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This week has been another eventful week for Dash with new partnerships, developments, and general news. Keep reading below to get a summary of the week.

Dash Network Developments of The Week:

Dash LatAm Transactions Grow, Exceed 1,100 Over Last 28 Days: The Dash LatAm tracker shows that transactions have surpassed 1,100 over the past 28 days with an average of 79.6 transactions per day over the same time period. Additionally, the hypothesis that Dash is continuing to be used for everyday purchases is supported by the fact that over the past 14 days, there was a median of $5.02 USD per transaction. There are now 301 active out of 616 total Dash-accepting merchants across the continent, up from 280 active merchants out of 616 total a month ago

Dash Integrations of the Week:

Uphold Removes Withdrawal Fee for Dash, Enabling Savings and Remittance Use Cases: Not a new integration, but Uphold has listened to customers and removed their previous $2.99 fee for withdrawing Dash to the Dash blockchain. There still remains the $3.99 fee for withdrawing fiat to a bank account and a 1.25% conversion fee on Dash, but the elimination of the Dash withdrawal fee now makes it more economical for individuals to buy Dash and send it as remittances to loved ones that can then be used directly at stores (especially in Latin America), exchanged at ATMs, or used to purchase gift cards.

XPay Payment Processor Adds Dash, Increasing Adoption Prospects in Latin America: The Panda Group, which previously integrated Dash in 2015 has now integrated Dash into their payment processor, based out of Latin America and aimed primarily to Colombian and Venezuelan customers, since It works with both country’s currencies. Dash was also added to PandaBTM, a device that now enables consumers to buy and sell Dash from a minimum of 50 Colombian pesos (about 15.5 USD). The integration adds to the significant Dash adoption in both countries.

Kamoney Bill Pay and Merchant Solution Adds Dash, Enables Living Off Dash in Brazil: Brazilian payment and service gateway Kamoney will be integrating Dash, which will expand Brazilian’s ability to live off Dash by paying bills in Dash via the the Brazilian Barcode system (Boleto) or by making everyday purchases via gift cards and a limit release debit card. Kamoney also provides a B2B payment gateway to allow vendors to accept Dash as payment and also have the funds auto converted to fiat to avoid volatility risks. Kamoney only charges around 4% for merchants to accept cryptocurrency, which is less than the average credit card fee of 7% in the region.

General News of the Week:

French Finance Minister – No Issuing “Currencies Without Democratic Control”: The finance minister of France, Bruno Le Maire, said after a meeting with the finance ministers and central bankers of the G7 nations that his government will not allow independent organizations like private companies to continue issuing digital currencies without control. The statement comes not too long after Facebook announced their intent to create a digital currency, the Libra, which received significant negative reactions from governments. However, it also serves as a reminder that while governments might put up barriers, they cannot actually stop anyone from creating a cryptocurrency due to its decentralized nature.

Capital One Loses 100M Users’ Data in Latest Crypto-Vindicating Hack: The banking and credit card issuing company, Capital One recently got hacked, which exposed the personal and financial data of over 100 million customers. This is just the latest in a long series of hacks that has compromised the personal data of consumers; British Airways, Marriott Hotels, Ford, TD Bank, Desjardins, Earl Enterprises, Square, Equifax, and more. The lack of privacy demonstrates the need for better payment methods that do not require the storage of so much personal data that can become honeypots for hackers.

US Banking Committee Chair – Bitcoin Ban Won’t Work, Cryptocurrency “Is a Global Innovation”: The Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Mike Crapo, discussed in a recent cryptocurrency and blockchain hearing that cryptocurrencies are extremely difficult to ban and that they “couldn’t succeed in doing that because this is a global innovation”. In response, Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle confirmed his thoughts in his testimony. It signals that lawmakers are starting to realize the true independence of cryptocurrency and the fact that it cannot be controlled.

Journalism “Isn’t Free,” Can Decentralized Technology and Cryptocurrency Solve Funding Problems?: Journalism is getting increasing attention for the debate between paid models and offering consumers information for free. Journalists remind users that they still have to get paid to make a living, but consumers also do not want to pay large amounts to corporations. Cryptocurrency platforms like Your.org, Steemit and Brave (Brave recently integrated Dash) provide individuals a way to be directly compensated by readers for their content creation.

Dash Media of the Week:

Dash News Video Recap – Latin America Adoption, BlockchainIntel, LATOKEN, OceanEx, Cryptobuyer + DCG CEO & More!: If you missed last week’s news extravaganza, then make sure to listen to Heidi’s latest Dash News recap to get find out what you missed!

Karen Hsu – Cryptocurrency Regulation, Dash vs. Bitcoin Privacy, Crypto Taxes & Blockchain Analysis: Joel sits down with Karen Hsu of BlockchainIntel, a company conducting blockchain analysis for the purposes of risk scoring transactions, detecting fraud, and avoiding theft. BlockchainIntel recently integrated Dash, which opens the door to even more integrations. They discuss Bitcoin vs. Dash privacy and how Bitcoin is often used more in Darknet transactions and mixed. They also talk about what blockchain analysis can and cannot do and the difference between personally identifying individuals and their financial activity and simply watching for movements that can be associated with illicit activity.

Dash Podcast 115 Feat. Alex from Dash Watch on Decentralized Governance & Accountability: Joel and Mark sit down with Alex from Dash Watch to talk about the importance of holding proposals accountable to the goals they promise in their initial proposal and inform the masternode network to help their decision on future funding. Alex talked about what their plan is to hold the investments of the Dash Investment Foundation accountable, Dash Watch’s experience and their qualifications, what goes into a report, data reporting, and more. Make sure to tune in to get this valuable knowledge.

Dash continues to achieve more integrations as its network grows in usage in hotspots around the world. As Dash outreach organizations continue to work to achieve more adoption and integrations, expect more breaking news. Make sure to follow Dash News to get this information, first.