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About Dash (DASH)

Dash (previously Darkcoin and Xcoin) is a next-generational cryptocurrency launched in 2014. The payment-focused coin forked from Litecoin (a bitcoin-fork originally) and later rebranded to Dash in 2015.

The name Dash derives from the mixture of the words ‘Digital’ and ‘Cash.’ The project was released on January 18, 2014, as Xcoin (XCO) by founder Evan Duffield. The name was later changed to “Darkcoin” before it was changed to Dash (DASH) three years ago.

Dash is built on top of the blockchain technology that Bitcoin uses, however, some significant improvements have been made to it.

The shift in its ideology has led to the cryptocurrency becoming the fourteenth cryptocurrency with a market cap of $1.8 billion .

There are 8,194,505 DASH in circulation and a max supply of 18,900,000 DASH. Each coin is trading at USD $225/DASH at press time.

Solving the Bitcoin scaling problem

The Dash team is looking to solve many of the problems inherent in Bitcoin by speeding up transactions, offering enhanced financial privacy, and developing a decentralized governance and funding system.

Dash was able to achieve what Bitcoin was not capable of doing thanks to masternodes. Dash founder Evan Duffield invented the concept of masternodes and was the first to leverage the technology for DASH.

Dash (DASH) makes use of the x11 algorithm (a hybrid Proof-of-Stake (PoS)/Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm) with the addition of masternodes.

What are Dash Masternodes (MN)? Masternodes are part of a second-layer network that allow for instant and private DASH transactions. Dash masternodes are granted to nodes carrying at least 1k DASH as ‘insurance’ and give nodes special voting and transaction rights. Masternodes receive a reward for their investment, staking and computer power. The Dash payment network benefits from the following as a result of masternodes: Instant transactions (InstantSend feature)

Anonymous transactions (PrivateSend feature)

Decentralized management of DASH

Dash Evolution (decentralized online wallet like PayPal)

Uses of Dash (DASH)

What is Dash used for?

Dash was designed as a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. Its masternode technology allows DASH digital coin to work just like cash, with instant and private transactions.

The Dash team has done a tremendous job developing the coin’s core technology while simultaneously making sure people use and adopt it. A quickly growing number of merchants already accepts the digital currency.

Day-to-day payments

Thanks to InstaSend, Dash can be used for everyday payments and compete with credit card companies and the PayPals of this world. With a strong technology that is already being deployed, Dash adoption can soar in countries with weak monetary systems.

InstantSend. masternodes allow for instant transactions since they act as a decentralized intermediary of the Dash network. Once a transaction is broadcasted to a masternode, it’s instantly verified and communicated to the entire network where it is later officially confirmed on chain.

Private payments

With the PrivateSend technology, individuals and companies can make private payments should they chose or need to do so. This technology also makes Dash (DASH) a hybrid privacy coin.

PrivateSend. is the second feature that allows transactions to happen anonymously on the Dash network. This feature adds privacy to transactions, thus transactions cannot be traced back, nor is the identity of users revealed to the world.

Dash Core and Dash Labs Team

Dash – a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO)

Dash is the very first project to be really decentralized from the inside out. Not only is its blockchain and masternode technology decentralized but the governance of the project as well.

Dash was designed with a “self-governing and self-funding model”. This structure allows the network to grow, prosper and improve sustainably.

Evan Duffield (Founder)

Evan Duffield is the creator of Dash. After coming across Bitcoin, he wanted to solve the privacy and transaction speed of Bitcoin but he claims that Bitcoin Core developers would not have merged such code, which led him to start Dash in January 2014.

Ryan Taylor (CEO)

Ryan Taylor was the former Director of Finance for Dash before taking over from Evan as the CEO. Taylor has been a key contributor to Dash since mid-2014 and was a hedge fund analyst and previously served as an Associate Partner at McKinsey before joining the project.

Bob Carroll (CTO)

Carroll came on board earlier this year with a wealth of experience. He previously worked as the CIO of the University of Phoenix, as well as working at Informix Software, North America Systems Engineers, and Everspring in a career spanning over twenty years.

Glenn Austin (CFO)

The chief financial officer of Dash was an associate at Citigroup before moving on to Morgan Stanley to become a vice president at the investment bank. He was also a director at UBS before moving on to hold a number of senior leadership positions at Chain IQ, a consulting firm spun out of UBS.

Dash Features

Type of coin: similar to Bitcoin and Litecoin, Dash is a mineable cryptocurrency with a total supply of roughly 18.9 million coins.

Platform: Dash is a fork of Litecoin and was launched on its own platform back in 2014 though it uses the same source code as Bitcoin. DASH is the native currency of the Dash network which is now used to make faster and more secure payments.

Transaction speed: Dash InstantSend allows for instant payments (~4 seconds) thanks to masternodes. Blocks are 2.62 minutes apart.

Transactions per second: ~56 transactions per seconds (estimate)

Protocol: Dash (DASH) makes use of the x11 algorithm (a hybrid Proof-of-Stake (PoS)/Proof-of-Work (PoW) algorithm) with the addition of masternodes.

Privacy: PrivateSend is an option to send Dash payments privately and anonymously via masternodes.

Security: Dash is a decentralized payment network secured by an estimated 4,500 servers hosted around the world.

Native wallet: Dash Core is the native wallet. It is available on all platforms.

Partnerships

Dash is arguably one of the most active projects in the cryptocurrency space. It has truly embraced becoming a leader in the payment space and has successfully attracted thousands of merchants.

Many of Dash’s partnerships are centered around making Dash widely accepted. Here are some notable and high profile partnerships:

GoCoin

Dash partnered with GoCoin in a move that saw the currency integrated into its platform. The partnership allows GoCoin users to use Dash to pay for products and services on popular mainstream websites like Cheapair.com, RE/MAX.com, Movietickets.com, and Lionsgate.com.

Strike Social

The partnership with Strike Social has enhanced the reach of Dash as an alternative form of payment, particularly for big brands during social media advertising campaigns.

It is a very important partnership for the cryptocurrency since Strike Social is now the world’s largest YouTube ad optimization firm and partner in paid social media management for over 500 agencies and brands.

BlockCypher and NREL

A new partnership between BlockCypher and the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) would allow Dash to be used for peer-to-peer electricity exchanges.

This partnership saw Dash become the first in what will be a blockchain-agnostic energy-sharing platform to maximize the efficiency and minimize the costs of the US energy grid.

How Dash Works

Dash coin works similarly to Bitcoin and Litecoin. However, unlike Bitcoin that makes use of the single-tier networks, Dash makes use of two-tier networks.

The first tier is designed similarly as Bitcoin and allow a user to send transactions to the network. Miners take over from there and record the transactions on the blockchain.

Dash is a step above that with its second tier that contains masternodes. The masternodes are special servers that add speed, privacy, and decentralization to the networks.

Masternodes (MN)

A Dash masternode is granted to a node that carries 1k DASH as ‘insurance’ and enables special features on the Dash network. Masternodes operators are rewarded for their investment and computer power.

The Dash payment network benefits from the following as a result of masternodes:

Instant transactions (InstantSend feature)

Anonymous transactions (PrivateSend feature)

Decentralized management of DASH

Dash Evolution (decentralized online wallet like PayPal)

Masternode in the Dash network can be set up by anyone holding at least a thousand DASH coins and that meet the following criteria:

1,000 DASH collateral

1 dedicated IP address

23/24 hours uptime

The decentralized system of masternodes provides the needed privacy for transactions on the Dash network. A user on the Dash network can act as an auditor to make sure that the integrity of the blockchain is maintained without having to compromise the confidentiality of others.

The masternodes perform PrivateSend and InstantSend functions and earn a 45% block reward. There are about 4,500 masternodes in over 37 countries across the globe, which ensures a high level of decentralization as it is almost impossible for a single user to gain control of enough masternodes.

What is Dash InstantSend?

This also known as instant transactions and is a technology that allows transactions to be confirmed in less than five seconds using Dash.

The feature generates a lock immediately a transaction is made on the blockchain. This lock is to make sure that the DASH coins used in the transaction can’t be used for another transaction at the same time and rejects any attempts to spend the locked transactions.

However, using this feature, masternodes charges higher fees for processing such transactions.

What is Dash PrivateSend?

This feature makes it possible for users to send funds privately by mixing it in between several other transactions. This was previously called DarkSend when the project was operating under Darkcoin.

To send Dash privately, you’ll need to ‘prepare’ the coins you wish to send privately. While being ‘prepared’, the technology breaks up the amount you wish to buy into tiny pieces and then shuffles them through a masternode.

Although this feature is groundbreaking and automated, it requires time to ‘prepare’ your coins for transfer and require higher fees to compensate for the extra transactions during the shuffle.

Dash “instamine issue” controversy

This is perhaps the biggest controversy that hit Dash since it was created. Within the first 48 hours of its release, Dash — called Darkcoin at the time — 2.02 million coins had been mined maliciously due to a software bug.

The offical details from Dash Core team:

Dash Roadmap

The official Dash roadmap is currently outdated and will be updated soon according to a recent post by the Dash Core team.

Dash Resources

Dash Whitepaper

Dash Roadmap

Dash Blog

Dash Website

Dash Masternode Information

Where to buy Dash (DASH)

Dash (DASH) is a popular cryptocurrency and is available nearly at any exchange that sells bitcoin. You can buy Dash either directly with your local currency or use other cryptocurrencies.

Buy DASH with USD, EUR, CAD and more

Visit any of the following websites to exchange your local currency for Dash (DASH):

CEX.IO (global)

BitPanda (Europe)

Kraken

Bitfinex

Coinroom

Livecoin

Uphold (global)

Buy DASH with Bitcoin or Ethereum on Binance

Visit Binance to buy DASH with Bitcoin (BTC) or Ether (ETH). You can also use Poloniex, Bittrex, Bithumb, Huobi, HitBTC and Yobit.

Other ways to buy DASH

You can also buy Dash (DASH) using other cryptocurrencies or a credit on Changelly but you’ll need a wallet first.