Kusama

This section outlines how to use our API endpoint to connect to Kusama.

Kusama is a blockchain network designed as a "canary network" for Polkadot, aimed at testing and experimenting with new features before deploying them on Polkadot. Kusama has its own community and governance, with a focus on innovation and risk-taking.

How to Connect to Kusama

Using Public Endpoint

You can connect to kusama using Blockops public API endpoints. These endpoints are only suitable for testing. Public RPC endpoints are not intended for dApp building. (Throughput rate limited to 50 rps).

We have different rate limits set for private API endpoints (e.g. ones with API keys attached) - Read more below

To avoid rate limiting and service interruption, sign up now to get your own API key.

Https

https://kusama-public-rpc.blockops.network/rpc

Websocket

wss://kusama-public-rpc.blockops.network/ws

The below example uses the public API endpoint to make a request using curl

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"id":1, "jsonrpc":"2.0", "method": "chain_getBlock"}' 'https://kusama-public-rpc.blockops.network/rpc'

Using Private Endpoint

Using API keys on an RPC node provides better tracking and monitoring of API usage.

Secure your data, speed up your queries, and take control of your API usage with our RPC API endpoint and personalized API keys. Sign up now to get your own API key.

To get your API key, create a project using a unique Identifier as the project name and select Polkadot from the network options.

Create a Kusama project

Open the project to view your api key and rpc endpoints.

view Kusama project

Send requests

All requests are POST requests.

Connect via Command Line

You can connect to the network using websocket or HTTP with your API key in two ways:

• Adding the API key as a query string ?api_key=${APIKEY}

• Or the request header -H 'authorization: APIKEY ${APIKEY}'

Curl

For example, the following CURL command can be used to get header and body of a relay chain block.

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -H 'authorization: APIKEY xxxx'  -d '{"id":1, "jsonrpc":"2.0", "method": "chain_getBlock"}' https://kusama-rpc.blockops.network/rpc

Here is the response you will receive back.

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","result":{"block":{"header":{"parentHash":"0x381dd358f0b1e328e861822b2a51a72e8dc064803a5c7ccc96277da3b16d7667","number":"0xe07a1d","stateRoot":"0xa2aacd7ef5d7ff66da1df6643b3e1c13975d210363c568f1bed51bad56cf40db","extrinsicsRoot":"0x00bc7f1504c9a07364835d80d2114ca3d4e7ad774453198b119bea9be2a1f7c1","digest":{"logs":["0x0642414245b50103d8000000d17aae1000000000768dc1931ba697bb9ab4a08debf5d710bd1f55e6325d65315161c2340cc0217170dfe2df24a3680c8ff48868ac665f4b34ebefa4bc844d510c848d9fc99252035db579a0acbf52cded336d6daf6ab7fdb1d1eee0d480e6388c2a12785d4de809"]},"justifications":null},"id":1}

Wscat

If you want to send data requests with WebSockets, you can use several libraries or wscat. You can install and use wscat as follows:

• Download wscat from https://www.npmjs.com/package/wscat

• Install wscat by running the following command: npm install -g wscat

You can connect to the network with wscat using two options by adding the API key as a query string.

wscat -c 'wss://kusama-rpc.blockops.network/ws?api_key=*********************'

Or the request header.

wscat -c 'wss://kusama-rpc.blockops.network/ws' --header 'authorization: APIKEY xxxx'

After executing the command, the terminal will display a message indicating that the connection has been enabled successfully.

Connected (press CTRL+C to quit)
>

Then, you can send the following request:

{"id":1, "jsonrpc":"2.0", "method": "chain_getBlock"}

For more information on the Kusama network, please see the official Kusama developer documentation.

Login or set up an account here to get started!

Quick Links

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