Kaspa is a proof-of-work cryptocurrency which implements the PHANTOM GHOSTDAG protocol.
Unlike traditional blockchains, GHOSTDAG does not orphan blocks created in parallel, rather allows them to coexist and orders them in consensus. Whereby our blockchain is actually a blockDAG; you can see GHOSTDAG in action in a real-time blockDAG visualizer. This generalization of Nakamoto consensus allows for secure operation while maintaining very high block rates (currently one block per second, aiming for 10/sec, dreaming of 100/sec) and minuscule confirmation times dominated by internet latency (cf. chapter 6 of the the paper for some initial benchmarks).
Kaspa is a community project, completely open source, no central governance, no biz model. Think Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero, Grin, Kaspa. The mainnet was openly launched without premining or any other preallocation of coins. Kaspa was initially created by DAGlabs, and later DAGLab renounced ownership and transferred Kaspa to public domain approximately six months before the mainnet launch.
Currently, core code development is undertaken by dozens of individuals from around the world, with many more contributing to the ecosystem.
So far Kaspa is the only coin which achieves scalable throughput and immediate confirmations based on simple POW principles alone. The simplicity of Kaspa protocol makes it provably secure, which could not be said for any POS coin (since that is an outstanding open problem). Kaspa manages to achieve high performance using only rudimentary and well-understood tools. At the core, it is a very gentle and "not fancy" generalization of the Nakamoto consensus. At the same time, Kaspa is a classic decentralized solution, unlike fast but by definition centralized coins such as Solana, Ripple and others alike.
Kaspa is the only proof of work that can scale down confirmation times. This is the only technology that can provide the security and decentralization of proof-of-work while providing reactiveness and throughput previously believed to be reserved for proof-of-stake.
The huge consequences of this is: it enables new SC architectures that provide the simplicity of zk-rollups and the responsiveness and security of on-chain execution. In fact, rollups on Kaspa can have better responsiveness. This means that once the zk-opcodes — and, later, Sparkle development stack — are implemented, L2s over Kaspa will be faster (due to low confirmation times), cheaper (due to high TPS), and easier to develop (due to the off-chain-on-chain architecture that circumvents gas issues, Turing completeness etc.) than on any other blockchain.
The high parallelism of Kaspa provides unique solutions, that are literally impossible on all current PoWs, for MEV resistance (as far as it's known, it's the only known purely game-theoretic solution to MEV resistance) and the fee market (again, currently Kaspa is the only network where the game theory of the fee market has no starvation-vs.-congestion dynamics): arguably the two most substantial challenges facing cryptocurrencies.
Kaspa also provides other unique solutions to other hard problems:
The list just keeps going.
Kaspa was conceived as a tool meant to become what Bitcoin did not: a decentralized, uncensorable, secure means of payment as fast as modern Internet, and the ultimate platform for any L2 solutions.
It has all the necessary prerequisites to realize this vision; much of the work has already been done, and the rest is steadily being achieved by a team of top-class enthusiasts and professionals, supported by one of the most cohesive communities in the crypto sphere.
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Please find some useful links to better understand what Kaspa is and what is its background.
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