About Kusama (KSM)

Self-dubbed as Polkadot’s “wild cousin,” Kusama is a canary network for blockchain experimentation.  

Early, unaudited and unrefined, as it is described in a Polkadot blog post, Kusama nevertheless is live, leveraging its kindred Polkadot network’s technology. Kusama carries real economic conditions but has no “central kill switch,” its creators emphasize.

KSM is Kusama's native asset. Holding and staking their KSM, Kusama network users govern upgrades, and power/secure operations, incentivized via newly minted KSM tokens, according to CoinGecko.

Built upon Substrate (a blockchain development kit from Parity Technologies), Kusama’s codebase parallels that of Polkadot’s. Both Polkadot and its offshoot have the same basic objective: to be as interoperable and scalable as possible. Higher-risk projects can be bold when building on Kusama, a sandbox setting for initial deployment, and not to be confused to the relative safe havens that are testnets.

“It’s tailor-made for developers looking to innovate and radically push the limits,” Moralis Academy said.

The collaboration between Polkadot and Kusama positions the pair in what has now become a flourishing “parachain” environment birthing ecosystems galore. Parachains are custom blockchains, auctioned to developers as a hub for their projects. The slot recipients put down roots on the parachain but use the computing resources of the main Kusama blockchain, or relay chain, where transactions are finalized.

Unusual amongst its peers, Kusama thrives on a multichain, heterogeneously-sharded design that utilizes a nominated proof-of-stake (NPoS) system, which acts as an alternative consensus mechanism to the typical proof-of-work (PoW) infrastructure. Put another way, Kusama puts a premium on cross-chain pollination and energy efficiency.

Funded by grants from the Web3 Foundation, Kusama says it boasts a dedication to “nurturing technologies and applications in the fields of decentralized web software protocols.”

True, Kusama attracts projects requiring fast-paced, trial-by-fire development. But community-building remains a focal point, too. Kusama’s governance system is decentralized and permission-less, granting KSM holders the right to vote on changes to the protocols. And this process takes only 15 days. That’s four times faster than Polkadot’s voting time periods, a contrast that is emblematic of Kusama’s commitment to the “move fast, break stuff” ethos associated with technology pioneers.

Kusama, in Medium posts, insists it’ll only operate for as long as its community continues to let it. Acknowledging the time and money that goes into getting a project up and running, Polkadot has decreased the cost of their Kusama canary-net parachain auction slots, according to an early DOT backer, Digital Finance Group’s James Wo; and as a result, projects from alternate ecosystems can quickly integrate into either Kusama or Polkadot.

The Kusama network is governed and maintained by the transactions tied to its native token, KSM, airdropped to those who participated in past Polkadot token sales. KSM has since done away with previous barriers to obtaining the token so as to increase accessibility.

Kusama was established in 2019 by Parity Technologies, the founders of Polkadot. Parity is led by Gavin Wood, a world-renowned programmer and crypto innovator who helped develop Ethereum. Shaping the earliest underpinnings of blockchain technology has enabled Wood to develop a tandem of Ethereum rivals, Polkadot and Kusama, each drafting off the strengths of the other, and representing serious competition in the battle for smart contract facilitation supremacy.

Kusama supports the technology of Polkadot while forewarning developers to potential problems that could inhibit their projects prior to deployment on Polkadot, leveraging the power and security of the relay chain (Kusama) via parachains which developers can customize for any use.

Indeed, Kusama has opened its doors to myriad projects. Moonbeam has emerged as one of the most significant. Aiming to resolve various underlying issues within layer-1 and layer-2 blockchain technology, Moonbeam is further advancing the prospect of a multi-chain future, according to NewsBTC.

The current price of KSM

As of mid-February, KSM changed hands at roughly $174. Since hitting a high above $600 in May 2021, KSM has shed three-fourths of its value.

KSM started 2021 by crossing above $100 for the first time prior to rocketing to a record high around the time crypto assets at large began to pull back. Following a summer languishing under $200, KSM soared to $500 in November 2021. Much of the recent decline came in early 2022 amidst fears of another crypto winter, with Bitcoin and Ethereum losing value.

How the price of KSM is determined

KSM gets value from its role running the network; so the more network activity, the higher the prospects for price appreciation. It has a total supply of 10 million tokens, according to CoinGecko. But supply is not fixed. The volume of KSM tokens inflates by 10% per year.

 The percentage of staked KSM can alter how newly minted tokens get distributed. Kusama validators can get 100% of freshly minted KSM, as Moralis Academy explained, but only if exactly 50% of all KSM tokens get staked. If that number is off the 50% mark (over or under), then the Kusama Treasury receives some inflation rewards, Moralis Academy said.

What the bulls are saying about Kusama (KSM)

• The charts show KSM is an uptrend and its price has momentum following a January 2022 intraday low, said CoinTelegraph.
• CryptoMCP, in a Medium analysis, said there is much to be bullish about in terms of Kusama’s prospects, connections, Web3, Substrate, Parachains, and other benefits relative to Ethereum.
• Per Santiment data, Kusama sits near the top of the list of the crypto industry’s most developed assets, reported U.today.

What the bears are saying about Kusama (KSM)

• The technical indicators as of early 2022 show that KSM is still bearish as it is well off from its 2021 highs, reported Hassan Maishera on behalf of FXEmpire.
•  The fear and greed measure as applied to KSM suggests traders are fearful, suggesting that the price of KSM could keep declining, said Crypto Academy.
•  KSM has seen volume wane as it reversed a bullish pattern, said The Market Periodical.