What is Kusama (KSM)? What is KSM, the test and development network of Polkadot?

Kusama (KSM) is a specialized blockchain network that is scalable, built with Substrate and shares almost the same codebase as Polkadot. The network is a development playground for teams looking to iterate and innovate on Kusama or prepare for deployment on Polkadot.

Kusama was founded in 2019 by Gavin Wood, the founder of Polkadot, co-founder, and former CTO of Ethereum.

Origin of Kusama

The relationship between society and technology has deteriorated to the point where influential entities often extend beyond their authority and influence persistently.

Kusama is a network built as a ‘little bird in a storm,’ accepting risks and moving quickly for Polkadot siblings. It is an existing platform built for agents of change to regain control, ignite innovation, and disrupt the status quo.

What can you do on Kusama?

On Kusama, you can:

• Explore politics. Campaign as a council member or vote on new democratic proposals during election time.
• Complete your authentication setup. The minimum requirement for staking as an authenticator on Kusama is much lower than Polkadot’s expectations. There are also programs like Thousands of authenticators to help community authenticators increase their ranking.
• Deployment of parachains (blockchains parallel to Polkadot). Kusama will have the necessary functionality for parachains before Polkadot. This includes participating in parachain auctions and composite applications.
• Join an exclusive online club. The Kappa Sigma Mu club requires you to have a Kusama tattoo to join.
• Expect chaos. Kusama is being tested more and more, but it is built on a platform of rapid iteration and experimentation with new things.

Kusama is owned by KSM token holders. There is no kill switch and all changes are made through the on-chain governance of the protocol. Kusama is an experiment. Nothing is guaranteed.

Benefits of Kusama

Quick repeat

Proceed and deliver your products quickly. Kusama’s ability to accept risk and its fast flexibility allows developers to proceed quickly in the management and upgrade process, enabling rapid progress and growth.

Low economic barriers

Start your custom blockchain project (parachain) with low entry barriers. Ideal for agile startups to proceed quickly and iterate.

Advanced technology

Built on a multi-generation network, protected, while using the latest features before they are deployed on Polkadot.

Open governance

Kusama is owned and operated by a community of network participants who vote and control the network’s development. Your voice and mark will be present in the network’s development.

Join the community

Utilize Polkadot’s global brand, the developer community for your parachain, parathread, or dApp.

Valuable experience

For teams looking to move to Polkadot after fine-tuning Kusama, start building your community and brand on Kusama before deployment.

The characteristics of Kusama

Innovation

Kusama is built by a team similar to Polkadot, using code and tools almost identical. This network puts the latest technology from Parity Technologies and Web3 Foundation into the hands of developers, even before these features appear on Polkadot.

Scalability

The blockchain shards and open governance of Kusama provide a scalable infrastructure for businesses, markets, and applications to deploy and grow.

Interactivity

Kusama brings together multiple blockchains into a small-scale network, freeing developers from the silos created by inherited blockchain networks.

Customize

With Substrate, developers can build their own blockchain for their applications and connect it to Kusama.

Conclusion

At Kusama, there is no kill switch, meaning no central authority can stop it. The only way to end the network is through governance, if KSM holders decide to end the network, which is very unlikely. In the future, Kusama may connect to Polkadot through a bridge or as a decentralized relay chain.

You can check the price of KSM here.