What is Kusama (KSM)?

Kusama (KSM) is a scalable network of specialized blockchains built using Substrate and with almost the same codebase as Polkadot. The web is an experimental development environment for teams who want to move quickly and prepare for Polkadot deployment. 

There are five things that Kusama stands for to launch your own custom blockchain. Fast interation, low economic barriers, advanced technology, open governance and engaged community.

Who founded Kusama?

Kusama was built by Parity Technologies, the same team that created Polkadot. The founder is Dr. Gavin Wood, a famous computer scientist and programmer who also co-founded Ethereum.

How does Kusama work?

Kusama is unusual among blockchain platforms since it is mainly built for developers that only want to launch bold, ambitious projects with a fast-evolving pace of development. It has a real growth hacking mindset.

It is built on a multichain, heterogeneously-sharded design that uses a nominated proof-of-stake (NPoS) consensus system. This is an alternative consensus mechanism to the energy-intensive proof-of-work (POW), which is used by several other blockchains, like Bitcoin.

Like Polkadot, Kusama features on-chain governance capabilities. This on-chain governance is both decentralized and permission-less, allowing anybody with Kusama (KSM) tokens or parachain tokens to vote on any governance proposals, which might include upgrades, changes to the protocol, and feature requests. This on-chain governance procedure is roughly four times faster than that offered by Polkadot, with a combined voting and enactment period of just 15 days.

Can I earn money with Kusama?

Yes, you can earn money by trading Kusama (KSM). Buy low, sell high. KSM can be used to trade against other cryptocurrencies. Always trade responsibly. Often the price is influenced by KSM news. Buy Kusama (KSM) at Coinmerce.

Can you stake Kusama (KSM) and how to do it?

Just like Polkadot, Kusama (KSM) uses Proof of Stake. Fortunately, you don't have to set up a validator node yourself to earn a return on KSM tokens. In fact, you can stake Kusama easily and quickly on Coinmerce's platform. To do this, however, you'll need a Coinmerce account.

When you have KSM tokens in the Coinmerce wallet, you can stake them directly from the wallet. It is also possible to buy KSM tokens on the coin page with iDeal or other payment method, and then stake them directly. Please note that you can only start to stake Kusama from 10 euros.

You can earn 8% in interest with the stake of Kusama on Coinmerce. During the staking, you cannot use the tokens for other activities. You decide when you stop staking KSM, as Coinmerce offers flexible staking. Subsequently, the proceeds from staking will be moved directly to your wallet at Coinmerce. It is also possible to redeploy these new tokens again for cessation.