Send, receive, and hold your own KAS on the live proof-of-work UTXO blockDAG.
Current status
Kaspa current status
Kaspa's blockDAG keeps every honest block miners make, and GHOSTDAG orders them into one UTXO history. This page labels what runs on mainnet today and what is still on the way.
Legend
Live
Targeted
Roadmap
Research
Not live
Checked: August 8, 2026. Public mainnet REST checks reported kaspa-mainnet on a synced v2.0.1 node. Virtual DAA score was 507,631,731, well above the activation score. Supply came back at about 27.63 billion KAS, with a block reward of 2.31246515 KAS at the current emission step. Toccata: the status table below has the activation record; Toccata status has the post-activation checks.
Usable today
What users can do now
Run a node, or study explorers, visualizers, pruning, and GHOSTDAG ordering.
Kaspa is ASIC-mined today. Kaspa mining covers miner-to-node setup, plus the price and hash rate cycle behind it.
Wallet UX, payment flows, dashboards, teaching, and plumbing build on today's 10 BPS base.
A public REST reading is a snapshot. Check it against a node, release notes, and KIP status first.
Snapshot
Status in one table
| Feature / idea | Status | Plain meaning | Anchor source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proof of Work | Live | Kaspa runs on proof-of-work mining. Work and new coins never depend on a list of validators. | rusty-kaspa |
| UTXO model | Live | Kaspa tracks spendable outputs, the same model Bitcoin uses. Ethereum tracks balances instead. | rusty-kaspa |
| GHOSTDAG | Live | GHOSTDAG keeps blocks that lose the race to be first, instead of throwing them out. It then orders every kept block into one history. | Kaspa Research |
| Crescendo 10 BPS | Live | 10 blocks per second is live. Michael Sutton put the throughput gain at roughly 8-9x and the confirmation-time gain around 30%. Neither figure is instant finality, and a flat "10x faster confirmations" claim goes past his own numbers. | rusty-kaspa releases; Crescendo roadmap note |
| August 8 L1 snapshot | Live | Mainnet REST readout: virtual DAA 507,631,731, about 27.627 billion KAS from the supply endpoint, 2.31246515 KAS per block. The node answering was v2.0.1 and synced. These numbers move by the hour; recheck before quoting them. Skip the block and header counts from this endpoint. It spreads reads across backend nodes with different pruning states, so the figure covers only the node that answered. Two reads a minute apart returned 1,488,846 and 26,573,222. | mainnet blockDAG API; supply API; block reward API |
| Emission schedule | Live | Emission steps down every 2,629,800 seconds by a factor of 2-1/12, about 5.61% a step, 426 steps deep in the consensus table. The steps are triggered by DAA score, which is exact, so quote that. It went 25.95654359 KAS/sec at DAA 452,313,000, then 24.49971474 at 478,611,000, then 23.12465141 at 504,909,000, which is where the network sits now. That step fired around August 5, 2026 and the block reward API moved with it, from 2.44997148 to 2.31246515 KAS per block. The next step is 21.82676446 KAS/sec at DAA 531,207,000, roughly September 4, 2026. Calendar dates drift because they depend on how fast blocks land. The DAA triggers do not. No month is a cliff, and the August step was routine, the same as May, June, and July. | coinbase.rs subsidy table; block reward API; Kaspa Wiki tokenomics |
| Base RTD framing | Live | Real-time decentralization is Hashdag's name for Kaspa's core trade. Bitcoin-style PoW security and censorship resistance, with confirmations that feel seconds-scale on a normal network. | Kaspa.org lore; hashd.ag/raw |
| Toccata | Live | Hard fork for L1 spend rules, asset rules, Silverscript, ZK proof checks, sequencing commitments, standalone based-zk apps, and vProgs groundwork. Rusty Kaspa v2.0.1 is the current Toccata release. v2.0.0 set mainnet activation at DAA 474,165,565. | v2.0.1 release; v2.0.0 activation release; Toccata guide; tn10-toc3 release; Kaspa KIPs |
| vProgs | Roadmap | Apps that prove richer logic while sharing Kaspa ordering. L1 never becomes one global VM that runs everything. | vProgs repo; programmability docs |
| Native DeFi | Roadmap | A design target that follows Toccata-era L1 foundations. A live Kaspa-native app layer needs shipped apps and real usage. | Design case |
| DAGKnight | Research | A parameterless consensus direction, meaning it adapts instead of being tuned by hand. It does not run mainnet today; GHOSTDAG does. | KIP-2, still Status: Proposed; hashd.ag |
| 100 BPS / partition-resilient payments | Research | Kaspa.org puts 10-millisecond blocks, 100 BPS, and partition-resilient local payments in a proposed 2027 hard fork. No spec, code, release, or activation evidence exists yet. | Kaspa.org lore |
| RTD-derived oracle / TangVM flows | Research | Apps can build oracle, TangVM, attestation, and coordination-market systems on top of Kaspa. The protocol ships none of them as products. | hashd.ag/raw |
Common misconceptions
Statements that need context or measurement
Most Kaspa confusion comes from one move: mixing a live protocol fact, a test result, a public target, and a project headline into one sentence. Before you repeat a claim, pull those apart.
| Claim people repeat | Measured version | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Mainnet speed means a fixed huge TPS number. | 10 BPS is live. Simple-payment capacity runs roughly 2.5k to 3.4k TPS depending on transaction shape. Covenant apps, ZK proofs, tokens, and vProg-style systems each need their own workload number. See What is Kaspa. | One number turns a real technical edge into a brittle marketing claim. |
| Block rate alone gives an exact finality number. | Faster blocks improve inclusion and capacity. Confirmation confidence is a separate question of odds. | Users care about both: when a payment shows up, and how sure they should be it stays. |
| Testnet or lab numbers are mainnet guarantees. | Testnets and experiments signal direction. They aren't commitments, and need a current source check before they become a live public claim. | What might ship, what a test showed, and what the network does are three different things. |
| Real-time means instant finality. | Real-time describes the fast-PoW user feel and the decentralization goal. It does not claim every payment is instantly final. | The pitch stays strong without overselling how final a payment is. |
| DAGKnight, vProgs, or native DeFi are live because code or talks exist. | Code, talks, branches, and demos prove work happened. Activation or production status needs stronger evidence than that. | Work in progress ranks below a release or an activation record. |
| Toccata means one action can already span several apps, all or nothing. | Toccata is the foundation for covenant rules, ZK proof checks, sequencing commitments, and based-zk apps. Composing separately compiled covenant apps atomically in one transaction is possible on Toccata itself. Argent's Inter-Covenant Communication does exactly that, so far only in unaudited offline demos. vProgs still differs on shared mutable state, the case where many users change one app state at once. | Fast L1 coordination is one claim. Several apps acting in one operation is another. |
| July 2026 is a sudden emission cliff. | Emission steps down monthly. The status table above lists the exact steps; there is no single-day July cliff. | The scarcity story is the monthly step-down schedule. |
Beyond price
Signals that show whether Kaspa is being used
Price moves on leverage and story faster than it moves on use. The better signals: wallets, nodes, mining spread, fees paid, liquidity, and transactions that are not scripted traffic.
The L1 rules apps need are live. Still missing: wallets, explorers, SDKs, working examples, and transactions from repeat users. What changed in Kaspa this month carries the current mainnet covenant counts.
| Signal | What it would show | What can mislead |
|---|---|---|
| Wallet usage | People hold their own keys and send coins with no expert needed. | Downloads, addresses, and screenshots overcount. None of them shows a repeat user. |
| Node health | Checking the chain stays spread across many owners. | A raw node count hides who hosts them, and hides dead ones. |
| Mining distribution | Hash power is spread across many separate miners. | Hashrate alone hides where the pools, chips, and power come from. |
| Fees and block demand | Users pay enough for block space to fund security over the long run. | Spam, airdrop farming, and scripted traffic pump the number. |
| Liquidity | Users, miners, and builders can get in and out without pain. | Liquidity can be pure betting. It does not show that anyone uses the product. |
| Developer activity | Tools, wallets, and apps keep getting better. | Commits and posts are noisy. Neither shows that a user got something. |
| Integrations | Wallets, explorers, exchanges, and receipt tools carry working support for the network. | A listing or a partner post can sit there with no use behind it. |
| Workflow-linked on-chain activity | Repeat transactions tied to wallets, app state, receipts, or access show real pull. | Campaigns, raw mints, spam, and scripted loops pump the count. |
| Receipt and payload activity | Payment receipts and payload records show on-chain data doing real work. | Scripted loops, or records nobody ever redeems, can look like uptake. |
| Toccata-era apps | Vault, asset, proof, and market rules turning into apps people use. | TN10/TN12 tests and demos can run ahead of the wallets, explorers, and liquidity apps need. |
Four numbers get read as adoption when they are not. Price brings attention and liquidity, and it also moves on leverage, thin float, and market cycles that have nothing to do with the protocol; the mining page splits price from hash rate, ASIC markets, and fees. Social attention helps teaching, and it also breeds hype that outruns the software that shipped. Roadmap buzz counts demos, testnets, and shipped mainnet features as one number: Toccata shipped, DAGKnight and vProgs have not. A raw transaction count means nothing until it is split into users, spam, exchange moves, apps, and tests.
- Users understand the benefit. Wallets and guides make fast PoW confirmation easy for a non-expert to follow.
- Running your own stays real. What a node or a miner needs does not narrow to a handful of operators.
- Security pays for itself. Fees, mining rewards, and hash power fund a security budget that lasts past the next cycle.
- Roadmap work ships without hype. Toccata activated on schedule. The next test is whether the app work built on it ships without being called "live" too soon.
- Education stays honest. The best Kaspa writing keeps live facts, roadmap, research, and price talk in separate boxes.
App and product claims
Testing a pitch built on top of Kaspa
A protocol activating on schedule does not tell you whether an app built on it works. Product claims need a separate test: who uses it, where the liquidity comes from, who signs what, and what evidence backs it up.
For protocol status, use the claims checker. When a demo or txid is being used to prove a builder claim, use the build page.
| Claim type | Real signal | Weak signal | Kaspa question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launchpad | Issuance, wallet flow, a liquidity path, visible holders, abuse controls. | A token button and a roadmap. | What can launch today, and where does the liquidity actually come from? |
| DeFi | Risk parameters, an oracle model, a liquidation path, an audit trail, liquidity, working transactions. | The word "DeFi" stapled to any token page. | Is this live mainnet, TN10/TN12 testnet evidence, or just an app idea riding on Toccata's name? |
| AI agent | The agent signs, pays, receives, proves work, or triggers a bounded workflow on-chain. | Chatbot copy wrapped around a token. | What action actually happens on Kaspa, and who can verify it? |
| Wallet | Clear signing, recovery, balances, history, error states, source verification. | Nice screens with no real transaction handling underneath. | Does a normal user know what they're signing? |
| Institutional use | Custody, compliance, reporting, settlement, liquidity, support, integration requirements. | One vague partnership post. | Which institution, which requirement, and what's the evidence? |
What other chains' product history says about the Kaspa gaps
| Observed behavior | Consequence | Kaspa gap | Possible experiment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low-friction asset launches | Creation, liquidity, and attention collapse into one flow. | No Kaspa-native route from asset launch to tradable liquidity exists yet. | A restrained post-Toccata asset tool with wallet safety, source labels, and abuse warnings. |
| Swap aggregation | Users want one route across liquidity sources instead of five tabs. | No native DEX or swap routing yet. | Track early swap attempts by quote quality, liquidity source, and signing UX. |
| Hackathon intake | Deadlines, judges, examples, and funding produce repeatable builder submissions. | Builder activity here is less structured in public. | A public Kaspa build sprint with source-backed judging criteria and shipped demos. |
| Wallet-first apps | Users judge a chain by signing, balances, errors, history, and support rather than by whitepapers. | Consumer wallet UX is still fragmented across needs. | Map wallet tasks from first user action to accepted transaction evidence. |
| Exploit response | Real DeFi needs monitoring, audits, an incident process, and recovery language before launch. | Kaspa's app risk culture is still early. | Require every app pitch to publish its failure modes before claiming production readiness. |
Both tables check whether a pitch names the parts a reviewer looks for. Neither tells you the product is worth building. That answer comes from naming the person who would use it, the step they currently do some other way, and what they give up by switching.
Implementation evidence
Code evidence
Code and pull requests show work in progress. A mainnet label needs a release, an activation record, or proof of what upgraded nodes do.
Open code and implementation evidence
| Track | Recent public evidence | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Toccata / Silverscript | TN12 dependency sync, KCC20 bootstrap fixes, and book/build fixes landed May 4-5, 2026. TN12 field testing surfaced developer-ergonomics issues around covenant and ZK opcode use. The v1.3.0-toc.5 pre-release sanity-tested mainnet pre-activation compatibility. The v2.0.0 release set the mainnet activation parameters; v2.0.1 is the current Toccata release. The Toccata node setup guide adds operator guidance for upgrades, fee policy, API field changes, and Testnet-10 checks. The merged Rusty Kaspa ZK SDK PR adds an R0ScriptBuilder wrapper for turning RISC Zero receipts into Kaspa scripts. The tn10-toc3 pre-release scheduled final TN10 hardening; a July 25 check of Testnet-10 REST status showed virtual DAA 526,066,399, with 1,491,271 blocks. |
Activated mainnet release evidence: release notes, activation parameters, the operator guide, TN10/TN12 testing, SDK and tooling prep. After activation, the next checks are wallets, explorers, examples, and accepted mainnet transactions. |
| Toccata KIPs | All four Toccata KIPs now read Status: Active in their raw files: KIP-16 (New Transaction Opcodes for Verifiable Computation), KIP-17 (Covenants and Improved Scripting Capabilities), KIP-20 (Covenant IDs), and KIP-21 (Partitioned Sequencing Commitment with O(activity) Proving). They moved together in commit e4ae2332 on July 15, 2026. Before that they were scoped to TN10, which is what makes the change worth recording: the spec repo caught up with the mainnet activation. |
The KIP status now matches the activation record instead of trailing it. Wallets, explorers, SDKs, and accepted mainnet transactions still carry their own separate evidence. |
| Open KIP PRs | KIP-24 is open for transaction version 1 fields and hashing; its draft text says v1 transactions add per-input compute budgets, optional output covenant bindings, user-lane subnetworks, and a BLAKE3 payload/rest txid split for ZK and based-executor workflows. KIP-25 is open for compute budget on script execution. KIP-22 is open for P2MR ScriptPublicKey, described as a Merkle-root pay-to-script form meant to hide public keys until spend time and support quantum-resistance and MAST-style conditional scripts. | Worth knowing where the paperwork and the code disagree. Transaction version 1 and computeBudget already run on mainnet and are documented in the operator guide, but the KIPs that specify them, KIP-24 and KIP-25, are still open pull requests. Cite the guide or the node for those two. KIP-22 is separate: future cryptography and script-design work with no implementation behind it yet. |
| Argent | argent-lang/argent is an actor-based language and compiler for stateful, multi-contract applications on covenant-native UTXO rails. It compiles .ag source to plain Silverscript contracts and portable artifacts that argent-runtime turns into transactions: actors, state, transitions, named emits, and terminal become dispatch. It is where most of Michael Sutton's July output went, and it stayed active through July 31, adding Inter-Covenant Communication, actor enums, commitment-forest route planning, and a VS Code extension. Two sibling repos appeared: argent-playground on July 9 and argent-template on July 24. Examples now run well past the original Stones and Tickets. |
The README calls the main pieces present: compiler, generated Silverscript, portable artifacts, runtime transaction building, multi-actor routing, and closed and open ICC. The gate it sets for itself is an audit. A production path opens once Silverscript completes its audit and is released, and Argent needs further audit and hardening after that. No release, no tag, no crates.io publish. Breaking-change commits on July 23 and 24 mean the ABI is still moving. A runtime transaction builder does exist now, argent-runtime's TxBuilder and TxContext, which the README lists under what is useful today; what is still missing is generated app-specific builder APIs. The playground demos, including the DEX one, run fully offline against hardcoded fixtures with no node or RPC connection, so none of them is a deployment. |
| vProgs | The kaspanet/vprogs README describes an early-development Rust framework for based computation on Kaspa, with core, storage, state, scheduling, transaction-runtime, and node layers. A June 18 merge, Feat: Settlement into Covenants, gathered settlement-covenant work, transaction/batch/aggregation provers, SMT support, L1 bridge plumbing, and RISC Zero backend work into master. | Roadmap implementation progress. Builders can study and experiment with the framework now. Production Kaspa app paths and native DeFi still need their own shipped evidence. See vProgs Explained. |
| DAGKnight | The public rusty-kaspa dagknight branch shows March 22, 2026 commits for free-search support, ranking/search refinements, conflict-zone work, tie-breaking placeholder, and UMC majority-coverage movement. | Research and prototype evidence. Mainnet still runs GHOSTDAG; live finality and higher-BPS claims need their own activation evidence. |
| Builder tooling | kaspanet/kaspa-python-sdk is now a standalone public SDK repo. The v2.0.0 release added Toccata-aligned support and the full Rusty Kaspa managed-wallet API for Python. The v2.0.1 release adds get_seq_commit_lane_proof, SMT sync progress events, covenant-binding fixes, and a Rusty Kaspa v2.0.1 dependency bump. |
Developer-tooling progress that helps Python builders and integrators prepare for Toccata-era wallet, UTXO, lane-proof, and covenant workflows. Protocol-upgrade status still comes from node, KIP, and activation evidence. |
| Infrastructure indexes | rusty-kaspa PR #860 is open for review. It proposes an optional --txindex, a GetTransaction RPC path, inclusion and acceptance metadata, live updates from consensus notifications, resync from scratch, and pruning tied to retention-root changes. |
Builder and infrastructure work that could help wallets, explorers, indexers, and large app-state workflows once merged. |
FAQ
Common status questions
Is DAGKnight live?
No. DAGKnight is an adaptive consensus direction, still in research. Mainnet runs GHOSTDAG.
Is Toccata live?
Yes. Activation and adoption are separate questions. Check Toccata status before quoting wallet, explorer, or app state.
Are Kaspa smart contracts live?
Toccata put the L1 pieces live on mainnet: spend rules, asset rules, ZK proof checks, and sequencing commitments. A mature native app layer, with audited apps and broad tooling, is still ahead. Richer programmability through vProgs is later work.