Kusama, often referred to as "Polkadot's wild cousin," is an experimental blockchain platform that aims to provide a scalable and interoperable framework for developers. Built on Substrate, a blockchain building kit developed by Parity Technologies, Kusama shares a similar codebase with Polkadot, another interoperable blockchain. Kusama is designed to serve as a testbed for developers looking to innovate and deploy their own blockchain. It can also be used as a preparatory network before launching on Polkadot, although many projects choose to remain on Kusama for their final product. Kusama is designed to have a low barrier to entry for deploying parachains and is commonly used by early-stage startups and for experimentation.

Kusama operates on a multichain, heterogeneously-sharded design that uses a nominated proof-of-stake (NPoS) consensus system. This system allows it to perform rapid on-chain upgrades without a fork and support cross-chain message passing (XCMP) for communication with other parachains on the Kusama network. Kusama also features on-chain governance capabilities, which are decentralized and permission-less, allowing anyone with Kusama (KSM) tokens or parachain tokens to vote on their respective governance proposals. This on-chain governance procedure aims to facilitate a quicker pace of development for projects built on Kusama.

Kusama is primarily built for developers who aim to launch ambitious projects with a fast-evolving pace of development. It provides a platform for developers to test and deploy their own blockchain, making it a potential choice for projects that aim to start quickly. Kusama's interoperable and scalable nature aims to accommodate a wide range of use cases, including gaming and eSports, DAOs, marketplaces, oracles, music, and social networking. Developers can build their own app-specific blockchain and connect it to Kusama, breaking down the silos created by legacy blockchain networks.

Kusama was founded in 2019 by Dr. Gavin Wood, a world-renowned computer scientist and programmer who also co-founded Ethereum. The platform was built by the same team that created Polkadot, a company known as Parity Technologies. Parity Technologies has a team of experienced blockchain engineers and has over 100 employees spread throughout the world. Kusama is funded by grants from the Web3 Foundation, which was launched to help nurture and steward technologies and applications in the fields of decentralized web software protocols. The Web3 Foundation also supports Kusama with research and community development.