On Monday, May 5, 2025, the Kaspa blockchain successfully activated its highly anticipated Crescendo Hard Fork, marking a significant leap in network performance and scalability. 

Prior to the mainnet activation, extensive testing was conducted on Testnet 10 (TN10), which had been operating at 10 BPS for over a year. This rigorous testing phase validated the network's readiness for the upgrade, ensuring stability and performance under increased load. Users can view a timeline of the Crescendo hard fork on the Kaspa YouTube channel. 

Community engagement played a crucial role in the hard fork's success. Developers, node operators, and users actively participated in testing and provided valuable feedback, contributing to the robustness of the upgrade.

Key Highlights of the Crescendo Hard Fork

Block Rate Increase: The hard fork elevated Kaspa's block generation rate from 1 to 10 blocks per second (BPS), substantially enhancing transaction throughput and reducing confirmation times.

Consensus Enhancements: Implemented under Kaspa Improvement Proposal 14 (KIP-14), the upgrade introduced several consensus changes, including:

KIP-9: Mechanisms to manage and mitigate state bloat, regulating persistent storage requirements.

KIP-10: New introspection opcodes enabling advanced transaction controls, such as covenants.

KIP-13: Regulations for transient storage requirements, optimizing node performance.

Technical Advancements: The Rusty Kaspa (RK) rewrite facilitated the transition, providing the necessary performance improvements to support the increased demands of 10 BPS and beyond.

Kaspa founder, Dr. Yonatan Sompolinksy, and lead developer, Michael Sutton, posted their 

reactions when the fork went live, leaving Sutton Speechless.  

Moreover, developer @CryptoAspect highlighted key resources for building on Kaspa after Crescndo, pointing to a WASM integration guide for JavaScript and TypeScript and a fully functional Python SDK currently under review on GitHub.

To celebrate this momentous achievement, multiple live streams were held where community members could watch the hard fork go live. You can watch the replays from the Kaspa Silver live stream and also from the Blockchain Banter X Spaces. 

In a tweet that captured the excitement, Mr. Kaspa shared a visual of Kaspa's leap from 1 to 10 blocks per second (BPS), calling it a can't-stop-watching moment that left the community in awe. Check out the visualizer if you have not already done so. 

There are too many positive responses to record! What a momentous and exciting day! Kaspaians will remember the first time Kaspa hit 10 BPS. 

CoderofStuff Kaspa Solo Mining After Crescendo

Since the Crescendo hard fork, the Kaspa community has seen a range of mining reward outcomes—some users are earning more, while others are seeing steady returns. 

Curious how the changes affect your setup? Try out CoderofStuff's Solo Mining Rewards Simulator to explore how the hard fork could impact your reward and plug in your stats—Number of Days, Number of Miners, Miner Hashrate, Network Hashrate, Block Rewards, and Average Blocks Per Day. You'll get a quick snapshot of your expected mining output. Want to go deeper into the world of Kaspa mining? Check out our KASmedia articles Mining with Christian Ludwig, An Interview with Goldshell, and An Interview with Iceriver. 

Igra Labs Panel at ETH Denver

This past Friday, Igra Labs took the main stage at ETH Denver for a compelling panel titled “Rollup Architecture and Comparative Analysis of Sequencer Approaches.” The discussion brought together some of the brightest minds in the rollup and scaling space, including Ameen Soleimani of 0xBow, Lisa Akselrod from Aztec Labs, and Omer Talip Akalin of Citrea. The panel was expertly moderated by Igra Labs’ own Pavel Emdin, who guided the conversation through key technical and architectural differences in rollup design and sequencer strategies.

ETH Denver, where the event was held, is one of the largest gatherings in the Web3 space. This year, it drew an estimated 100,000 attendees, over 650 sponsors, and more than 15,000 builders across 4,000+ teams. Participants traveled from all 50 U.S. states and 125 countries around the globe, highlighting the event's growing global significance in the blockchain community.

Igra Labs is a research-driven development group focused on innovating blockchain architecture and scalability, strongly emphasizing zero-knowledge technology and decentralized rollup infrastructure. Their work contributes to a more secure and efficient Ethereum ecosystem.

The Kaspa Deepdive: The Boons of High BPS

This is your weekly reminder to subscribe to Kaspa researcher, Dr. Shai Wyborski’s new YouTube channel, The Deepdive. He recently released his first full episode, Why does making many blocks even matter? The Kaspa Deepdive 1: the Boons of High BPS, where Shai explains that the recent Crescendo hard fork—which successfully raised block production to 10 blocks per second (BPS)—is a philosophical and technical leap forward. It reflects a broader vision of decentralization, fairness, and adaptability.

Why 10 BPS Actually Matters:

More Decentralized Mining: Faster blocks mean more chances to mine—up to 864,000 per day—giving smaller and solo miners a real shot without relying on centralized pools.

Faster Confirmations: Thanks to GHOSTDAG, confirmation times drop by ~30%, with more improvements coming via the DAGKnight protocol.

Multi-Leader Consensus: Parallel block creation breaks the single-leader model, paving the way for fairer fee markets and more advanced use cases like decentralized oracles.
Shai closes with a clear message: Kaspa isn’t mimicking Bitcoin—it’s reimagining the architecture of blockchains entirely.

The video has already been met with enthusiastic support from the Kaspa community. Here’s a snapshot of some of the top comments: 

Rock the Kaspa, Episode 13

Chris and Tom are back with the latest episode of Rock the Kaspa, delivering their signature mix of updates, insights, and entertainment. As always, they cover recent developer and technical updates, new integrations, listings, and notable community content—including videos, posts, and memes.

This episode also features recommendations for upcoming events and meetups, discussions on marketing initiatives, and a spotlight on a featured Kaspa-friendly merchant.

They highlight several exciting developments on the horizon for Kaspa, including:

1. 32 Blocks Per Second

2. DAGKNIGHT Consensus Protocol

3. zk-Rollups

4. MEV Mitigation Strategies

5. Oracle Infrastructure Tools

6. 100 Blocks Per Second (Long-Term Goal)

Whether you're a longtime community member or just getting started, Rock the Kaspa remains one of the most fun and engaging ways to stay updated on everything happening in the Kaspa ecosystem. 

Kasway Beta is Live

Calling all vendors! The Kasway Beta is officially live! Kasway is an innovative peer-to-peer platform built on Kaspa that allows users to buy and sell items using $KAS. Designed with simplicity, transparency, and decentralization in mind, Kasway is a big step forward in expanding real-world use cases for Kaspa. Whether you're looking to trade digital goods, collectibles, or services, Kasway aims to create a smooth, secure, and community-driven marketplace experience.

Head over to https://testnet.kasway.xyz to explore the beta, test the platform, and get a first look at how peer-to-peer commerce can thrive in the Kaspa ecosystem. Your feedback during this phase is incredibly valuable—help shape the future of decentralized marketplaces, powered by KAS.

XXIM Podcast With Chad

The latest episode of the XXIM Podcast features a deep and wide-ranging conversation with Chad from Rhubarb Media, a creative force behind some of the most iconic visual branding in the Kaspa ecosystem. In the episode, Chad takes listeners through his personal crypto journey—beginning with Dash and ultimately leading to his discovery of Kaspa, a project he describes as game-changing in both vision and execution.

Over the course of the discussion, Chad unpacks key moments in Kaspa’s evolution, including the global nature of its rebrand, the mysterious origins of the backwards "K" rooted in ancient Aramaic, and how Kaspa’s trajectory differs from Bitcoin’s. He also explores the strategic development of Kaspa’s ambassador and merchant networks, the importance of onboarding developers, and the challenges of achieving true decentralization.

The audience was in full agreement with Chad's insights, as reflected in the overwhelmingly positive comments that followed the episode. Fans and listeners praised the depth of the discussion and the clarity Chad provided on the future of Kaspa.

The episode offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at Kaspa’s growth from a branding and community perspective, with thoughtful reflections on the future of Kaspa's ecosystem. For anyone interested in the story and strategy behind one of crypto’s fastest-growing ecosystems, this conversation is a must-watch.

Kaspa Silver- Is Kaspa Quantum Resistant

This week, Kaspa Silver dropped a deep dive into a hot topic: whether Kaspa is quantum-resistant—and whether it needs to be right now.

Quantum resistance, also known as post-quantum or quantum-safe cryptography, refers to the ability of cryptographic systems to withstand attacks from quantum computers. These advanced machines could eventually outperform classical computers and, in theory, crack public keys or revolutionize mining with hyper-efficient chips.

But how real is that threat today? Not very, says Shai—a Kaspa core contributor and PhD candidate in quantum cryptography. He explains that the main concern right now would be a potential attack on elliptic curve signatures, like the Bonnet-Lipin attack, but even that is a distant threat. As for quantum mining, it remains largely theoretical and would require massive breakthroughs in hardware.

Shai also emphasizes how early the quantum field still is—we don’t even have clear benchmarks for measuring “quantumness” of chips. His advice? “Don’t get quantum flabbergasted.” To read more of Shai's insights on this topic, check out his post titled "Don’t Get Quantum Flabbergasted!" available on his content archive. 

Kaspa isn’t yet quantum-resistant, but it’s built by people who understand the challenge—and who can respond if or when the threat becomes real.