Is Kaspa Proof of Work?
Yes. Kaspa is mined Proof of Work. It is not Proof of Stake.
FAQ
Direct answers to common Kaspa questions.
Use this page when you need the shortest careful answer. For more detail, follow the status page, glossary, and source map.
Last verified: May 4, 2026. Status-sensitive answers should be rechecked after June 20, 2026, or sooner if primary technical sources update the roadmap.
No. It is targeted, with a public June 5-20, 2026 window as last checked May 4, 2026.
Common search Is DAGKnight live?No. DAGKnight is a research and upgrade direction, not current mainnet behavior.
Common search Does Kaspa have smart contracts?Not as a mature live app environment. The near-term path runs through Toccata and later vProgs.
Common search What is GHOSTDAG?Kaspa's live rule for ordering a blockDAG so parallel honest blocks can contribute to consensus.
Live network
What is live now?
What is GHOSTDAG?
GHOSTDAG is Kaspa's live consensus rule for ordering a blockDAG so parallel honest blocks can contribute to consensus.
What does 10 BPS mean?
It means roughly ten blocks per second in the Crescendo-era network. It does not mean unlimited throughput or instant finality.
Roadmap and research
What is not live yet?
Is Toccata live?
No. It is a targeted hard-fork track with a public June 5-20, 2026 window as last checked May 4, 2026.
Are Kaspa smart contracts live?
Not as a mature Ethereum-style app environment. The near-term path runs through Toccata, covenants, ZK foundations, sequencing commitments, and later vProgs.
Is DAGKnight live?
No. DAGKnight is a parameterless/adaptive consensus upgrade direction, not current mainnet behavior.
Are vProgs live?
No. vProgs are roadmap architecture for app-level verifiable programs, not mature live app rails today.
Is native Kaspa DeFi live?
No. Native DeFi remains roadmap/application architecture, dependent on future foundations and tooling.
Are RTD-derived oracle or TangVM flows live?
No. Base RTD is Hashdag's real-time PoW framing for Kaspa. Oracle, TangVM, miner-attestation, and coordination-market systems are downstream research or architecture ideas.
Does DAGKnight use observed latency?
Not merely. The research framing is based on adversarial or worst-case latency assumptions, not just smooth latency visible during normal network conditions.
What does Solana-like mean?
It means a cohesive, Rust-friendly developer and user experience. It does not mean importing Solana execution or making Kaspa L1 run every app's logic.
Comparison
How should Kaspa be described?
Is Kaspa just Bitcoin but faster?
No. A better short description is: Kaspa is Proof of Work redesigned around parallel blocks. It keeps mined security while using a blockDAG and GHOSTDAG ordering.
Does Kaspa solve every scaling problem?
No. The live claim is narrower: faster Proof-of-Work inclusion and confirmation dynamics through a blockDAG, with storage, node resources, fees, and future app infrastructure still important.
Does Kaspa require super-fast internet?
Current GHOSTDAG has latency assumptions, like other synchronous consensus systems. DAGKnight is the future research direction for removing a fixed protocol latency parameter; it is not live today.
Does pruning make Kaspa private?
No. Pruning and missing explorer history are not privacy guarantees. UTXO state remains the consensus object, and broadcast transactions can still be observed or archived by others.