Thread by @luidjin

Do you know the differences between #Polkadot and #Kusama?
Let explore the matter to understand how Kusama plays a very important role in the development of #Dotsama ecosystem and is, in itself, much more than a testnet.

1/19

Although they share many parts of their code, #Polkadot and #Kusama are independent networks with different priorities.
Kusama is wild and fast, great for experimentation and early-stage deployment. Polkadot is more conservative, prioritizing stability and dependability.

2/19

1. Points in common:
#Kusama was released as an early version of the same code to be used in #Polkadot sharing the same underlying architecture: a multichain, heterogeneously-sharded design based on Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS).

3/19

Both share key innovations like on-chain governance, hot-swappable runtimes for forkless, on-chain upgrades and XCM for interoperability. Governance on both is designed to be decentralized and permissionless, giving a say to everyone who owns the native token $DOT and $KSM.

4/19

Over time, $DOT and $KSM networks will evolve independently, converging or diverging according to the decisions of their respective communities.

2. Key differences
There are a few important distinctions to be made:

5/19

SPEED
The first key technical difference is #Kusama has modified governance parameters that allow for faster upgrades. This means stakeholders need to stay active and vigilant if they want to keep up with all the proposals and validators need to update on short notice.

6/19

On Polkadot, votes last 28 days followed by an enactment period of 28 days. This does not mean that the Kusama blockchain itself is faster, but there's a shorter amount of time between governance events. This allows #Kusama to adapt and evolve faster than #Polkadot

7/19

LEAN SETUPS
Teams wishing to run a parachain need to bond tokens as security. The bonding requirement on #Kusama is likely to be lower than on #Polkadot

8/19

USE CASES
#Polkadot is and always will be the primary network for the deployment of enterprise-level applications and those that entail high-value transactions requiring BANK-LEVEL security and stability.

9/19

The initial use for #Kusama is as a pre-production environment, a “canary network”. This seems like it could be a testnet, what is the difference?
Canary testing is a way to validate software by releasing it to a limited number of users or an isolated environment.

10/19

In #Kusama's early days, the network won't just be used for parachain candidates to innovate and test changes, but a proof of concept for #Polkadot's sharded model.
In a typical blockchain development pipeline, Kusama would sit in between a "testnet" and a "mainnet".

11/19

Building on #Kusama first allows teams to test things out in a live, fully decentralized, and community-controlled network with real-world conditions and lower stakes in the event of problems or bugs than on #Polkadot.

12/19

Many projects will maintain parachains on both, experimenting new technologies and features on Kusama before deploying them to #Polkadot. Some will decide just to stay on #Kusama, be a place where we see some exciting experimentation with new technologies going forward.

13/19

Projects that require high-throughput but don’t necessarily require bank-like security, such as some gaming, social networking, and content distribution applications, are particularly good candidates for staying in #Kusama

14/19

#Kusama may also prove to be the perfect environment for ambitious experiments with new ideas in areas like governance, incentives, monetary policy, and DAOs. Future upgrades to the #Polkadot runtime will also likely be deployed to Kusama before Polkadot mainnet.

15/19

This way, not only will we be able to see how these new features will perform under real-world conditions before bringing them to #Polkadot, but teams who have deployed to both will also get an advanced look at how their own technology will perform under those upgrades.

16/19

#Kusama and #Polkadot will live on as independent, standalone networks with their own communities, governance and complementary use cases, though they will continue to maintain a close relationship, with many teams likely deploying applications to both networks.

17/19

So, as we can see, #Kusama is more than just a testnet. We could compare it with the scouts of a heavy and forceful army.
Kusama is agile and quick to change and adapt. Its mission is to explore the options before his beefy older brother steps where he shouldn't.

18/19

At the same time, it is the perfect environment for projects that by their nature do not require the robustness and security levels of #Polkadot, but can benefit from all the features they share such as scalability, interoperability, etc.

19/19