Yonatan Sompolinsky (@hashdag), Kaspa's founder and primary architect, took part in a Q&A. Part 1 is below 🧵, Part 2 coming soon.
1/13
Q: Kaspa often gets framed as "real-time Bitcoin." But Bitcoin's adoption story is store of value — not throughput. Is the "fast money" thesis enough to drive adoption, or does Kaspa need a use case that Bitcoin structurally can't serve?
A: A general thesis is not enough to drive adoption. “Real-time Bitcoin” already implies it is not about SoV. With the advent of stablecoins, the usage of PoW assets currently has a ceiling of serving as collateral rather than MoE.
I propose a new category which I call Base of Liquidity (BoL) to describe an asset that resembles the money functionality people are used to today: minimal to no friction when using it as both SoV and MoE. In other words, a convenient base asset to park your money between different usages or other investments. Kaspa L1 and vProgs are optimized for that.
But even BoL is a thesis, not a use case or an adoption strategy.
Q: Kaspa often gets framed as "real-time Bitcoin." But Bitcoin's adoption story is store of value — not throughput. Is the "fast money" thesis enough to drive adoption, or does Kaspa need a use case that Bitcoin structurally can't serve?
A: A general thesis is not enough to drive adoption. “Real-time Bitcoin” already implies it is not about SoV. With the advent of stablecoins, the usage of PoW assets currently has a ceiling of serving as collateral rather than MoE.
I propose a new category which I call Base of Liquidity (BoL) to describe an asset that resembles the money functionality people are used to today: minimal to no friction when using it as both SoV and MoE. In other words, a convenient base asset to park your money between different usages or other investments. Kaspa L1 and vProgs are optimized for that.
But even BoL is a thesis, not a use case or an adoption strategy.
2/13
Q: There's a view that Kaspa isn't meant to steal applications from existing chains, but to enable use cases that don't exist yet because no infrastructure could support them. What's the most concrete example of one of those new use cases that you personally believe in?
A: I’m happy to steal apps from existing chains. Though such a strategy requires more than decentralization or speed as you say, it requires strong biz dev talent.
FWIW, I strongly oppose the view of “we build, they will come.” I believe this worked for ETH because it was a blue ocean, and for other projects a deliberate effort is needed.
My own contribution to these efforts is to develop a new category of products — coordination markets — on Kaspa, and to bootstrap a new venture that facilitates this as well as the continued development of Kaspa. Other efforts are more than welcome, no need for a consensus decision on the right killer app / vector.
Q: There's a view that Kaspa isn't meant to steal applications from existing chains, but to enable use cases that don't exist yet because no infrastructure could support them. What's the most concrete example of one of those new use cases that you personally believe in?
A: I’m happy to steal apps from existing chains. Though such a strategy requires more than decentralization or speed as you say, it requires strong biz dev talent.
FWIW, I strongly oppose the view of “we build, they will come.” I believe this worked for ETH because it was a blue ocean, and for other projects a deliberate effort is needed.
My own contribution to these efforts is to develop a new category of products — coordination markets — on Kaspa, and to bootstrap a new venture that facilitates this as well as the continued development of Kaspa. Other efforts are more than welcome, no need for a consensus decision on the right killer app / vector.
3/13
Q: There's been recurring talk in the community about real-world payment integrations — merchants, point-of-sale, the "Kaspa Accepted Here" effort. Do you think payments are actually the right adoption vector for Kaspa, or is that the wrong battle to be fighting in 2026?
A: Wrong battle.
Q: There's been recurring talk in the community about real-world payment integrations — merchants, point-of-sale, the "Kaspa Accepted Here" effort. Do you think payments are actually the right adoption vector for Kaspa, or is that the wrong battle to be fighting in 2026?
A: Wrong battle.
4/13
Q: Marketing is a sensitive topic in the Kaspa community. Some argue Kaspa as a project needs a coordinated, top-down marketing push to compete with chains that spend heavily on visibility. Others believe each project building on Kaspa should run their own marketing, and adoption will follow organically from that. Where do you stand?
A: Marketing and narrative-setting are top-down: founders/builders set the narrative and connect it to the roadmap. The community is the voice amplifier — it gives flavor and defines the tone and soul of the project. (Do not conflate “top-down” with “official”; that is not implied.)
Marketing is a story hook. You catch someone’s interest, but then they want to do something with it. If you have no product or interesting on-chain activity, you’ve wasted the hook and their curiosity fades. Therefore, 90% of efforts should go toward accelerating product development.
Marketing in this bear market and in general when there’s little market attention and capital flow is a waste of money and effort, it’s what Wolfie @Kaspa_HypeMan describes as swimming against a riptide.
Q: Marketing is a sensitive topic in the Kaspa community. Some argue Kaspa as a project needs a coordinated, top-down marketing push to compete with chains that spend heavily on visibility. Others believe each project building on Kaspa should run their own marketing, and adoption will follow organically from that. Where do you stand?
A: Marketing and narrative-setting are top-down: founders/builders set the narrative and connect it to the roadmap. The community is the voice amplifier — it gives flavor and defines the tone and soul of the project. (Do not conflate “top-down” with “official”; that is not implied.)
Marketing is a story hook. You catch someone’s interest, but then they want to do something with it. If you have no product or interesting on-chain activity, you’ve wasted the hook and their curiosity fades. Therefore, 90% of efforts should go toward accelerating product development.
Marketing in this bear market and in general when there’s little market attention and capital flow is a waste of money and effort, it’s what Wolfie @Kaspa_HypeMan describes as swimming against a riptide.
5/13
Q: Related to that — Kaspa has KEF, KII, the Foundation, and multiple independent initiatives all pushing adoption from different angles. Is that scaffolding actually working?
A: I did not plan this scaffolding, and I have little visibility into or understanding of what these entities are trying to do regarding adoption; this is to be distinguished from KEF’s very clear and sometimes underappreciated efforts to support Kaspa’s development, on which I have full context and gratitude. But re adoption I am not sure I should have full context on others’ efforts; I act in my own sphere and according to my own instincts, and I don’t think other people’s or entities’ plans should inform my own.
Q: Related to that — Kaspa has KEF, KII, the Foundation, and multiple independent initiatives all pushing adoption from different angles. Is that scaffolding actually working?
A: I did not plan this scaffolding, and I have little visibility into or understanding of what these entities are trying to do regarding adoption; this is to be distinguished from KEF’s very clear and sometimes underappreciated efforts to support Kaspa’s development, on which I have full context and gratitude. But re adoption I am not sure I should have full context on others’ efforts; I act in my own sphere and according to my own instincts, and I don’t think other people’s or entities’ plans should inform my own.
6/13
Q: Do you think the lack of a unified voice is hurting Kaspa's ability to be taken more seriously by institutions and builders outside the bubble?
A: The lack of a unified narrative hurts, not the lack of a unified voice, the community is the voice. I attempted to address the narrative issue - admittedly should have done this much earlier - with recent material around RTD, which distills Kaspa’s unique value proposition and connects it to the roadmap. I will be more vocal about this narrative in times and places where I feel that’d be effective.
Q: Do you think the lack of a unified voice is hurting Kaspa's ability to be taken more seriously by institutions and builders outside the bubble?
A: The lack of a unified narrative hurts, not the lack of a unified voice, the community is the voice. I attempted to address the narrative issue - admittedly should have done this much earlier - with recent material around RTD, which distills Kaspa’s unique value proposition and connects it to the roadmap. I will be more vocal about this narrative in times and places where I feel that’d be effective.
7/13
Q: Many in the community feel Kaspa's tech is genuinely ahead of the narrative. What's the gap there — is it a marketing problem, a timing problem, or something deeper about how the project communicates?
A: On what points is Kaspa ahead of the narrative?. “Ahead of the narrative” and “superior tech” are different axes.
One aspect where I see Kaspa ahead of the narrative is the universal scheduler; I hope to complete the research phase with @OriNewman very soon.
Another aspect is netsplit resistance (related: 100 BPS). As a narrative, this belongs to the defensive category, closer to Zcash’s privacy narrative, rather than promoting a positive feature or activity. Pushing this requires full orchestration, the usual R&D pipeline (e.g., DAG mining tweaks), investigating alternative communication methods, a wide network outage live demonstration, and prepared media coverage. We will get to it toward Q1 2027; currently, our hands are full.
Q: Many in the community feel Kaspa's tech is genuinely ahead of the narrative. What's the gap there — is it a marketing problem, a timing problem, or something deeper about how the project communicates?
A: On what points is Kaspa ahead of the narrative?. “Ahead of the narrative” and “superior tech” are different axes.
One aspect where I see Kaspa ahead of the narrative is the universal scheduler; I hope to complete the research phase with @OriNewman very soon.
Another aspect is netsplit resistance (related: 100 BPS). As a narrative, this belongs to the defensive category, closer to Zcash’s privacy narrative, rather than promoting a positive feature or activity. Pushing this requires full orchestration, the usual R&D pipeline (e.g., DAG mining tweaks), investigating alternative communication methods, a wide network outage live demonstration, and prepared media coverage. We will get to it toward Q1 2027; currently, our hands are full.
8/13
Q: You've talked publicly about Kaspa as ideal infrastructure for DeFi sequencing and institutional clients. That's a very different audience than retail crypto. Is institutional the real target, and is the retail narrative just a placeholder until institutions are ready?
A: Institutions are the last to move, as far as I can tell. I’m not sure which retail segment you’re referring to, but if it’s retail investors, they typically precede institutions. I don’t think I’ve implied otherwise.
One context where I mentioned institutions is that there’s a specific flavor to PoW SoV cryptocurrencies, and veteran crypto institutions have a sharp nose for this, with implications for how the project organizes itself.
Q: You've talked publicly about Kaspa as ideal infrastructure for DeFi sequencing and institutional clients. That's a very different audience than retail crypto. Is institutional the real target, and is the retail narrative just a placeholder until institutions are ready?
A: Institutions are the last to move, as far as I can tell. I’m not sure which retail segment you’re referring to, but if it’s retail investors, they typically precede institutions. I don’t think I’ve implied otherwise.
One context where I mentioned institutions is that there’s a specific flavor to PoW SoV cryptocurrencies, and veteran crypto institutions have a sharp nose for this, with implications for how the project organizes itself.
9/13
Q: Toccata brings covenants, Silverscript, and based zk applications. What's the realistic timeline for a serious application — not a demo — to actually live on Kaspa L1 after the fork?
A: Small apps can be launched immediately post HF as covenants. Heavier apps will also be ready soon - hopefully for the HF, but that you’ll need to confirm with Hans and Maxim.
Though to me “serious” means “with potential to bring real usage.” The bottleneck here is not Kaspa on-chain features rather Kaspa biz dev talent.
Q: Toccata brings covenants, Silverscript, and based zk applications. What's the realistic timeline for a serious application — not a demo — to actually live on Kaspa L1 after the fork?
A: Small apps can be launched immediately post HF as covenants. Heavier apps will also be ready soon - hopefully for the HF, but that you’ll need to confirm with Hans and Maxim.
Though to me “serious” means “with potential to bring real usage.” The bottleneck here is not Kaspa on-chain features rather Kaspa biz dev talent.
10/13
Q: There's an active debate around zk-native execution versus EVM compatibility as Kaspa's long-term programmability path. Why prioritize zk-native architecture over leaning fully into the existing EVM tooling that L2s already bring? Is the long-term picture zk-native L1 with EVM layers as a transitional bridge?
A: There’s no active debate. EVM is an outdated tech antithetical to Kaspa’s boutique brand. Vitalik declaring a move away from it should be enough to end this imagined debate.
An L2 takeover is the nightmare of L1s — especially at such an early stage before the L1 has solidified its status. It fragments the efforts, the messaging, the execution layer, the standards, the expectations, the observers. It creates a surreal situation where the project is trying to grow its network effect whilst trying to fend off parasitic networks. L1 development efforts serve L2’s, the reverse never happens (I invite you to skim through pub rnd TG channel and validate this). I know of no crypto project that had to deal this early with L2’s trying to siphon its network effect - before it secured its own.
I reiterate that my stance is completely banal, and it is weird that I need to belabour it and present it as “my peculiar decisive opinion” rather than just referring ppl to coindesk articles or crypto twitter and letting them DYOR. The L2 roadmap has been declared dead and L2 projects are fading. Some called it earlier some later than others, the bottom line is one and the same.
Q: There's an active debate around zk-native execution versus EVM compatibility as Kaspa's long-term programmability path. Why prioritize zk-native architecture over leaning fully into the existing EVM tooling that L2s already bring? Is the long-term picture zk-native L1 with EVM layers as a transitional bridge?
A: There’s no active debate. EVM is an outdated tech antithetical to Kaspa’s boutique brand. Vitalik declaring a move away from it should be enough to end this imagined debate.
An L2 takeover is the nightmare of L1s — especially at such an early stage before the L1 has solidified its status. It fragments the efforts, the messaging, the execution layer, the standards, the expectations, the observers. It creates a surreal situation where the project is trying to grow its network effect whilst trying to fend off parasitic networks. L1 development efforts serve L2’s, the reverse never happens (I invite you to skim through pub rnd TG channel and validate this). I know of no crypto project that had to deal this early with L2’s trying to siphon its network effect - before it secured its own.
I reiterate that my stance is completely banal, and it is weird that I need to belabour it and present it as “my peculiar decisive opinion” rather than just referring ppl to coindesk articles or crypto twitter and letting them DYOR. The L2 roadmap has been declared dead and L2 projects are fading. Some called it earlier some later than others, the bottom line is one and the same.
11/13
Q: Vitalik recently argued the trilemma is effectively solved by Ethereum's PeerDAS plus ZK-EVM stack. From your seat, what does Kaspa offer that combination structurally cannot?
A: I don’t know what the trilemma is.
Re DAS, it could potentially be used more natively than PeerDAS via RTD. In PeerDAS, data availability fraud is validated by light clients, whose number is assumed in the protocol (eg n=1024). We should consider using DAS in a more native way - with n stemming from the mining network rather than clients - through RTD. This proposal relates to semi-based models, which I hope to publish one day (though my hands are currently full).
In any case, even if a trillema is solved, I’m not sure we should consider Ethereum as relevant long term. Ethereum is degrading into a virtue-signaling exercise, with its sanctimony tech manifesto, and the milady culture which conflates punk with cypherpunk.
To your other question: Kaspa can offer real-time decentralization. I invite you to search for material I published why this is uniquely important and what usage flows it can bring about, eg in the medium blog and in this tweet x.com/hashdag/status…
Q: Vitalik recently argued the trilemma is effectively solved by Ethereum's PeerDAS plus ZK-EVM stack. From your seat, what does Kaspa offer that combination structurally cannot?
A: I don’t know what the trilemma is.
Re DAS, it could potentially be used more natively than PeerDAS via RTD. In PeerDAS, data availability fraud is validated by light clients, whose number is assumed in the protocol (eg n=1024). We should consider using DAS in a more native way - with n stemming from the mining network rather than clients - through RTD. This proposal relates to semi-based models, which I hope to publish one day (though my hands are currently full).
In any case, even if a trillema is solved, I’m not sure we should consider Ethereum as relevant long term. Ethereum is degrading into a virtue-signaling exercise, with its sanctimony tech manifesto, and the milady culture which conflates punk with cypherpunk.
To your other question: Kaspa can offer real-time decentralization. I invite you to search for material I published why this is uniquely important and what usage flows it can bring about, eg in the medium blog and in this tweet x.com/hashdag/status…
12/13
Q: Kaspa's community is one of the most vocal in crypto, but that intensity cuts both ways. Has community sentiment ever pushed core development in a direction you thought was wrong, and how do you push back without losing trust?
A: In the past, community sentiment caused meaningful distraction, delaying the roadmap by at least six months with no meaningful R&D progress. Today I feel I grew to accept with peace things as they are, and to appreciate and love the absurdities of the project. But I would never “just focus on R&D” and be indifferent to the social stack, this option will never cross my mind. Kaspa is not some day job I’m contractually committed to. Its messaging, brand, reach, and positioning are more important than any specific research upgrade.
Q: Kaspa's community is one of the most vocal in crypto, but that intensity cuts both ways. Has community sentiment ever pushed core development in a direction you thought was wrong, and how do you push back without losing trust?
A: In the past, community sentiment caused meaningful distraction, delaying the roadmap by at least six months with no meaningful R&D progress. Today I feel I grew to accept with peace things as they are, and to appreciate and love the absurdities of the project. But I would never “just focus on R&D” and be indifferent to the social stack, this option will never cross my mind. Kaspa is not some day job I’m contractually committed to. Its messaging, brand, reach, and positioning are more important than any specific research upgrade.
13/13
Q: If you had to name three things that need to happen in the next 12 months for Kaspa adoption to be considered "real" — not by you, but by an outside skeptic — what are they?
A: This question should be directed at crypto more broadly, not just Kaspa.
One thing that must happen for crypto adoption to be considered real is renewed capital interest in using crypto platforms en masse. When it happens, you’ll know immediately — it will be visible in clear on-chain metrics.
In fact, Kaspa is not lagging far behind the rest of crypto in terms of adoption. Only a handful of projects have found product-market fit; the rest are ghost chains fueled by synthetic activity.
This is not to say adoption shouldn’t be our top priority — just putting things in perspective.
Q: If you had to name three things that need to happen in the next 12 months for Kaspa adoption to be considered "real" — not by you, but by an outside skeptic — what are they?
A: This question should be directed at crypto more broadly, not just Kaspa.
One thing that must happen for crypto adoption to be considered real is renewed capital interest in using crypto platforms en masse. When it happens, you’ll know immediately — it will be visible in clear on-chain metrics.
In fact, Kaspa is not lagging far behind the rest of crypto in terms of adoption. Only a handful of projects have found product-market fit; the rest are ghost chains fueled by synthetic activity.
This is not to say adoption shouldn’t be our top priority — just putting things in perspective.
Thanks to @hashdag for taking the time.
Part 2 coming soon...
Part 2 coming soon...
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