The Dash Platform testnet will launch as a decentralized storage layer and a name service (Image: Unsplash)

Dash Core Group, the company responsible for the payments and privacy coin, Dash, yesterday released the first testing phase for Dash Platform, an upgrade that adds support for decentralized applications and supplies the tools for a Venmo-style crypto wallet.

“Having applications developed on top of the Dash network will dramatically improve the user experience and the functionality offered. As much as everyone in crypto likes to dismiss the traditional centralized financial tools, they still do things that cryptocurrencies can't do,” Fernando Gutierrez, chief marketing officer of Dash Core Group, told Decrypt.

Dash Platform will debut on Evonet, the testnet for the company’s wider update, Dash Evolution. Dash Platform will start off as a decentralized storage layer and a name service, providing the foundation for human readable usernames, user profiles, and contact requests for crypto wallets.

With the storage platform, app developers can create and register data contracts using Dash’s decentralized API and store metadata, like user identities and names, setting the scene for crypto’s version of Venmo.

“Soon, Dash will be able to provide users with features like usernames, smooth payment requests, and confirmations in easy to use wallets, data attached to payments, loyalty programs, [and] recurrent payments,” Gutierrez told Decrypt.

The development kits are written in developer-friendly languages such as Objective-C, Java, and Javascript, and they’re compatible with the Ethereum and EOS blockchains.