Table of contents

Kulupu

Kulupu is a proof of work blockchain with on-chain governance and online upgrade.

Overview

Kulupu is a self-updating self-governed blockchain system, using proof-of-work as its consensus engine. Kulupu is built with the Substrate framework. It is one of the first blockchains that combine proof-of-work consensus engine with forkless upgrades.

Kulupu has all the normal features you’d expect in a proof of work blockchain.

  • No pre-mine. Kulupu was launched in September 2019, with 0 coin in its genesis block. It then emits 1 KLP per second to miners, till today.

  • ASIC-resistant. Kulupu uses the battle tested RandomX mining algorithm from Monero.

  • Like any decentralized blockchain system, it is censorship resistant, accessible to everyone, peer-to-peer and permission-less.

In addition, Kulupu contains several unique features:

  • On-chain governance and forkless upgrade. Kulupu has an on-chain democracy system. Users and a democratically elected council can submit referendum proposals, which are voted by coin holders. This user-driven governance system allows Kulupu to enact runtime upgrade much more easily, and with much reduced risk of network split, compared with hard-fork-based governance systems. The same system also allows upgrading the consensus, including mining algorithm and difficulty adjustment algorithm.

  • Signed mining and block reward lock. A miner provides security at a specific point-in-time for the blockchain. In the mean time, that specific point-in-time security is expected to have a lasting effect for the blockchain for a certain period of time. Block reward lock and signed mining allows Kulupu to account for that security aspect. It also prevents hash-power rental attacks and botnets.

  • Voluntary taxation and treasury. A democracy governance system allows Kulupu to build a public-good treasury system, with coin holders having the final say on how funds are spent. The treasury taxation is fair, and at the same time voluntary, reducing the risk of centralization and misuse.The donation-based treasury system can be used right now in production, but the voluntary taxation system is still work-in-progress.

  • Actor-based smart contract. Actor-based smart contract aims at solving some of the outstanding issues in normal call-based smart contract system, improving backward compatibility, fee payment and other areas.Actor-based smart contract system is still work-in-progress.

  • Interoperability with Polkadot. By using Substrate, building on the same framework that Polkadot is built on, Kulupu allows easy interoperaibility with Polkadot in the future.

More information

More information regarding Kulupu can be found at Consensus Paper.

Resources

On this page

  • Mining as lottery process: Mining should be considered lottery process, but not professional for-profit process.
  • Decentralized mining pool: This article explores a specification for a decentralized mining pool implemented in Kulupu’s protocol level, assuming signed mining.
  • Effective total supply: Effective total supply is a concept of total supply with consideration of fee market. Kulupu currently has an effective total supply of 75 million KLP, after referendum #26 has passed.