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Dash has seen a 410% increase in Android devices using the Dash Wallet in Venezuela from May to November of this year, supporting a continuing trend that Dash is seeing continued growth in real-world usage in the region.

https://twitter.com/StayDashy/status/1202948049871527937 According to data pulled from the Google Play Store active device statistics, active Dash wallets in Venezuela continue to grow month after month, representing a total increase of 410% this year alone. These numbers tend to indicate actual activity since the data only counts devices that have had their wallet online within the past 30 days. This increase from 7,587 active wallets to 39,759 active wallets over seven months provides strong evidence for a sustained growth trend in popularity in Venezuela, which has been suffering from hyperinflation and economic turmoil, forcing the search for alternatives. The growth of Dash has been a relatively steady trend as consumers and merchants look for usable alternatives to the bolivar.

Strong adoption progress made possible by the Dash treasury’s initial investment

Consumer and merchant adoption in Venezuela has begun to demonstrate network growth effects. Last year and the first half of this year, much adoption growth in the region, for consumers and merchants, can be traced to community outreach initiatives, many of which were funded by Dash’s treasury. However, with limited funding due to the bear market few teams in the region are currently funded, while growth in Dash’s user base has continued regardless. This may indicate that investment in the region has delivered long-term and recurring rewards in wide adoption.

Need to support this spending desire

In order to sustain wide use of a currency and payment system such as Dash, fast and inexpensive transactions are required, as well as infrastructure such as point-of-sale systems and significant merchant adoption. However, more importantly, stable exchange prices and liquidity are required to prevent significant volatility. Dash has been consistent at providing fast and inexpensive transactions with InstantSend settling payments within two seconds while charging less than a cent, and also provides transaction security for both consumers and merchants with ChainLocks. Dash has been able to achieve sizable merchant adoption already by providing an excellent working product and outreach initiatives. However, Dash still lacks sufficient price stability to encourage more long-term confidence and usage.

As Ryan Taylor, CEO of Dash Core Group, detailed at the recent Dash Open House in Arizona, there is excess selling pressure in Dash when miners sell their rewards to cover their basic operating costs, which is further compounded the lower the exchange price falls. To make matters worse, the 1000 Dash locked into each masternode causes limited liquidity, which can also further compound costs downwards. A potential solution proposed by Taylor is possibly eliminating proof-of-work and replacing with proof-of-stake, simply relying on the masternode network and ChainLocks for security, or some combination of methods. Taylor highlighted in his talk that this decision will be a long discussion since it is a major step, followed by a community vote.