Glossary

What is kHeavyHash?

Kaspa's proof-of-work algorithm, mined today on dedicated ASICs.

kHeavyHash is the proof-of-work hashing algorithm used by Kaspa miners. Like Bitcoin's SHA-256, it makes miners spend real computing work and energy to find each block.

How it works

kHeavyHash combines the Keccak hash function (the family behind SHA-3) with a large matrix multiplication step in between hashing rounds. The matrix step comes from the HeavyHash design, which was intended to make mining efficient on hardware built around matrix operations.

Mining hardware

Kaspa was first mined on GPUs. Dedicated ASIC miners for kHeavyHash arrived in 2023 and now provide nearly all of the network's hashrate. GPUs are no longer competitive for Kaspa.

Why it matters

Proof of work keeps Kaspa's trust model close to Bitcoin's: no staking, no validator committee, and security that comes from real work. Upgrades like DAGKnight change how blocks are ordered, not how they are mined.

Curious what a miner earns? Try the Kaspa mining calculator.