Kaspa has been gaining serious traction in the crypto space thanks to its unique architecture and rapid development. But is there real demand to build on it — or is the excitement just speculative?
Recent GitHub activity suggests the developer interest is both real and growing.
Development Activity at a Glance
Over the past 12 months, Kaspa has shown steady and consistent development progress on GitHub:
- 188+ commits across its core and community repositories
- 64 unique contributors, including both core team members and community developers
- Active updates to wallets, explorers, mining tools, node infrastructure, and KRC-20 tooling
- An average of 3–4 commits per week, with occasional spikes during major upgrades
This level of activity may not seem massive compared to high-profile projects like Solana — which sees thousands of commits and contributors annually — but Kaspa is still in an earlier growth phase. When you factor in its smaller team, lower market cap, and focused roadmap, the picture changes dramatically.
To really understand how much development is happening relative to Kaspa’s size, it’s helpful to compare the numbers in a normalized way.
Normalized Comparison: Kaspa vs. Solana
To fairly compare Kaspa and Solana, it’s important to account for their vastly different market sizes and stages of maturity. Here’s a direct breakdown of GitHub development metrics over the past year:
| Metric (Past Year) | Kaspa | Solana |
|---|---|---|
| Market Cap (approx.) | $1.72 B (rank ~#50) | $64.9 B (rank ~#5) |
| GitHub Repos Tracked | 20 | 140 |
| Total Commits (12 months) | 188 | 3,289 |
| Commits – Past 12 Weeks | 43 | 296 |
| Commits – Past 4 Weeks | 9 | 102 |
| Contributors (12 months) | 64 | 1,457 |
| Avg. Commits per Contributor | ~2.9 | ~2.3 |
Solana’s development output is clearly higher in absolute terms — roughly 17× more commits and 23× more contributors than Kaspa. However, Solana’s market cap is also about 37× larger.
When normalized by market cap, Kaspa stands out:
- Kaspa: ~109 commits per $1B of market cap
- Solana: ~51 commits per $1B
- Kaspa: ~37 contributors per $1B
- Solana: ~22 contributors per $1B
This suggests that Kaspa is delivering more developer activity per dollar of valuation — a strong signal that the project is healthy and attracting committed builders at an early stage. In fact, most mid-cap projects average only ~67 commits per year; Kaspa is nearly triple that figure.
Why Are Developers Interested in Kaspa?
The growing demand is being driven by major upcoming upgrades and the network’s core strengths.
1. The Crescendo Upgrade
Kaspa is rolling out a major performance enhancement called Crescendo, which increases block throughput to 10 blocks per second. This sets the stage for high-speed, scalable decentralized applications.
2. Smart Contracts Are Already Being Built
Following the earlier launch of the KRC-20 token standard, smart contracts are now actively under development on Kaspa. Projects like Igra Labs, Kasplex, and others are already working on smart contract infrastructure, frameworks, and early tooling. With the foundation laid, the network is now entering the phase where dApps can begin to emerge, not hypothetically, but through real builders writing code today.
3. A Growing Grassroots Ecosystem
More third-party tools are being released across the ecosystem, including lightweight explorers, open-source wallets, KRC-20 token managers, and early DeFi prototypes. This reflects a builder community that’s expanding alongside the protocol.
Comparing Growth Stages
Solana launched in 2020 and has already undergone several years of development, moving from rapid expansion to a phase focused on optimization and ecosystem scaling.
Kaspa, on the other hand, is still laying core infrastructure. It recently migrated to a Rust-based codebase, introduced token standards, and is just now preparing for smart contract deployment. Its lower commit volume reflects a focus on core milestones rather than ecosystem breadth — for now.
As Kaspa progresses through Crescendo and moves into smart contracts in 2025, its development pace is expected to increase further.
Final Thoughts
Kaspa is no longer just a fast proof-of-work blockchain. It’s evolving into a platform with:
- High throughput (via Crescendo)
- Upcoming smart contracts
- Strong developer-to-market-cap efficiency
- Growing community-driven infrastructure
The raw numbers may be smaller than Solana’s, but when adjusted for size and stage, Kaspa is punching above its weight — and steadily attracting attention from developers who see its long-term potential.
