Is Kusama (KSM) about to shed its “canary network” label? 🚨 This article is 3 years old...
Is Kusama (KSM) about to shed its “canary network” label?
Kusama is increasingly drawing support as being more than just a testnet for Polkadot.
2 min read
Updated: Nov. 3, 2021 at 12:55 am UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Polkadot whale and notable community member @DonnieBigBags tweeted that the Polkadot to Kusama bridge will be rolled out at the end of this year. He added that, by formally connecting both chains, Kusama is “more important than ever.”
“Importantly it was announced today that the $DOT <> $KSM bridge will be ready by the end of the year. This, in my opinion, makes $KSM more important than ever before. All native $KSM assets will be readily available on $DOT and vice-versa.”
With that, should we expect Kusama to step out of Polkadot’s shadow and discard its status as a “canary network?”
The Canary Network
Polkadot and Kusama both offer third parties a highly scalable interoperable platform to operate their own blockchains.
Developers Parity Technologies built both networks, porting Polkadot’s codebase to Kusama with minor tweaks, making them almost identical.
Nonetheless, Kusama’s role in the Polkadot ecosystem is as a preparatory network. In that, developers experiment with innovations there before launching on Polkadot.
On that, @DonnieBigBags points out that Kusama “is not a testnet,” saying some projects opt to stay rather than move to Polkadot, giving $KILT as an example of a project that is doing this.
And, with the $DOT – $KSM bridge that’s soon to launch, he implies more projects will follow $KILT’s example and stick with Kusama.
“$KSM is NOT a testnet and there are projects solely deploying on there. Example $KILT who will only have 1 token. One token, one chain. Now $KILT will be readily available on $DOT. It doesn’t need a $DOT parachain.”
Kraken also weighed in on this by saying because the Kusama network already hosts substantial economic value, it’s unreasonable to call it a testnet.
Kintsugi wins the latest Kusama parachain slot
The eleventh parachain auction slot was won by Kintsugi as bidding closed on Wednesday. The project attracted over 8,000 contributions bringing in a total of 200,000 $KSM ($74,445,973).
Kintsugi is a Bitcoin bridge that will bring liquidity for parachains such as Karura, Shiden, and Moonriver, with the goal of accelerating ecosystem growth.
“kBTC is a 1:1 Bitcoin-backed asset on Kusama, maintained by a decentralized network of collateralized Vaults.”
Commenting on the win, Alexei Zamyatin, the CEO of Interlay, the development firm behind Kintsugi, said the level of support received spurs the team to want to exceed expectations.
“Seeing this level of support is more rewarding than anything else — and motivates us to outperform all expectations and prove our worth to our community. We’re building the best bridge out there — and won’t stop until we’ve changed the centralized status quo.”
Parachain auctions work by $KSM token holders bidding for which project they want to see on the network.
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Author 
Samuel Wan
Samuel Wan, a finance professional turned full-time crypto content creator, values individual autonomy and personal freedom in his pursuits.
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