Sources & Reference Map | Kaspa Explained

Source hierarchy

Not every source should carry the same weight.

Kaspa has many useful public contributors. This map keeps each source in its proper lane: code, KIPs, releases, research papers, protocol documentation, core technical commentary, long-form context, learning libraries, and discovery channels.

Shipped-status sources

rusty-kaspa, releases, KIPs, protocol documentation, and activation records anchor claims about what users can actually do today.

Consensus / protocol sources

Kaspa Research, papers, protocol docs, code, and direct technical explanations carry claims about GHOSTDAG, blockDAG ordering, pruning, and security assumptions.

Roadmap / Toccata sources

Michael Sutton, KIP discussions, technical posts, release candidates, and future activation artifacts carry timing and implementation-context claims.

Learning references

Kaspa.com Learn Kaspa and KASmedia are useful for approachable vocabulary, diagrams, and topic orientation.

Media / context

Bitcoin Takeover, Oxford, long recordings, transcripts, and interviews help with framing, history, and community interpretation.

Discovery-only sources

X posts, replies, dashboards, and aggregators can surface links or corrections. They should not carry shipped-status claims by themselves.

Short version: code, releases, KIPs, research papers, and protocol docs carry shipped-status claims. Public explainers, media, interviews, and X posts help readers understand context and find links.

Claim to source

Use the strongest source for the claim.

Claim type	Best source class	Use with care
Live feature or activation status	Code, releases, KIPs, activation records, protocol docs.	Portal articles and social posts are context, not final proof.
Consensus mechanics	Kaspa Research, papers, protocol docs, code, and technical contributor explanations.	Simple explainers can omit assumptions or edge cases.
Toccata timing and scope	Michael Sutton's Toccata outlook, KIP discussion, testnet/audit/rehearsal updates, and release artifacts.	Older roadmap pages can lag the current public target window.
vProgs and native app architecture	vProgs talks, technical posts, KIPs, and future formal papers or implementation docs.	Do not describe native DeFi as live until shipped software supports it.
DAGKnight and adaptive consensus	Hashdag, Kaspa Research, papers, and direct technical explanations.	DAGKnight is not current mainnet behavior.
RTD framing	hashd.ag/raw and Yonatan/Hashdag context for real-time PoW framing.	Oracle, TangVM, and coordination-market systems are downstream research or architecture.
North-star framing	Bitcoin Takeover S16 E41 with Yonatan Sompolinsky for the broad PoW, Bitcoin, Kaspa, DeFi, Solana-like UX, and community-project framing.	Use it for context, not as proof that an upgrade is activated.

Kaspa.com Learn Kaspa

A useful public learning library.

Kaspa.com Learn Kaspa is useful for explaining the vocabulary behind Kaspa: BlockDAGs, GHOSTDAG, parents and mergesets, blue score and blue work, k-clusters, pruning, UTXO commitments, finality, transaction selection, mass, opcodes, KIPs, and node types.

Kaspa Explained uses it as a credited learning reference for vocabulary and approachable mechanics.

Fundamentals

Ordering and consensus

Finality and timing

Network mechanics

Storage, pruning, and mass

Programmability and upgrades

Kaspa.com Learn Kaspa article index

Kaspa and the "Bitcoin Scaling Problem" - frames Kaspa's scaling answer as including parallel honest work rather than forcing every block into one linear sequence.
Pruning Depth - explains the practical retention boundary that lets full nodes manage storage while continuing to validate.
KIP 10 - introduces transaction introspection and arithmetic extensions as building blocks for safer script-level programmability.
A Guide to Learning Kaspa - organizes the concept map by foundations, data structures, GHOSTDAG mechanics, parameters, processing, and DAA.
KIP 20 - adds covenant identifiers so covenant chains can be tracked through UTXOs without relying on fragile prior-transaction proof patterns.
KIP 21 - describes partitioned sequencing commitments so ZK proof work can follow application lanes instead of one global transaction stream.
OpCodes - shows Kaspa script as stack-based validation rules, from basic signatures toward richer spending conditions.
Anatomy of a Block - breaks a block into header, transaction list, proof-of-work, DAG references, and commitment structure.
DAGKNIGHT - presents the parameterless/adaptive consensus direction that responds to actual network conditions rather than fixed latency assumptions.
Smart Contracts - places Kaspa programmability on a staged path through script, KIP-10, covenants, ZK verification, and future vProgs; its chess walkthrough is useful as a concrete UTXO state-machine example.
Storage Mass (KIP-0009) - explains quadratic pricing for UTXO-set growth as a defense against state-bloat externalities.
Block Processing Pipeline - describes the validation pipeline from headers and bodies through virtual-state computation and pruning.
Past Median Time - explains how sampled historical timestamps help validate new block timestamps in a high-throughput DAG.
Timestamp Validation - covers future-time and past-median checks that protect chronological consistency.
Virtual Parents - explains how the virtual block selects parents to maintain a bounded, consistent current-state view.
TX Validation - separates transaction checks into isolation, header-context, and state-validation phases.
Coinbase Transactions - explains miner rewards, issuance, fees, validation, and maturity in the block template flow.
Sink Selection - describes how the virtual selected parent gives a parallel DAG a primary state reference.
DAA Score - explains Kaspa's block-based timing metric for difficulty adjustment and consensus windows.
Transaction Mass - combines compute, transient storage, and UTXO-set impact into a resource measure for high-throughput validation.
Virtual Block - explains the conceptual current-state block that aggregates DAG tips into a consistent network view.
Anticone Finalization Depth - explains when parallel paths are effectively closed enough for strong finalization confidence.
Blocks per Second - explains that BPS changes require proportional security-parameter scaling, not just faster block emission.
Mergeset Size Limit - describes the cap that keeps parallel inclusion practical for processing and storage.
Kaspa Cheat Sheet - provides a broad quick-reference map across consensus concepts, security, economics, and network mechanics.

Merge Depth Bound - explains the time boundary that prevents very old blocks from being merged in ways that threaten stability.
DAA Window - explains how recent blocks are sampled to keep mining difficulty responsive as hashrate changes.
Finality Depth - explains the point at which blocks become final enough for pruning and reorg resistance.
What is Kaspa? - gives the general entry frame: high-speed transactions through BlockDAG while preserving security and decentralization goals.
k-Cluster - explains how the best-connected subgraph helps identify blocks that fit the honest consensus structure.
Intro Transaction Selection - explains why Kaspa shifts from taking all ready transactions to probabilistic selection under congestion.
Blue Score and Blue Work - separates block counting from accumulated PoW measurement inside a DAG.
First Order Pruning - explains pruning old block transaction data while preserving the UTXO set needed for validation.
DAG Terminology - defines past, future, anticone, mergeset, and K so readers can reason about non-linear block relationships.
GHOSTDAG Simplified - explains how GHOSTDAG orders a DAG and classifies blocks while preserving security properties.
Parents vs Mergeset - clarifies the difference between direct references and consensus-relevant included blocks.
Second Order Pruning - explains deeper pruning of consensus data while preserving enough proofs for future validation.
Kaspa UTXO Model - explains spendable outputs as the foundation for ownership, validation, and pruning.
MuHash - explains compact UTXO-set commitments that help nodes verify state across pruning boundaries.
Kaspa - Linking the Body to the Header - explains Merkle and accepted-transaction commitments that bind transaction bodies to block headers.
Kaspa BlockDAG - introduces directed acyclic graphs as the structure that lets Kaspa represent parallel block production.
Archival Nodes vs Full Nodes - explains that pruned full nodes still validate consensus while archival nodes retain complete historical data.
Probabilistic and Deterministic Finality in Kaspa - distinguishes growing confirmation confidence from deterministic finality points used for pruning and violation detection.
Transaction Selection - explains the adaptive selection strategy across low, moderate, and heavy congestion.
K Parameter - explains K as the security parameter limiting blue anticone size in GHOSTDAG.
Kaspa Blue Work - Ordering pt4 - explains accumulated blue-block proof-of-work as the basis for ordering and tie-breaking.
Kaspa Blue vs Red - Ordering pt3 - explains which blocks contribute to the consensus structure and which are excluded from blue work.
Kaspa Mergeset - Ordering pt2 - explains how GHOSTDAG chooses the blocks to include beside a selected parent.
Kaspa Parent Chain - Ordering pt1 - contrasts Bitcoin's sequential heaviest-chain selection with Kaspa's blue-work-backed parallel integration.

KASmedia context

A broad community archive for theory, interviews, updates, and ecosystem context.

KASmedia is useful for developer recaps, interviews, weekly context, and theory posts. Treat it as community context and verify activation claims against primary protocol/code sources.

The most useful material for Kaspa Explained is not the price or hype coverage. It is the repeated technical and conceptual material: Understanding GHOSTDAG, PoW vs BFT, safety/liveness/confirmation time, fee-market design, Rusty Kaspa/Crescendo, Toccata/Covenants++, vProgs, RTD, oracles, wallets, custody, and real user infrastructure.

Theory and consensus

The GHOSTDAG and blockDAG theory posts help explain heaviest-chain rules, GHOST, PHANTOM, k-clusters, safety, liveness, selfish mining, confirmation times, and why ordering rules matter more than the word "DAG."

Roadmap interpretation

KASmedia's developer recaps and interviews help readers follow Toccata, covenants, vProgs, ZK architecture, DAGKnight prototypes, and RTD direction.

Human context

Use interviews and weekly roundups to understand wallets, point-of-sale tools, miner/device context, community infrastructure, education projects, and how normal users actually encounter Kaspa.

For a guided explanation, use the Kaspa Knowledge Map.

External references

Core source list used by Kaspa Explained.

hashd.ag and hashd.ag/raw for Hashdag / Yonatan Sompolinsky's writing archive, including long-running arguments about composability, shared state, and the limits of fragmented execution layers.
Michael Sutton on Toccata for covenants, ZK verification, sequencing commitments, Silverscript, and vProgs bridge context.
rusty-kaspa GitHub and rusty-kaspa releases for implementation and release evidence.
Kaspa KIPs for proposal status and protocol-change records. Confirm activation through code, releases, and consensus documentation.
Kaspa Research for KIPs, protocol design debates, fee mechanics, vProgs, covenants, and tradeoffs.
Kaspa Q&A for detailed technical answers from developers and informed community members.
Kaspa.org for community-maintained public portal context and broad summaries.
KASmedia for weekly community context, interviews, and explainers.
Kaspa.com Learn Kaspa for introductory topic vocabulary.
Bitcoin Takeover S16 E41 transcript and full recording as the north-star interview for explanatory framing and status nuance.
hashd.ag/raw for Hashdag's RTD, Staghunt, TangVM, and coordination-market framing.
Kaspa: Mining the Internet for miner-attestation and internet-money-layer framing.
Yonatan's Oxford Union address and Oxford Union Q&A for coordination-markets framing.
Michael Sutton's vProgs talk for verifiable-program context.
KASmedia fast-PoW recap for the fast inclusion vs fast confirmations distinction.
Bitcoin whitepaper, Ethereum scaling docs, Solana, XRPL, BNB Chain, and TRON for comparison context.

Public crawl map

Useful public files.

Human pages

Reference files

The sitemap intentionally excludes AGENTS.md. It can remain in the repository for local agent instructions, but it does not need to be advertised as public crawl material.

Source map for the Kaspa Explained guide.