Interact with Kusama
Polkadot's Canary Network
Kusama is a canary network for Polkadot; an earlier release of the code that is available first and holds real economic value. For developers, Kusama is a proving ground for runtime upgrades, on-chain governance, and parachains.
Kusama is owned by those who hold the Kusama tokens (KSM). There's no central kill switch and all changes are made through the protocol's on-chain governance.
The network is a permissionless and anyone can come along and start using it. Those who participated in the Polkadot sale can claim a proportional amount of KSM through the Kusama Claims process.
Kusama is experimental. Expect Chaos.
You can interact with all the features of the Kusama network such as staking (i.e. validating or nominating), governance, parachain auctions, basic transfers and everything else.
Creating an Account
Balance Transfers
Staking
Parachains
Bridges
Vote for Councilors
Make Proposals
Council Candidacy
Treasury
Set an Identity
Become a Nominator
Proxy Accounts
Participate in Crowdloans
Join Kappa Sigma Mu
Become an Ambassador
For brand-new learners of Kusama's cousin network, Polkadot, please head over to the Polkadot Wiki.
What can I do with my KSM?
KSM is the native token of the Kusama Network. KSM can be used for transaction fees, staking, governance, acquisition of a parachain slot and for enabling several key functionalities on Kusama.
: the minimum balance required to have an active account on Kusama Network. If your account balance drops below the minimum, your account will be reaped. Learn more about Accounts and the Existential Deposit requirement.
: the minimum contribution required to join a nomination pool and earn staking rewards for contributing to the security of the network. Learn more about nomination pools.
: the minimum contribution required to participate in crowdloans for parachain slot auctions.
: register an on-chain identity
: vote for council
: create a proxy account.
: you can create your own nomination pool.
KSM has utility in Kusama's democracy. Bonding KSM is a requirement to create proposals, to endorse them and to vote on them when they become referendums. Bonding or 5% of requested funding is a requirement to make a treasury proposal.
Kusama Gifts
Kusama Gifts provide an easy way to:
- Onboard friends or family who are curious about blockchain but haven’t made the leap yet.
- Share your love of Kusama and send any amount of KSM.
- Say ‘thank you’ or send someone tokens when you don’t know their address.
- Get friends and family set up to participate in crowdloans.
Learn more about how you can create and send Kusama Gifts here.
While Kusama does not support smart contracts natively, building apps on it is still possible (e.g. RMRK.app). If you're interested in diving deeper into proper development, however, check out the builders guide.
Additional Resources: