Kaspa is evolving from a pure proof-of-work digital currency into a universal programmable settlement layer. Two major concurrent upgrades drive this transformation: DagKnight (consensus) and vProgs (programmability). This page tracks the phased rollout from foundational consensus changes through to a full application ecosystem.

Timeline

Crescendo (Activated)

The first covenant-enabling hard fork, activating KIP-9, KIP-10, KIP-13, and KIP-15. Crescendo brought the 10 BPS upgrade and laid the groundwork for transaction introspection and sequencing commitments – the primitives that Covenants++ and vProgs build upon.

  • KIP-10: Transaction introspection opcodes and 8-byte arithmetic
  • KIP-15: Recursive canonical transaction ordering commitment (seqcommit)
  • KIP-9/13: Network-level performance upgrades

Covenants++ (Targeting May 5, 2026)

The second hard fork, announced by Yonatan Sompolinsky on December 14, 2025. Covenants++ delivers three pillars of L1 programmability:

Pillar Description Key KIPs
Covenants Limited programmability framework for native assets, smart money management KIP-17, KIP-20
ZK Verifier On-chain verification of zero-knowledge proofs (Groth16 + RISC Zero) KIP-16
RTD Support Real-time data – covenant type for inspecting and aggregating miner payloads –

Additional features shipping with this fork:

  • Covenant IDs (KIP-20)
  • Blake3-based sequencing commitment opcode
  • ZK verify precompiles and opcodes for Groth16 and RISC Zero
  • Native assets support (ZK PoC demonstrated using SP1 by Ori Newman)
  • Silverscript – the L1 covenant language (announced Feb 10, 2026)

DagKnight (Active Development)

The evolution of the GHOSTDAG protocol into a parameterless adaptive consensus mechanism:

  • Enhanced block ordering precision
  • Near-instant finality
  • Prerequisite for vProgs deployment at full throughput
  • DagKnight branch active in the main rusty-kaspa repository (as of Feb 27, 2026)

vProgs (Phased Rollout)

Native L1 programmability via off-chain execution with on-chain ZK verification. The vProgs repo went public on January 21, 2026.

  • Phase 1 – Standalone vProgs: Sovereign programs bridging to L1 via ZK proofs, operating independently. No cross-vProg composability. No L1 account model yet.
  • Phase 2 – Synchronous Composability: Cross-vProg atomic transactions, concise witness mechanism, prover market infrastructure, and the full computation DAG.

Development Phases

Phase 1: Core Infrastructure

Focus: Consensus-level prerequisites.

  • DagKnight consensus implementation
  • Enhanced block ordering and sequencing
  • Network stability and performance testing
  • TN12 testnet deployment and iteration

Status: Active. TN12 launched January 5, 2026; reset with new features February 9, 2026.

Phase 2: vProgs Foundation

Focus: L1 primitives for verifiable programs.

  • Account model implementation
  • ZK proof verification on L1 (Groth16 + RISC Zero precompiles)
  • State commitment mechanism (Merkle tree structure)
  • Basic vProg deployment framework
  • L1 bridge implementation
  • KIP-21 partitioned sequencing commitments (lane-based, enabling O(activity) proving)

Status: Active. ZK Covenant Rollup PoC completed February 19, 2026 (full deposit-transfer-withdraw cycle). KIP-21 published February 24, 2026.

Phase 3: Composability

Focus: Cross-program interaction and economic infrastructure.

  • Cross-vProg atomic transactions
  • Concise witness mechanism
  • Prover market infrastructure
  • Gas model and resource management
  • Full computation DAG (the “syncompo CD” scheme)

Status: Design phase. Depends on Phase 2 maturity.

Phase 4: Full Ecosystem

Focus: Developer tools and application layer.

  • Developer tools and SDKs
  • DeFi primitives (DEX, lending, vaults)
  • Enterprise integration features
  • Compliance and audit tooling

Status: Planning. The KII Foundation is already operational, preparing enterprise demand.

Key Technical Dependencies

The dependency chain determines what can ship and when:

GHOSTDAG
  --> DagKnight (ordering precision, near-instant finality)
        --> vProgs L1 Integration (sequencing + ZK verification)
              --> Synchronous Composability (cross-vProg atomicity)
                    --> Application Layer (DeFi, DAOs, enterprise)

Within the Covenants++ fork, dependencies include:

  • KIP-10 (transaction introspection) enables KIP-17 (covenant scripts)
  • KIP-15 (seqcommit) enables KIP-21 (partitioned seqcommit for vProgs)
  • KIP-16 (ZK precompiles) enables on-chain proof verification
  • KIP-20 (covenant IDs) enables covenant identity and state tracking

Target Capabilities

Capability Target Dependency
Throughput 30,000+ TPS DagKnight + vProgs
Finality Near-instant DagKnight
Composability Synchronous, atomic vProgs Phase 2
Security Pure PoW + ZK proofs Covenants++
Liquidity Unified L1 Native assets + vProgs
Programmability Native vProgs vProgs Phase 1+

Enterprise Focus

The roadmap explicitly targets institutional adoption:

  • Automated compliance logic encoded on-chain
  • ZK-based monitoring and reporting without exposing sensitive data
  • Real-time settlement without trusted third parties
  • Audit trails via state commitments
  • Enterprise-grade digital infrastructure through the KII Foundation

Further Reading