Even though today, the interest of the general public in cryptocurrencies has increased considerably, there is still a need for projects to focus on ease of use in order to increase mass adoption of this new technology.
Dash is a cryptocurrency that was born with this idea in mind; a solution to make person-to-person payments in a quick, easy, and effective way, differentiating itself from other projects by presenting interesting and new features for mass adoption of cryptocurrencies.
The great effort that the team behind Dash has been making to promote this cryptocurrency in regions heavily hit by economic and political crises, such as Latin America, has resulted in a growing popularity of its cryptocurrency.
In this guide, you’ll learn what is special about Dash and why we think it has a promising future. Let’s get started….bismillah. (In the name of Allah).
What is Dash crypto?
According to its White Paper, Dash is a digital currency that’s based on the fundamental idea behind the creation of Bitcoin, but providing some elements of its own, such as the use of masternodes and interfaces to access specialized services such as PrivateSend and InstantSend, which allow the sending of money privately and instantly in an easy way.
As with Bitcoin, Dash also has a limited production of coins, standing at 18,900,000 Dash units, a limit that according to its developers, will be reached around the year 2150.
The Dash network is also more “dynamic” than other blockchains, since a Dash block is generated every 2.6 minutes, and the reward within each block is reduced each year by 7.14%, much faster than what happens with other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
This provides a more dynamic, fast, and stable network, ideal for day-to-day use.
The beginnings of Dash
The first version of the Dash software was named XCoin and was released on January 18, 2014, following an announcement on the famous BitcoinTalk forum from its creator, developer Evan Duffield.
The community around the project considered that the XCoin name was uncommercial and flashy, so on February 28, 2014, the name was changed to Darkcoin.
However, this name would also be short-lived, as they thought that it could give a negative perception about the coin to many users, so finally, on March 25, 2014, it was changed to Dash, a reduction of “Digital Cash.”
The cryptocurrency had a somewhat bumpy start since shortly after its launch, the network presented some technical failures that, however, were quickly resolved. After this, the development team has been growing at a constant and stable pace.
Finally, in December of 2017, and thanks to the boom in the cryptocurrency market, Dash reached an all-time high price of $1,642.22 USD, which served to place this cryptocurrency among the most desired assets in the market.
How is Dash different from Bitcoin?
As usual, let’s see how Dash compares to Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency.
The consensus algorithm
Here is where we can find the main difference between both cryptocurrencies; while Bitcoin uses the Proof of Work (PoW) algorithm, Dash uses X11, a combination of PoW and PoSe (Proof of Service).
This feature already makes Dash a much more scalable, dynamic, and sustainable cryptocurrency over time. Additionally, Dash uses CoinJoin mixing to facilitate private transactions within the network.
Transactions
In Bitcoin, the system requires that transactions are validated by the entire set of nodes that make up the network; this avoids requiring a central authority to perform this process.
The problem is that the PoW-based mining system requires a continuous and increasing investment in different resources like hardware, energy, and time. All this contributes to slowing down transactions within the network, but also in making them more expensive.
To solve this problem, Dash uses a masternode-based system. In this system, a subset of users that are part of a kind of staking pool, have special privileges to offer services within the network, at the same time that they receive rewards as a form of payment for their work.
Governance system
While Bitcoin requires the support of a community of academics to continue evolving, Dash has its own self-financing model. In this case, the system splits the rewards between masternodes, miners, and treasury.
Masternodes are the pieces that receive the highest percentage of rewards, and at the same time, they are the ones with the voting power to decide the future direction of the network. Another percentage of the rewards goes to the treasury which will then use the funds to finance future projects that might arise from these voting decisions.
The Dash network power resides in the masternodes
Masternodes are full nodes in the Dash blockchain whose main objective is to ensure the proper functioning of the network. Basically, it’s as if they were supervisors within the blockchain since they must control the updated consensus, the development process, and the economic system on the network.
Masternodes must verify, validate and/or reject new blocks generated by miners, but also provide services that are essential to the blockchain, such as PrivateSend and InstantSend.
Due to their importance and the work they do, masternodes must be rewarded when miners spawn new blocks. In this model, the rewards are distributed as follows:
- 45% for miners
- 45% for masternodes
- 10% is reserved for the budget fund (treasury)
All this is possible thanks to the particular mining model on the Dash blockchain.
In this model, the mining nodes try to solve the mathematical problems imposed by the X11 algorithm – specific to Dash – while the masternodes take care of the rest of the functions in the network.
It’s thanks to this system that Dash can implement many of its features, the main benefit being a great improvement in the security and scalability of the blockchain in general.
Any user can be a masternode, but there is a condition for this: each masternode must have a stake of a minimum of 1,000 Dash as collateral in order to participate. This model helps to control the number of masternodes within the network.
How Dash will improve user experience
The objective of this cryptocurrency is clearly defined on the official Dash website:
“To be the most user-friendly and scalable payments-focused cryptocurrency in the world.”
Dash Core Group, one of the organizations behind the cryptocurrency, has been promoting Dash as a digital currency focused on the transfer of value, to be used on a day-to-day basis, quickly, easily, and safely, including all types of users and institutions.
For example, in 2018, the Dash team began promoting their cryptocurrency in the Latin American region, specifically in Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela. The cryptocurrency has gained wide acceptance in these countries thanks to its ease of use, especially in Venezuela, due to the great popularity that cryptocurrencies have in this country.
Let’s take a closer look at the features of Dash that have made this cryptocurrency so attractive for many people.
InstantSend
InstantSend is a service that allows for super-fast transactions. For this, each transaction that uses this service is sent to be verified and validated by community consensus in the masternode network.
The transactions and blocks that present any conflict are rejected, and in case of not reaching an immediate consensus, the validation is then carried out through the standard system of validation.
PrivateSend
PrivateSend is an optional service that a user may select when it is necessary to keep one’s information private.
PrivateSend is a service that combines transactions in different currencies using the masternodes and the CoinJoin protocol. Each transaction that PrivateSend uses is the product of a combination of funds that come from a minimum of three different places.
In other words, the transactions of one user are combined or “crossed” with those of other users to make it much more difficult to trace transactions. This combination occurs within a masternode, without the need for information exchange that may reveal the identity of the involved users thus providing them security and anonymity.
Dash Platform
Dash Platform is a powerful set of cloud-based tools for developing decentralized applications (dApps) on the Dash blockchain.
Developers can use these tools and integrate them into their own applications quite quickly and easily through various SDKs (Software Development Kits) available on the platform and add different types of functions to their applications such as:
- A decentralized payments infrastructure
- Application data storage
- A user registration and identification system
- A robust cryptography system to secure user data and operations
The platform is designed in such a way that it makes the development and integration of applications in the Dash network much easier, while significantly reducing their development time.
DashPay Wallet
DashPay is a crypto wallet available for Android and iOS that has been developed using the tools available on the Dash Platform. DashPay is an application that brings interesting functions to the ecosystem. With DashPay wallet, normal users can:
- Create a unique user ID on the blockchain
- Create and customize a user profile
- Add a contact book to make payments
- Search contacts by username
- Make instant payments using only username
This new system allows the long cryptographic addresses that are typical of cryptocurrency wallets, to be exchanged for a simple username so that it is much easier to send money to other people using only the recipient’s username.
This form of identity within the blockchain is not limited to just the wallet address, as this system also allows you to add a profile photo, display name, and a short biography.
In addition, being based on contacts and not wallet addresses, once you have made a payment to other users, you can also add them as contacts for future payments, saving you from the long and tedious work of copying and pasting cryptographic addresses.
Once a username is registered, you’ll only have to pay a small fee to securely store your data on the network, including your profile photo, username, and contacts. Once the payment is confirmed, this user profile will be permanently recorded on the blockchain and you won’t be able to modify it.
FastPass
FastPass Network is an initiative that allows users to make deposits, transactions, and withdrawals almost instantly within a network of partner platforms.
The goal of FastPass is to provide a better trading experience for Dash users through a reputable partner network made up of a set of companies that offer different services related to the crypto ecosystem.
Some of the large organizations that are already part of this platform include:
- Coinbase
- CoinbasePro
- Liquid
- KuCoin
- Binance
- OKEx
- HitBTC
- WhiteBIT
- Indodax
- eToro
- Hummingbot
- Quadency
- Messari
- IntoTheBlock
Among many others.
This service operates through InstantSend or ChainLocks, which allow users of the associated platforms to perform operations with Dash with greater speed and security, and with much more competitive fees.
DashText
DashText is a special service that allows Dash users to create a wallet using just a phone and an SMS text message. This system was developed to make the use of Dash easier and more accessible in areas with very poor internet connection.
It is a solution designed especially for those who don’t have a smartphone to use Dash. This program started in Venezuela and has been spreading to other countries in the region. It is a free service with which it’s only necessary to send a text message to check your balance and the price in the market, but also for sending and receiving Dash.
Conclusion
Dash’s vision is pretty clear:
Provide a fast and efficient payment platform for as many users as possible around the world.
The Dash ecosystem already has partnered with almost 5,000 merchants and service providers around the world; they’re providing a quick and accessible payment system to hundreds of thousands of users in many countries. This vision is what has allowed it to gain wide acceptance among a large number of users, especially in certain regions of the world.
In general, the growth of Dash and its platform has been quite successful, even though the value of the cryptocurrency in the market does not reflect this great success.
Even so, it’s an asset with a very promising future, since the organizations behind the project continue to add improvements in their effort to obtain massive adoption of this cryptocurrency.
As always, even though Dash is a project worth keeping an eye on, you must also consider the risks involved when investing in any type of cryptocurrency. Never invest money you can’t afford to lose.
And in the end, Allah knows best.