Validators process transactions and receive fees from users (supply-side fees).

Kusama is a security & interoperability platform for blockchains and applications. Kusama was founded by Gavin Wood and launched in 2019.

KSM holders own and govern the protocol. They currently take a cut of the total transaction fees paid by users (revenue).

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Blockchains (L1)

Kusama

# Kusama Block time Methodology

## 1. Overview

Block time measures the average time interval between consecutive blocks on the Kusama blockchain, aggregated daily. This metric indicates blockchain performance and network health by showing how consistently the network produces new blocks. The calculation analyzes sequential block timestamps to determine the time gaps between block production, then averages these intervals by day to provide a daily block time metric.

## 2. Data sources

- **Kusama blockchain data**: Raw block records from the Kusama network containing block timestamps and sequential block numbers
- **Block metadata**: Core blockchain infrastructure data including block production timing and block sequencing information

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Block data extraction
- **Purpose**: Retrieve block timestamps and numbers from Kusama blockchain data
- **Logic**: Extract block timestamp and block number fields from raw Kusama blockchain records. Filter out the genesis block (block number 0) as it has an artificial timestamp at the start of Unix time that would skew calculations. Cast timestamp and number fields to appropriate data types for processing.
- **Key fields**: `block_timestamp` (when the block was produced), `block_number` (sequential block identifier)

### Component B: Sequential block pairing
- **Purpose**: Create pairs of consecutive blocks to enable time difference calculations
- **Logic**: Use a LAG window function ordered by block number to associate each block with the timestamp of its immediately preceding block. This creates pairs of consecutive blocks where each row contains both the current block timestamp and the previous block timestamp.
- **Key fields**: `block_timestamp` (current block time), `previous_timestamp` (preceding block time), `block_number` (for ordering)

### Component C: Block interval calculation
- **Purpose**: Calculate the time difference between consecutive block productions
- **Logic**: Compute the timestamp difference in milliseconds between each block and its predecessor using timestamp difference functions. Truncate block timestamps to daily granularity to establish aggregation boundaries. Filter out records where no previous timestamp exists (the first block after genesis).
- **Key fields**: `timestamp` (daily truncated date), `block_time` (milliseconds between consecutive blocks)

### Final aggregation
- **Combining components**: Group block intervals by day and calculate the average block time for each day using standard averaging functions
- **Currency conversion**: Not applicable - block time is measured in milliseconds
- **Time aggregation**: Daily aggregation boundaries established through timestamp truncation to day level
- **Final calculation**: Average block time per day is calculated by taking the mean of all block interval measurements within each calendar day, providing a single daily metric representing typical block production speed

The methodology applies standard blockchain categorization metadata (chain identifier as 'kusama', market sector as 'blockchains_l2', business segment as 'blockchain') and uses Token Terminal's standard metric finalization process for consistent formatting and data quality controls.

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

avg(block_timestamp - previous_block_timestamp)

KusamaKSM

Block time

Block time

Competitive landscape