Kusama
$3.34
2.6%(24h)30d
Today
2.6%
30 Days
-8.6%
Price Change (24h)
$0.0837
BTC$43,500+2.50%
ETH$2,650+1.80%
USDT$1.00+0.00%
BNB$320-0.50%
XRP$0.5200-1.20%
SOL$95.00+3.20%BTC$43,500+2.50%ETH$2,650+1.80%USDT$1.00+0.00%BNB$320-0.50%XRP$0.5200-1.20%SOL$95.00+3.20%Today
2.6%
30 Days
-8.6%
Price Change (24h)
$0.0837
KSM
33.40
An experimental blockchain platform, Kusama is frequently referred to as "Polkadot's wild cousin" and provides developers with a massively interoperable and scalable framework. The platform is constructed using Substrate, a blockchain building kit created by Parity Technologies, and shares nearly identical codebase with Polkadot, one of the most successful interoperable blockchains. Kusama offers fast-moving projects a highly scalable, interoperable sharded network with capabilities not yet available on Polkadot, making it a "canary network" that serves as both a testbed for developers seeking to innovate and deploy their own blockchain, and as a preparatory network before launching on Polkadot—though many choose to remain on Kusama for their final product. The platform is characterized by low barrier entry for deploying parachains and low bond requirements for validators, making it particularly attractive to early-stage startups and projects focused on experimentation.
Parity Technologies, the same company behind Polkadot, built Kusama. Dr. Gavin Wood, a renowned computer scientist and programmer who also co-founded Ethereum, leads Parity Technologies as its founder. The company boasts a global team of over 100 employees, including some of the world's most accomplished blockchain engineers. Grant funding from the Web3 Foundation—an organization launched to support technologies and applications in decentralized web software protocols—backs Kusama, with additional support through research and community development initiatives managed by the foundation's growth team.
Kusama stands out among blockchain platforms as a network primarily designed for developers pursuing bold, ambitious projects with rapid development evolution. Its architecture employs a multichain, heterogeneously-sharded design combined with a nominated proof-of-stake (NPoS) consensus system—an alternative to the energy-intensive proof-of-work (POW) used by many other blockchains. The platform supports rapid on-chain upgrades without requiring forks and enables cross-chain message passing (XCMP) for communication between parachains. Similar to Polkadot, Kusama incorporates on-chain governance that is decentralized and permissionless, allowing any KSM token or parachain token holder to vote on governance proposals regarding protocol upgrades, changes, and features. Notably, Kusama's governance operates roughly four times faster than Polkadot's, with a combined voting and enactment period of just 15 days, enabling the rapid development pace that characterizes projects built on the network. This structure serves projects aiming to deploy updates and improvements without fork requirements, maximizing community cohesion.
As of November 2020, Kusama's circulating supply stood at 8.47 million tokens with a total supply of 10 million tokens. Unlike certain blockchains, the maximum supply is not fixed—instead, it increases at an annual inflation rate of 10%. The staking proportion of KSM determines how newly minted tokens from inflation get distributed. When exactly half of KSM is staked, validators receive 100% of newly created tokens; however, above or below this threshold, some inflation rewards flow to the Kusama Treasury. Originally launched as an airdrop at a 1:1 rate to Polkadot (DOT) token sale participants, KSM was also available through a frictional faucet for others, though this has since been discontinued. Unlike Polkadot, Kusama has not undergone redenomination to increase supply.
Security on Kusama relies on a nominated proof-of-stake (NPoS) consensus mechanism, where nominators (KSM stakers) elect nodes to validate transactions. Selected nominators receive inflation reward fractions during the next rotation, while validators acting dishonestly or failing performance standards face stake slashing. Cross-chain transaction resolution employs a simple queuing mechanism using Merkle trees, with relay chain validators responsible for transferring transactions between parachains' output and input queues. This secure, trustless process maintains consistency through identical validators across chains.
Kusama (KSM) trades on numerous popular exchange platforms such as Binance, OKEx, and Huobi Global, with the most active trading pairs being KSM/USDT, KSM/BTC, and KSM/ETH.
Exchange data unavailable.
BTC$66,250-0.38%ETH$1,951+1.48%BNB$575+0.10%
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LTC$47.00-1.11%
DOT$0.8510-0.23%
BCH$221-1.95%
UNI$3.84+4.01%
NEAR$1.89-2.12%
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ETC$7.04+0.43%
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