Chapter 01 · Why you'd care
Money that settles in seconds, with nobody in charge.
Like Bitcoin, anyone can check the rules. Unlike Bitcoin, a payment settles in seconds, not an hour.
The chain map
Mined like Bitcoin, hard to undo in seconds, used far less than the big chains so far.
Proof-of-workProof-of-stakeNo money in apps countedDot size: money in apps
The chain tier list
Use, money in apps and builders, each graded against the leader.
- SEthereumA shared computer for apps and stablecoinsUseB1.9M/dayMoneyS$43.7BBuildersS8.9K
- ASolanaOne fast chain for every appUseS120M/dayMoneyA$5.4BBuildersA2.5K
- ABaseCheap Ethereum apps, run by CoinbaseUseA7.5M/dayMoneyA$5.9BBuildersA1.4K
- ABitcoinHard money that changes slowlyUseB532K/dayMoneyA$4.1BBuildersA2.5K
- CKaspaBitcoin-style security at ten blocks a secondUseC72.3K/dayMoneyn/aBuildersB32
Kaspa itself has no smart-contract apps yet; third-party layer 2s are not counted.
Kaspa’s scoreboard: 3 strong, 3 open, 1 weak
- StrongSecurity. Proof-of-work, like Bitcoin; no premine, no sale
- StrongSpeed. A payment settles in 1 to 3 seconds
- StrongThroughput. Ten blocks a second on mainnet, live above
- OpenUse. 72.3K payments a day (read Nov 4, 2026), a fraction of the big chains
- OpenApps. Coins with rules since June 2026; shared apps on Kaspa itself are still a prototype, so there is no money in apps to count yet
- OpenMiner pay later. New coins pay almost all of miners’ income today; fees have to grow
- WeakBuilders. 32 active developers a month, vs 8,859 on Ethereum
See the newest real payment, checked: the receipt module in Check it yourself lays it out plain.
Two maps hang off this chapter: one payment, end to end, and the open questions nobody has settled yet.
The one sentenceKaspa is money that settles in seconds and is secured like Bitcoin.
The exact version
The same chapter with the workings shown: the derivations, the edge cases, and the numbers behind the plain version.
What you can do with it today
What you can do with it today
- Hold and send it.Get a , buy KAS on an exchange, send it to anyone. It lands in about a second and the is usually far below a cent.
- Take payments.A shop sees your payment in seconds, not minutes, without a card company in the middle.
- Lock coins with rules.Since June 2026 a coin can carry its own rules, like a vault that only pays out to your savings wallet (see Coins with rules).
- Run shared apps, later.Apps that many people use at once, checked by math instead of trust. Built, not live: a prototype.
Where Kaspa fits among the coins you’ve heard ofA side-by-side table: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, stablecoins and Kaspa.
| Coin | Who keeps it honest | New block | Hard to undo after | Supply | Mostly used for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | Miners, by | every ~10 min | ~1 hour (6 blocks) | 21 million, fixed | Saving, big transfers |
| Ethereum | Holders, by | every 12 s | ~13 min | No cap | Apps and tokens |
| Solana | Holders, by proof-of-stake | every 0.2 s | ~0.15 s (target) | No cap | Fast apps, trading |
| The company that issues it | Whatever chain it runs on | As many dollars as it holds | Dollar payments | ||
| Kaspa | Miners, by proof-of-work | every 0.1 s | 1 to 3 s | ~28.7 billion, fixed | Built for payments; little use yet |
Sources and the raw numbers
The chain map: sources and dates
Transactions a day: Nov 3, 2026 (growthepie for Ethereum, api.kaspa.org for Kaspa), Bitcoin’s last 24 h from Blockchair and Solana’s non-vote transactions from its public RPC, sampled Nov 4, 2026; chains count transactions differently. Money in apps: DefiLlama chain TVL, Nov 4, 2026 (Ethereum $43.7B, Solana $5.4B, Bitcoin $4.1B); Kaspa has none counted, because shared apps on Kaspa itself are not live and third-party layer 2s are not counted. Time until hard to undo: Bitcoin six blocks, about 1 h (white paper); Ethereum about 13 min (ethereum.org); Solana about 0.15 s since Alpenglow, Oct 21, 2026; Kaspa 1 to 3 s (Yonatan Sompolinsky, see The race). Checked Nov 4, 2026. Base is in the tier list below but not on the map: its time to final depends on Ethereum.
The tier list: how it is graded, and sources
Tier per column: S within 3× of the leader, A within 30×, B 300×, C 3,000×, D beyond; overall is the middle of the three. Where a column is not graded, overall is the lower of the two graded columns (Kaspa: Use C, Builders B, so C). “Aim” is our one-line summary, not a grade. Use: transactions a day, Nov 3, 2026 (growthepie for Ethereum and Base, api.kaspa.org for Kaspa, non-coinbase), Bitcoin’s last 24 h from Blockchair and Solana’s non-vote transactions from its public RPC, both sampled Nov 4 around 07:30 CET. Chains count transactions differently, and Solana’s include a lot of bot trading. Money: DefiLlama chain TVL, Nov 4. Kaspa’s Money is not graded: Kaspa itself has no smart-contract apps yet, and third-party layer 2s are not counted. Builders: monthly active developers on Oct 25, 2026, the newest day in Electric Capital’s Open Dev Data release of Nov 2 (read Nov 4) (CC BY 4.0). Speed, fees and supply: see the chapters below.