Kusama is a scalable network of specialized blockchains built using Substrate and nearly the same codebase as Polkadot. The Kusama Network is an experimental development environment for teams who want to move fast and innovate on Kusama or prepare for deployment on Polkadot. Kusama is self-described as “Polkadot’s wild cousin”. Kusama is built using a nominated proof-of-stake (NPoS) consensus mechanism. Kusama refers to itself as a Polkadot’s canary network, meaning it is meant to look-out for the Polkadot network. Polkadot is developed to deliver the most robust platform for security, scalability and innovation. With the help of Kusama, Polkadot will become a scalable, interoperable and secure network protocol for web 3.0. KSM is the native cryptocurrency of the Kusama Network. Kusama initially launched as an airdrop to those that participated in the Polkadot (DOT) token sale. These were distributed at a 1:1 rate, while those without DOT were able to obtain KSM by using a frictional faucet.
Kusama is an early release of Polkadot and Kusama was built by the same team that created Polkadot, which is a company known as Parity Technologies and its founder Dr. Gavin Wood. Parity Technologies has an extensive team of some of the world’s most successful blockchain engineers, and has over 100 employees in total spread throughout the world. In addition, Kusama is funded by grants from the Web3 Foundation.
Dr.Gavin Wood - He is a world-renowned Computer Scientist and Programmer. He is the Co-Founder and Lead Developer of Parity Technologies, a core blockchain infrastructure company. He is the Founder and President of Web3 Foundation, a non profit organization focusing on decentralized internet infrastructure and technology, starting with the Polkadot network. He is the Co-Founder of Grid Singularity, a venture facilitating an internet-based decentralized energy data management and exchange platform. He is the creator of Polkadot, a multichain framework platform designed to offer interoperability and scalability for blockchains built on Polkadot. He is the creator of Kusama, an early stage experimental development environment for Polkadot. He began originating blockchain technology as co-founder and CTO of Ethereum. Prior to developing Ethereum, he worked as a Research Scientist at Microsoft. He invented fundamental components of the blockchain industry, including Solidity, Proof-of-Authority consensus, and Whisper.
