kHeavyHash, and why it exists
Kaspa’s proof-of-work function is kHeavyHash, built around matrix multiplication rather than repeated cryptographic hashing. Two motivations. The obvious one is efficiency: the design does less work per unit of security than SHA-256, so the same security costs less electricity. The more speculative one is that matrix multiplication is a natural fit for optical computing, which would make the hardware substantially more efficient again if that technology ever becomes practical. Treat the second as a possibility, not a roadmap.
kHeavyHash was ASIC-resistant only in the sense that ASICs did not exist for it yet. During 2023 machines from IceRiver, Bitmain and others arrived and pushed GPUs out entirely. That is the normal trajectory for any proof-of-work function with meaningful value behind it, and it happened faster here than most.
Continuous difficulty retargeting
Bitcoin adjusts difficulty every 2016 blocks — roughly two weeks. If hashrate halves, blocks come at twenty-minute intervals until the next adjustment arrives. Kaspa retargets continuously, so the network absorbs hashrate changes in seconds. This is not a minor convenience: at 100 millisecond blocks, a two-week adjustment window would be structurally unworkable.
The practical consequence for a miner is that there is no window of favourable difficulty to exploit after a hashrate drop. Your share of the network is essentially your hashrate divided by the network’s, continuously.
Solo versus pool
At ten blocks per second there are 864,000 blocks a day, which means small miners hit blocks more often than they would on a slow chain — but variance is still brutal unless you control a meaningful share. Pools smooth it out and take a fee, typically around one percent. Solo mining is realistic here for larger operations in a way it is not on Bitcoin, and it is worth modelling both.
Whatever you choose, point the miner at a payout address in a wallet whose seed phrase you hold. Mining into an exchange deposit address means your income depends on that exchange staying solvent, cooperative and unhacked.
Getting started, in order
- Set up a wallet you control and verify you can receive a small test amount. Do this before buying hardware.
- Model the economics with your real electricity price. If the break-even electricity price above is below what you pay, no amount of enthusiasm fixes it.
- Confirm your power infrastructure. A 3.2 kW machine on a domestic circuit is a genuine electrical question, not a formality.
- Plan cooling and noise before delivery. These machines are industrial equipment.
- Choose a pool, configure the payout address, and check the first payout actually arrives in your wallet.
- Re-run the numbers every month. The subsidy drops 5.61% each Kaspa month whether or not you were watching.