Kaspa Targets 100 Blocks Per Second: DAGKnight, ZK and VProgs

In 2026, Kaspa stopped being “just” a fast payments network. After the Crescendo hard fork took the network to 10 blocks per second in 2025, the Toccata upgrade added native smart contracts, KRC-20 tokens and zero-knowledge (ZK) verification in late June 2026. That leaves the question anyone following the project actually cares about: what comes next? The answer is three build-outs, DAGKnight, the climb to 100 blocks per second, and VProgs, plus a Layer 2 ecosystem taking shape, not without friction. Here is what the next upgrades are preparing, and what they do not yet prove.

Where Kaspa stands in late 2026

Kaspa is a proof-of-work cryptocurrency built on a BlockDAG, a directed acyclic graph in which several valid blocks coexist in parallel rather than competing, thanks to the GHOSTDAG protocol. The result is high throughput without sacrificing decentralisation. The network has run at 10 blocks per second since the Crescendo hard fork (2025), made possible by the rewrite of the software in Rust.

The recent turning point is Toccata. Activated in late June 2026, this upgrade transformed Kaspa from a fast payments chain into a programmable Layer 1: native contracts via covenants, KRC-20 tokens built into the protocol, ZK verification opcodes and a compiler, SilverScript, to ease development. On the market side, KAS traded around 0.035 dollars on 18 September 2026 (market cap near one billion), with a fair launch, no pre-mine, and issuance approaching the end of its curve. The technical base is therefore in place; what follows is about making it live.

DAGKnight: the next leap in consensus

This is the most anticipated upgrade. DAGKnight (DK) is a next-generation consensus protocol, drawn from a 2022 research paper by Kaspa researchers Michael Sutton and Yonatan Sompolinsky, designed to extend or replace GHOSTDAG. Its distinguishing feature: it is “parameterless” and adaptive. Where the current system relies on fixed assumptions about network latency, DAGKnight adjusts dynamically to real conditions, which should allow faster finality (target block times on the order of 25 to 40 milliseconds) and better resilience to disruption, with Byzantine fault tolerance up to 50%.

According to the roadmap published by the project, DAGKnight is expected to be bundled with a ZK bridge between Layer 1 and Layer 2 in a single hard fork. The timeline, though, calls for caution: once floated for the third quarter of 2026, it is now more often mentioned for 2026-2027, and the team itself acknowledges the subject was deferred after the Crescendo effort. The takeaway: DAGKnight is structural, but it is also the milestone whose date has moved the most.

Toward 100 blocks per second

Kaspa does not intend to stop at 10 blocks per second. The roadmap plans a gradual increase in throughput, in steps (around 25, then 40, and finally 100 blocks per second), targeted for a hard fork in 2027, with resilience mechanisms designed so that payments keep working even during a network partition. The logic is “horizontal” scaling: rather than inflating each block, the network processes more of them in parallel. If it lands, this throughput climb would bring confirmations down toward the sole limit of internet latency.

VProgs: native, composable contracts

Still at the research stage, VProgs (“virtual programs”) aim to give Kaspa native smart contracts able to run in parallel while remaining synchronously composable, a delicate point for decentralised finance and complex applications. The stated goal is to offer programmability at scale without breaking the BlockDAG’s performance model. It is a deep-groundwork effort, expected rather in 2027, to be followed as a direction more than a date.

Igra and Kasplex: the application layer takes shape

Alongside the protocol, the Layer 2 ecosystem is coming together. Projects such as Igra (an EVM-compatible Layer 2 built on Kaspa’s BlockDAG) and Kasplex are maturing the application layer, with KRC-20 tokens as the first proving ground. The idea is familiar but coherent: Layer 1 provides speed, security and settlement, while Layer 2s host part of the application activity. It is this combination, a fast base plus an active ecosystem, that will determine whether the recently added programmability turns into real usage. It is also, for now, where the risks concentrate.

The flip side: the Kasplex exploit and Shai Wyborski’s warning

In late September 2026, a signature-bypass vulnerability in the off-chain indexer of Kasplex’s KRC-20 tokens let attackers mint, without holding the private keys, 186 million ZEAL tokens and roughly 54.4 billion NACHO, through Igra Labs’ EVM layer and the Kasplex Layer 2, before selling them into the Zealous Swap DEX. According to specialist outlets (KuCoin, ChainCatcher), the value of the affected pools fell by 94% to 99.6%. A crucial point for accuracy: Kaspa’s Layer 1 consensus and unbridged assets were not affected, the flaw sitting in a Layer 2 component rather than the base protocol. Igra suspended iKAS withdrawals, and Zealous Swap said it had to fix and re-index its indexer.

It is against this backdrop that Shai Wyborski’s public post (@DesheShai) should be read. A reminder of who he is: co-author of the PHANTOM and GHOSTDAG research that underpins Kaspa, a doctor in quantum cryptography, and one of the project’s very first contributors. Since April 2026 he had distanced himself and publicly voiced distrust of part of the ecosystem. According to coverage by the outlet CaptainAltcoin, he pointed to the rivalry between three programmability projects (Kasplex’s ZK-EVM, Igra and the core team’s vProgs), faulted the core leaders (Michael Sutton and Yonatan Sompolinsky) for hostility toward Igra, judged that Kasplex had hidden protocol details and fees, and feared that dependence on Kaspa Eco Foundation (KEF) funding and personal grudges were steering decisions at the community’s expense. His phrasing captured his stance: he cannot work with people he does not trust.

After the exploit, Wyborski argued that his warnings were materialising, saying he had repeatedly flagged the need to resolve security issues before any launch, and bluntly calling KEF reckless and Kasplex a poor project. These are his opinions, expressed publicly; they target ecosystem entities (KEF, Kasplex, Igra) distinct from Kaspa’s Layer 1, and the parties involved are communicating on the incident on their side. Notably, he has not written off the base protocol, whose performance he has praised elsewhere.

What to watch (and the caveats)

A note of honesty is in order. Kaspa’s roadmap is credible and its execution track record real (Crescendo, then Toccata, did ship), but three caveats remain. 

• First, timelines slip: DAGKnight is the example, pushed back several times. 
• Second, having capacity is not the same as seeing it used: several analyses note that on-chain activity remains low relative to available throughput, a classic “build it and they will come” case whose outcome is not guaranteed. 
• Third, as the Kasplex exploit and the internal criticism remind us, the security and governance of the Layer 2 ecosystem are works in progress in their own right, distinct from the soundness of Layer 1.

The right way to follow Kaspa is therefore not to watch for a price target, but to check three things: the DAGKnight and ZK branches actually landing in the development repository, application demand materialising on Layer 1 and Layer 2, and how the ecosystem fixes its flaws and clarifies its governance. The next verifiable technical step will be the DAGKnight and ZK bridge work reaching testnet, then activating via hard fork.

This article is informational and not investment advice. Crypto markets are volatile; the figures cited are dated and move quickly. Upgrade timelines are indicative and subject to slippage. Statements attributed to named individuals are their public remarks; the presumption of innocence and good faith applies to the entities mentioned.

Millycrypto

Créatrice de contenu spécialisée dans les cryptomonnaies et le Web3. Je décrypte l'actualité du marché, les nouveaux protocoles et les usages on-chain pour rendre l'écosystème accessible au plus grand nombre.