Kaspa Gets Its Own Native Name Service

@dotk_name went live on the Kaspa mainnet on September 13, 2026, introducing a name service built directly into the protocol layer. Rather than relying on an off-chain registry, a .k name is a covenant UTXO, meaning the chain itself enforces who owns it. Names are provably unique, and the system is fully trustless, with both correctness and completeness verifiable using a Kaspa node alone.

The practical upside is straightforward: instead of sharing a long alphanumeric Kaspa address, users can register a short .k name and use that as their on-chain identity. The ownership logic lives in the protocol, removing the need to trust a third-party registry.

Subnames, Wallet Support, and Developer Tools

Beyond simple name registration, dotk now supports subnames, allowing a single .k name to branch into multiple addresses. A project team, for example, could set up handles such as dev.project.k or treasury.project.k, each pointing to its own separate wallet address. This makes .k names useful not just for individuals but for teams and decentralised projects that need to route funds to different purposes under one identity.

Wallet support arrived quickly after launch. The Kaspire wallet lets users enter a .k name to send $KAS or assets on Layer 1, with the wallet deriving the deed in Rust and checking live ownership through the node before selecting the payment address. Name resolution is available on Android and in the latest browser extension. The registry identity and deed template are embedded in the wallet rather than accepted from the API, and node checks reject stale or spent deeds, foreign covenant IDs, wrong scripts, and address mismatches.

For developers building on top of the system, two npm packages are available to help integrators: @dotk/sdk for lookup and proof functions, and @dotk/sdk-tx for registering and transferring names. This gives application builders a clear path to resolve .k names and subnames without having to interact directly with the underlying covenant logic.

The launch positions Kaspa alongside other smart-contract-capable networks that have introduced human-readable naming layers, though dotk's approach of enforcing ownership at the consensus level rather than through a separate smart contract is a technical distinction worth noting for developers evaluating the protocol.

Sources:
dotk name system details on GitHub (Kastle integration request)
Kaspire wallet official site
Kaspire v0.11.31 release notes on GitHub