How has Kaspa evolved in 2026? Kaspa (@kaspaunchained) $KAS was created as a high-speed payments chain based on a blockDAG rather than a blockchain. However, in 2026, it progressed far beyond payments. (1) It became Layer-1 programmable. The Toccata hard fork on the mainnet on June 30, 2026, made this possible. It introduced covenants (programming conditions on UTXOs), transaction introspection, and a verification opcode for zero-knowledge proofs on Layer 1 (Groth16 on BN254 and RISC0 included). SilverScript is the suite used to write these covenants. This follows the Crescendo upgrade, which increased the network's throughput to up to 10 blocks per second. (2) It promoted the native fungible token standard. The KCC-20 (Kaspa Call for a Convention-20) establishes a common Layer 1 protocol for fungible tokens based on covenants. Ownership, balances, and transfers follow common rules that let wallets and applications communicate without needing custom code for every token. (3) Privacy research for native KAS achieved on testnet. Olaf Weller successfully implemented independent privacy research for native KAS called the Kaspa Privacy Initiative. It involved a proof of concept on testnet TN10 that showed how to perform Layer-1 ordering, generate zero-knowledge proofs, settle with proofs accepted by Kaspa nodes, reject invalid operations, and independently recreate the state with a native KAS withdrawal. (4) Application experiments started, involving memecoin development tools. Kasseal (Kaspaseal) plans to launch a KCC-20 memecoin launchpad on mainnet around October 23, 2026. Users can deploy tokens with a fixed supply from genesis, with on-chain covenants enforcing the rules. Token creators will receive a portion of fees charged on $KAS trades. Such testnet experiments are already underway (bonding curves, locked liquidity). They are built on the new covenant/token technology stack. Kaspa started in 2026 as a throughput-heavy PoW payments blockchain. It is now incorporating native covenants, a standardized token layer, early privacy research, and even on-chain launch tools, without transitioning to proof-of-stake or relying entirely on off-chain rollups. The true test will be whether any of this functionality drives continued development, adoption, and liquidity among actual users.