---
title: Interact with Kusama
description: Learn how to interact with Kusama, Polkadot's canary network, and explore its features like staking, governance, and account recovery.
url: https://developer.polkadot.com/wiki/kusama/kusama-getting-started/
word_count: 449
token_estimate: 726
version_hash: sha256:2fc6b32ea213d96d8eef4a7a87ab4ecbfe40a938516f0a3f811908b8cb88044d
last_updated: 2026-10-28T08:43:55+00:00
---

### Polkadot's Canary Network

Kusama is a _canary network_ for Polkadot; an earlier release of the code that is available first
and holds real economic value. For developers, Kusama is a proving ground for runtime upgrades,
on-chain governance, and parachains.

!!!info "No Promises"
    Kusama is owned by those who hold the Kusama tokens (KSM). There's no central kill switch and all
    changes are made through the protocol's on-chain governance.

    The network is a permissionless and anyone can come along and start using it. Those who participated
    in the Polkadot sale can claim a proportional amount of KSM through the
    [Kusama Claims process](../learn/learn-guides-claims.md).

    Kusama is experimental. **Expect Chaos**.

!!!tip "As a KSM holder"
    You can interact with all the features of the Kusama network such as staking (i.e. validating or
    nominating), governance, basic transfers and everything else.

<div class="grid cards" markdown>

- **[Timeline](kusama-timeline.md)** – Stay up-to-date with the latest action on Kusama.
- **[Code of Conduct](kusama-coc.md)** - Kusama's Code of Conduct to sustain chaos.
- **[Bug Bounty](https://security.parity.io/bug-bounties)** - An Overview of how you can help catch bugs.
- **[Account Recovery](kusama-social-recovery.md)** - Steps on how to perform account recovery on Kusama.
- **[Adversarial Cheatsheet](kusama-adverserial-cheatsheet.md)** - A Cheatsheet to help you create chaos.
- **[Kappa Sigma Mu](https://ksmsociety.io/)** - Learn about the Kappa Sigma Mu Society and Join as a Member.
- **[KSM Inflation](kusama-inflation.md)** - Explanation of KSM's Inflation Model.

</div>

### What can I do with my KSM?

KSM is the native token of the Kusama Network. KSM can be used for transaction fees, staking,
governance, purchase of coretime, and for enabling several key functionalities on Kusama. See more
information on [the Chain State Values page](../general/chain-state-values.md).

KSM has utility in [Kusama's OpenGov](../learn/learn-polkadot-opengov.md) where you can
[vote](../learn/learn-polkadot-opengov.md#voting-on-a-referendum),
[delegate your voting power](../learn/learn-polkadot-opengov.md#multirole-delegation), and place
deposits for your referenda or referenda proposed by others.

### Kusama Gifts

Kusama Gifts provide an easy way to:

- Onboard friends or family who are curious about blockchain but haven’t made the leap yet.
- Share your love of Kusama and send any amount of KSM.
- Say ‘thank you’ or send someone tokens when you don’t know their address.
- Get friends and family set up to participate in crowdloans.

Learn more about how you can create and send Kusama Gifts
[here](https://gifts.kusama.network/#/About).

While Kusama does not support smart contracts natively, building apps on it is possible (e.g. [RMRK.app](https://rmrk.app/)).