real-time settlement with no trade-off between speed, security, and decentralization.

2. Lower Liquidity Requirements

❌ RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity reduces the need for pre-funded accounts but depends on a bridge token. This model improves efficiency but still limits flexibility and ties liquidity to a specific asset.

Kaspa eliminates that dependency entirely. It functions as a universal settlement layer capable of handling stablecoins, tokenized fiat, and digital assets natively. The coming vProgs will allow institutions to automate liquidity flows and execute settlement logic directly on-chain. The result will be a flexible, neutral system for cross-border exchange without intermediaries or predefined liquidity routes.

3. Reduced Transaction Costs

❌ RippleNet lowers costs by removing correspondent banks and shortening payment routes, yet it remains dependent on network validators and institutional gateways.

✅ Kaspa’s efficiency is structural. The blockDAG design prevents bottlenecks and maintains minimal fees regardless of network demand. Proof-of-Work provides impartial validation while preserving decentralization. With the future integration of vProgs, settlement and reconciliation logic will be automated at Layer 1, removing manual processing and intermediary costs. This produces a consistent, near-zero transaction environment even under global load.

4. Integration and Interoperability

❌ RippleNet simplifies integration for financial institutions through APIs and gateways, improving connectivity within existing systems.

✅ Kaspa expands this by enabling direct, permissionless participation. Any enterprise or institution can connect to the Kaspa network or build tailored gateways without reliance on centralized intermediaries. The coming vProgs will extend interoperability further, allowing automated communication between legacy platforms and blockchain-based systems. This creates a seamless bridge between traditional financial infrastructure and decentralized networks.

5. Transparency, Auditability, and Security

❌ RippleNet maintains cryptographic security within its validator framework and provides traceability for compliance.

✅ Kaspa extends this to a fully decentralized environment. Every transaction is validated by a global Proof-of-Work network rather than a permissioned group. The ledger provides immutable, auditable transparency while supporting selective privacy where required. The coming DagKnight will enhance network resilience under high demand, and vProgs will enable automated, verifiable compliance directly on-chain. Institutions will be able to monitor, report, and audit activity without dependence on third-party verifiers.

6. Scalability and Programmability

❌ RippleNet outperforms legacy systems like SWIFT but remains limited in scale by its semi-centralized validator structure.

✅ Kaspa achieves horizontal scalability through its blockDAG architecture, confirming multiple blocks simultaneously while maintaining consistency. The coming DagKnight will enhance block ordering precision and synchronization. Future vProgs will introduce programmable functionality at Layer 1, allowing complex settlement logic to execute natively. Together, these components will form a secure, fast, and adaptable foundation for global financial operations.

❌ RippleNet gave the financial world a glimpse of what faster and cheaper cross-border payments could look like, but Kaspa delivers the complete system those institutions have been waiting for. 

✅ Kaspa represents a fundamental shift in how global settlement systems can operate. By combining a parallel Proof-of-Work architecture with the forthcoming DagKnight and vProgs advancements, it establishes a framework for transparent, programmable, and secure value exchange. WarpCore, being developed by the Kaspa Industrial Initiative, will extend this capability into institutional and enterprise markets, offering a decentralized alternative to both SWIFT and RippleNet. Together, these systems create the foundation for a new era of financial infrastructure, one defined by openness, speed, and trustless global interoperability.

This convergence of speed, scalability, and on-chain intelligence transforms Kaspa from a payment protocol into a full digital infrastructure for global finance, capable of replacing outdated rails and empowering institutions to move, manage, and verify value instantly and securely.

7. Centralization risk and validator control

❌ Even in RippleNet, validators are controlled or approved, limiting censorship resistance.  Kaspa fixes this by being fully permissionless and secured by Proof-of-Work, resisting censorship and centralization. Oracles replace human confirmation layers with real-time, verifiable data, allowing institutions to settle and audit instantly across jurisdictions.

✅ Decentralized Oracles integrated with Layer 1 logic (research work led by @eliottmea, will allow verified off-chain data to be used directly in settlement logic at the protocol level with real-time financial data, FX rates, regulatory confirmations, and liquidity metrics, without relying on trusted parties. Game-theoretic incentives and zero-knowledge verification will ensure accuracy and resistance to manipulation. WarpCore, developed by the Kaspa Industrial Initiative, will integrate oracle feeds for compliance, risk assessment, and automated cross-border execution.

BONUS TIPS on how institutions should adopt Kaspa now

Partner for liquidity
Institutional liquidity grows through collaboration. Partner with exchanges, fintechs, and on/off-ramp providers to enable seamless fiat-to-KAS conversions. Build liquidity pools in key markets to stabilize settlement flows. Kii can help identify reliable partners already active in these regions.

Form consortiums
Banks, fintechs, and infrastructure providers can collaborate on shared standards and governance models. Consortiums accelerate adoption by aligning technical requirements and compliance protocols. Kii can coordinate early participants and publish integration guidelines.

BEGIN NOW

Institutions can begin adopting Kaspa today through measured, collaborative steps that demonstrate performance and compliance. Early pilots and partnerships through Kii will help define standards for scalable, decentralized finance infrastructure built on proof of work.  See more links and resourses below.

Developer and Foundation Resources

Developer’s Resources

KII: https://kaspa-kii.org/warpcore

KEF: https://www.kaspafoundation.org

Throughout history, money has been judged by two essential roles: Store of Value (SoV) and Medium of Exchange (MoE). The ability to preserve wealth over time and the ability to transact efficiently have defined whether a currency or asset was considered sound money.

The third role, Standard of Settlement (SoS), has historically been the responsibility of infrastructure rather than money itself. Gold and precious metals acted as long-term Stores of Value. Fiat currencies such as the British Pound and the US Dollar became the Medium of Exchange. Central banks, clearinghouses, and interbank networks provided the Standard of Settlement by finalizing obligations between institutions. No single system has ever unified all three functions within one architecture.

Modern cryptocurrencies introduced the possibility that a single network could combine these roles. With Bitcoin, the currency and the ledger were fused into one system, creating digital scarcity and finality on the same rails. Kaspa extends this model further by pairing a scarce and deflationary coin with a scalable blockDAG ledger and emerging programmability. Together, these elements create the potential for a unified architecture that serves as a Store of Value, a Medium of Exchange, and a Standard of Settlement for both money and data movement.

Other projects attempted to capture the Medium of Exchange or Standard of Settlement roles, but all encountered tradeoffs in scalability, decentralization, or adoption. Most depend on Layer 2 networks or sidechains to achieve throughput, fragmenting their ecosystems and weakening their base layers.

Kaspa is different. It is designed to unify all three roles on one secure Layer 1.

• $KAS, the coin, provides scarcity, deflationary design, and usability as Store of Value and Medium of Exchange.
• The Kaspa blockDAG ledger provides scalability, immutability, and decentralization as the base settlement infrastructure.
• Programmability, led by DagKnight and vPROGs, enables both speed and contract logic, making Kaspa a universal platform for financial and non-financial settlement.

This combination makes Kaspa the first system to address both the Crypto Trilemma (security, scalability, decentralization) and the Fiat Trilemma (saleability across time, scale, and space). More than a currency, Kaspa is a programmable settlement technology for money, data, and enterprise trust systems.

Kaspa as Store of Value (SoV)

A Store of Value is any asset that allows wealth to be preserved over time without being inflated away, confiscated, or rendered irrelevant. Scarcity has always been the defining feature of this role. For centuries, gold and other precious metals served as the foundation of value preservation. Fiat systems later tied their reserves to gold, or substituted with government bonds and central bank reserves, but these approaches have proven vulnerable to inflation and political interference.

Bitcoin shifted the paradigm by proving that scarcity could exist in digital form. With a fixed supply of 21 million coins and secured by Proof of Work, it became “digital gold.” The two elements together are what gave Bitcoin this title:

• Fixed supply created digital scarcity, replicating the finite nature of gold.
• Proof of Work tied the creation of new units to real-world energy and computation, mirroring the costliness and security of gold mining.

This combination meant Bitcoin could not be inflated, counterfeited, or altered. It gave Bitcoin the durability and credibility of a Store of Value in both the crypto ecosystem and traditional finance.

Other projects have attempted to position themselves as Stores of Value, though with limited success:

• Litecoin was marketed as “digital silver” but lacked a unique technical advantage.
• Monero built its SoV case on privacy and fungibility but regulatory pressure and exchange delistings constrained adoption.
• Zcash promoted itself as a privacy-preserving SoV but struggled with technical complexity and governance trust concerns.
• Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV presented themselves as more scalable versions of Bitcoin but fractured communities and limited adoption undermined their credibility.

Bitcoin remains the most recognized and adopted Store of Value today. Kaspa inherits the same fundamentals of fixed supply and Proof of Work which means it has the same capacity for digital scarcity. But Kaspa’s mission is not primarily to displace Bitcoin as SoV. Its strength lies in extending beyond SoV into the Medium of Exchange and Standard of Settlement roles, areas where Bitcoin has struggled and where Kaspa’s architecture provides clear advantages.

Why this matters

• Bitcoin has already secured the Store of Value role but cannot scale effectively into MoE or SoS.
• Kaspa’s SoV credibility ensures it can serve as digital scarcity when needed but without compromising its focus on usability and settlement.
• This positions Kaspa not as a competitor to Bitcoin’s SoV dominance but as the project that completes the other two essential functions of money and settlement.

Kaspa as Medium of Exchange (MoE)

A Medium of Exchange means money that can move quickly, cheaply, and reliably between people and systems. Litecoin positioned itself as digital silver. Bitcoin Cash forked from Bitcoin promising true peer-to-peer cash. Dash launched with InstantSend and branding as “digital cash.” Each made a push for MoE, but none became the standard.

Litecoin (self proclaimed, Digital Silver) and BCH stalled due to adoption limits. Dash gained some traction in select markets but never scaled beyond niches, with governance and funding issues slowing its progress. None managed to deliver a MoE that was both global and durable.

While these projects made incremental improvements, none achieved global adoption. Litecoin failed to differentiate itself from Bitcoin. Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV fractured communities and lost credibility. Dash’s innovations could not overcome network effects or regulatory hurdles. Ethereum and stablecoins have also become important MoE players, but congestion, unpredictable gas fees, and MEV distortions limit their reliability as true peer-to-peer money.

MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) refers to the ability of block producers or validators to manipulate the order of transactions for profit. On networks like Ethereum this can mean front-running trades, sandwiching transactions, or prioritizing transfers in ways that benefit insiders at the expense of ordinary users. In practice, MEV functions as a hidden tax on every transaction. It raises costs, undermines fairness, and makes users dependent on systems tilted toward large stakeholders and validators.

Kaspa resolves these limitations by delivering MoE functionality directly at Layer 1. Its blockDAG architecture allows transactions to confirm instantly, even under high load, with negligible fees. Because Kaspa will scale natively without relying on Layer 2 networks, every transaction benefits from the same security and neutrality. There is no fragmentation, no reliance on custodial rollups, and no MEV tax on users. Kaspa will provide a peer-to-peer cash system that actually scales without compromise.

Kaspa Also Solves the Fiat Trilemma.
It solves the crypto trilemma by being decentralized, secure, and scalable while remaining Proof of Work.
But it also resolves the Fiat Trilemma, the three qualities money has historically failed to unify:

1. Saleable across time – Value preserved without inflation or decay.
2. Saleable across scales – Works for micro-transactions as well as large settlements.
3. Saleable across space – Transferrable instantly across geographies.

Gold worked across time but failed across space. Fiat worked across space but failed across time. Bitcoin works across time and space, but struggles to scale due to throughput and latency. Kaspa is the first to unify all three, making it the most saleable form of money ever designed.
Shout out to PlanK (@MikoGenno on X)  http://youtube.com/@MikoGenno for this insight on scalability of Fiat.

Why this matters in the real world

• A café in Berlin can accept Kaspa faster than Visa, without the 3 percent cut.
• A gig worker in Manila can be paid instantly, not after days of waiting for PayPal or banks.
• Peer-to-peer marketplaces can operate globally, trustlessly, and at scale.

Why Proof of Work matters
PoW ensures that money is fair and immutable. Kaspa’s blockDAG keeps every participant on equal footing. Unlike PoS systems, where wealth compounds advantage, Kaspa’s security is grounded in energy and computation.

Kaspa is therefore not just another peer-to-peer cash attempt. It is the first system that combines the speed and efficiency of fiat rails with the fairness and neutrality of Proof of Work, all at Layer 1.
It is the first real peer-to-peer money that scales globally while being sound money across time, scales, and space.

See some merchants that accept Kaspa, here.

As for the Digital Silver Title, Kaspa actually means “Silver.”

Kaspa as Standard of Settlement (SoS)

Settlement is not simply the transfer of funds. It is the final clearing of value and information across enterprises, markets, and nations. In traditional finance, settlement has always been the responsibility of infrastructure, not the currency itself. Central banks, clearinghouses, and interbank networks finalize transactions while fiat currencies move on top of those systems.

The same principle applies in crypto. A coin alone cannot be a settlement layer. Bitcoin functions as a Store of Value, and projects like Litecoin and Dash attempted to serve as digital cash. Ethereum tried to combine settlement with programmability, while XRP, Stellar, and Algorand positioned themselves as institutional or finance-grade rails. Each demonstrated potential but encountered tradeoffs in scalability, decentralization, or adoption.

Kaspa approaches settlement differently. Its blockDAG ledger provides scalable, immutable infrastructure that finalizes transactions within seconds. With DagKnight, Kaspa will achieve internet-level transaction speeds while remaining decentralized, secure, and resistant to network chaos. On top of this, programmability is emerging. Community labs are exploring early frameworks, and the Kaspa core team is preparing vPROGs, a new model for programmable settlement logic. Unlike traditional smart contracts, vPROGs are designed to be simpler, safer, and more scalable, aligning with Kaspa’s settlement-first architecture.

Equally important is Kaspa’s commitment to Layer 1 scaling. Where Ethereum and others depend on Layer 2 networks and rollups to handle congestion, Kaspa achieves performance directly on the base layer. This ensures that settlement finality, security, and neutrality are not fragmented across external systems. By keeping all scaling and programmability at Layer 1, Kaspa preserves the integrity of its settlement layer.

Settlement beyond currency

Finance is only one part of the settlement story. Settlement ultimately means the secure finalization of transactions and records of any type. Kaspa’s architecture positions it as a universal settlement layer across both financial and non-financial domains:

Processes and Workflows: Supply chains, logistics, and manufacturing steps can anchor verifiable milestones.

Contracts and Agreements: Business and legal conditions can execute automatically with vPROGs.

Certifications and Credentials: Academic degrees, licenses, and compliance proofs can be issued and verified immutably.

Communication Records: Messages, media, and authorship proofs can be timestamped and validated.

Scientific Research and Data Integrity: Publications, datasets, and results can be anchored for reproducibility.

Identity and Governance: Digital IDs, voting, and KYC frameworks can settle securely on-chain.

This broadens settlement into the domain of value and data together. Just as the internet became the universal carrier of information, Kaspa can become the universal carrier of trusted transactions and records.

Why this matters

• Enterprises can clear cross-border supply chain transactions in seconds.
• Energy markets can finalize peer-to-peer power trades in real time.
• NGOs can transfer funds without fear of banking restrictions.
• Carbon credits, identity systems, and research data can be anchored immutably.
• Banks and financial institutions could continue to operate as they do today, but with Kaspa’s L1 DLT as a faster, more secure, and decentralized settlement foundation.

Why Proof of Work matters

Settlement requires trust that cannot be rewritten or manipulated by insiders. Proof of Work anchors finality in real-world energy and computation, making it immune to collusion or stake-based control. By tying security to physics rather than wealth, PoW ensures that Kaspa’s settlement layer remains fair, immutable, and universally secure.

Kaspa is not just another digital coin. It is a complete architecture: a scarce and deflationary asset, a decentralized ledger, and a programmable settlement layer that operates entirely at Layer 1. This makes it the first system capable of serving as a true Standard of Settlement for the digital age, across both money and data.

Kaspa Unites All Three

Historically, the functions of money and the systems that support it have always been split. Gold and later Bitcoin demonstrated the Store of Value role. Fiat currencies dominated the Medium of Exchange. Central banks and clearinghouses carried the responsibility of settlement infrastructure. No single framework ever unified all three.

Bitcoin remains the most recognized Store of Value, often compared directly to gold. But it is limited as a Medium of Exchange and cannot scale into a Standard of Settlement. Other projects have attempted to fill these roles, often relying on Layer 2 networks or trading off decentralization for throughput.

Kaspa is different. Its fixed supply and Proof of Work provide SoV credibility. Its blockDAG architecture enables real-time, low-cost transactions, making it a practical MoE. Its programmability through DagKnight and vPROGs positions it as a Standard of Settlement that extends beyond money into data, processes, and enterprise coordination. Most importantly, Kaspa does all of this at Layer 1, preserving security, neutrality, and immutability.

Kaspa therefore unifies what has historically been separate. It combines money’s core functions with system-level settlement into one secure architecture. 

Kaspa is not only faster digital money. It is the first universal programmable settlement layer of the digital age, where money, markets, and data converge securely at scale.

Further reading

Upcoming Development: Kaspa Development Milestones Revealed – 2025 – 2026
Insights on vProgs: https://x.com/michaelsuttonil/status/1966324370818711641
vProg Yellow Paper – https://github.com/kaspanet/research/blob/main/vProgs/vProgs_yellow_paper.pdf
Developer Resources – https://kaspa.org/developers-resources/
Kaspa RnD TG chats – https://t.me/kasparnd

Eliott Mea in France CtyptoXR Event

This event marks the culmination of nearly three years of monumental effort by the core development team, who have undertaken a complete architectural redesign and rewritten Kaspa’s core code from Golang to Rust, focusing on performance optimization across all possible fronts simultaneously. Thanks to this feat, Kaspa will become, by a wide margin, the fastest pure Proof-of-Work (PoW) coin in history, while maintaining the highest level of decentralization and transaction processing and confirmation speed in a permissionless, asynchronous system.

Moreover, this block generation speed, combined with linking blocks not in a chain but in a directed acyclic graph, creates a truly unique multi-leader consensus mechanism. This consensus has the potential to serve as the foundation for achieving the holy grails of crypto: a security budget, MEV (Miner Extractable Value) avoidance, and the implementation of reliable decentralized oracles.

At the same time, the code is written in such a way that running a full Kaspa node is possible on ordinary household PCs with standard internet connections, which is itself a unique feature for crypto projects offering this level of capability. It fully aligns with, and realizes in practice Satoshi’s vision of complete autonomy and self-sovereignty for every network participant, from large corporations and governments to ordinary individuals.

Last but not least, a new WASM interface for RPC requests was created along the way, greatly simplifying how wallets and apps interact with Kaspa nodes. It sparked a surge in Kaspa-compatible wallets, thanks to the sub-team that simultaneously worked on the node’s WASM subsystem and developed the Kaspa-NG wallet (https://kaspa-ng.org/) to replace the retiring Kaspa web and KDX wallets. People are gathering to watch and celebrate the transition online, so join us:

• @Kaspa Silver 𐤊 – Watch party: https://www.youtube.com/live/lLuT89eXmHY

• Blockchain Banter X Spaces: https://x.com/levendipro/status/1918000727378587861?t=m8Y4n7ycbtA6FkZtZcz7kQ

If, for some reason, you haven’t yet upgraded to the hardfork-ready node version, here’s the link to it: https://github.com/kaspanet/rusty-kaspa/releases/latest, and here’s the link to the post-fork working version of the Kaspa-stratum bridge which enables solo mining: https://github.com/aglov413/kaspa-stratum-bridge/releases/tag/v1.3.0

Today, without any doubt, will go down in crypto history as the day when the efforts of human intellect once again proved that the bastions of what seemed impossible inevitably fall under the pressure of talent and selfless dedication!

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X Post excerpts from Lead Developer, Michael Sutton about Crescendo

Kaspa’s 10 bps crescendo upgrade, activated today on mainnet, allows the innovation and scalability of the Ghostdag protocol (@hashdaget al) to truly shine for the first time. While the theory behind this multi‑leader, parallel‑structured DAG protocol has been implemented at 1 bps as well, a 1000‑millisecond block time is still sufficiently above modern internet RTT; thus, by tightening latency and network assumptions one can imagine a linear blockchain structure at 1 bps as well (cf. Solana’s 400 ms block time with a linear structure). Increasing the block rate to 10 per second, achieved by reducing block time to 100 ms (< 200 ms ≈ global RTT), can only be secure with a consensus protocol that inherently allows parallelism = multi‑leader consensus. Passing the RTT threshold is thus a qualitative, not merely a quantitative, leap. Link

A brain dump of all things crescendo, what’s included, what are the benefits… Link

Increasing the block per seconds from 1 to 10 bps while keeping block capacity ~fixed (more on that later). Throughput: obviously, transaction throughput increases. How much? almost tenfold but not exactly 10x. Having more parallel blocks increases the collision rate to some degree.

On TN10 and with current mempool txn selection policy, we observe ~80-90% efficiency (i.e., 80-90% of the txns are unique). If the mempool gets over congested and demand significantly exceeds capacity, this efficiency value goes towards 100%. So to conclude, TPS is increasing 8-9x. The missing info is mainnet average DAG width post-activation vs. today. Mempool policies can be finetuned in the coming future without a hardfork based on such real-world data. Frequency: average block time (=interval between blocks) is being reduced from 1 second to 100 milliseconds. This means blink-of-an-eye txn inclusion time. A transaction need not propagate to the whole network in order to be included; for instance, it can reach miners in its continent in 50ms and get mined after 200ms. The frequency also decreases post-inclusion confirmation times due to the increased density of the mining sampling process. Not to say confirmation times decrease tenfold, because they are now dominated by block latency which hasn’t changed. Rather, by back-of-the-envelope calculations, they have improved 30% (for the advanced: the tail of the Poisson governing worst-case DAG width diminishes faster, thus K can be set relatively lower, from 18 (1bps) to 124 (for 10bps) and not to 180 as one might expect).

Block parallelism: block parallelism increases with the block rate, and that, contrary to what you might think, is good. Despite collisions being slightly increased due to block parallelism, parallelism is crucial for creating a more fair system. It means there isn’t a monopoly of a single winning miner per round, but rather blocks must compete and make wise and competitive decisions within the latency round. The implications can be huge and far-reaching.

Oracle systems and MEV kickback auctions are some of the preliminary efforts. Going more into this is out-of-scope. I also need to justify why finance is becoming more relevant post-crescendo… assuming that’s the case, I think that even without implementing MEV kickback designs explicitly in consensus (yet), the mere intra-round “chaos” of the parallel DAG at 10 bps will already make economic manipulation much harder than in other, leader-based systems.

Other changes included in crescendo. How do I start, there’s so much.

KIP-9 is integrated into consensus, baking our unique state bloat solution inherently into the system. By the way, we call this “harmonic” sub-protocol the name STORM (for STORage Mass). In the process, KIP-9 was extended to include UTXO storage plurality (i.e., taxing a UTXO which consumes more storage appropriately), making it more futureproof.

KIP-10 adds support for basic covenants and additive addresses.

KIP-13 regulates transient storage requirements more strictly. Smart contract-related changes: KIP-14 enables payloads, allowing txns to carry arbitrary data (e.g., smart contract function calls).

KIP-15 is a technically minor upgrade — comprising one line of code — but enables a conceptually meaningful feature, allowing nodes to archive only transactions and prove their sequencing and acceptance trustlessly. This is significant for allowing pre-zk era L2 nodes to store and prove full SC execution to new syncers at a reasonable cost—hence effectively making such systems possible right after crescendo. The change proposed is a tiny subset of the zk design proposal (see Kaspa research forum—based rollups design posts) where such a mechanism was proposed as a necessary requirement for zk systems to operate over Kaspa, and turned out to have significant value also pre-zk. Overall, this means that preliminary SC L2s are possible over post-crescendo Kaspa (or Kaspa 2.0 as @hashdag refers to it internally) with sufficient trust models.

Crescendo is an historical moment in permissionless distributed systems, showing that a multi-leader consensus real-world system can achieve block times shorter than global internet round-trip time (RTT) without artificially suppressing the P2P network size or assuming proximity. Link