Kaspa Delays Covenant-Centric Hard Fork to June

Kaspa postpones major upgrade to allow further testing

The update was shared through a post on X, confirming that the hard fork originally planned for May 5 will now take place in June. The announcement emphasized that all planned features remain intact and on track.

The decision reflects a deliberate choice to allocate more time for testing and developer support, particularly given the complexity of the new primitives being introduced.

How Kaspa reached this stage of development

Kaspa has positioned itself as a high-performance proof-of-work network built on a blockDAG architecture using GHOSTDAG. Unlike traditional blockchains, it processes multiple blocks in parallel, enabling faster confirmations while maintaining decentralization.

The network currently produces blocks every second, which puts it among the fastest PoW systems in operation. This design has allowed Kaspa to scale throughput without relying on Layer 2 solutions or sacrificing its core security model.

The upcoming hard fork has been one of the most anticipated upgrades in the ecosystem. It is designed to expand Kaspa beyond simple transfers by introducing programmability directly at the base layer.

With features like native tokens and zero-knowledge verification, the upgrade aims to bring functionality typically associated with smart contract platforms while retaining Kaspa’s parallel processing advantage.

What the covenant-centric upgrade introduces

The Kaspa Delays Covenant-Centric Hard Fork narrative highlights a technically ambitious upgrade rather than a routine network change.

At its core, the hard fork enhances the UTXO model by introducing covenants. These allow transactions to enforce predefined conditions, such as how funds can be spent or transferred. This opens the door to more complex financial logic directly on Layer 1.

The upgrade also introduces native token support, enabling assets to be issued on Kaspa without external layers. Alongside this, vProgs bring a new model for off-chain computation backed by on-chain verification using zero-knowledge proofs.

To support this, the network will integrate proof verification capabilities directly into the protocol, allowing it to validate cryptographic proofs while maintaining high throughput.

These changes collectively aim to transform Kaspa into a programmable PoW network without introducing a traditional virtual machine or global state model.

A delay that reflects priorities rather than problems

The decision to delay by about one month is relatively minor in terms of timeline but meaningful in terms of signaling.

Instead of pushing the upgrade live on schedule, the team is prioritizing stability and developer readiness. This approach contrasts with past cases in crypto where rushed upgrades led to bugs, exploits, or emergency fixes.

Community reaction so far has leaned positive, with many users viewing the delay as a sign of maturity rather than weakness. In a system introducing entirely new primitives, even small oversights could have outsized consequences once deployed.

For Kaspa, which is positioning itself as both fast and secure, this kind of cautious rollout aligns with its broader narrative.

Risks, expectations, and execution challenges

Even with more testing time, the upgrade carries execution risk.

Introducing native tokens and zero-knowledge verification at the base layer is not trivial, especially within a blockDAG structure that prioritizes parallelism. Ensuring these features work seamlessly without affecting performance will be critical.

There is also the question of developer adoption. New primitives like vProgs and covenant-based logic require tooling, documentation, and real use cases. Without that, the technical improvements may not immediately translate into ecosystem growth.

Timing is another factor. As other networks continue to evolve rapidly, delays, even small ones, can affect momentum if not followed by strong delivery.