If you have not yet read our announcement on the release name changes, please check it out here.

Dash is a global payments network with its own cryptocurrency offering businesses and individuals instant payments for less than a cent per transaction. Our goal is to provide users with a better way to pay and get paid. We are in the process of rolling out a series of upgrades to our system dubbed “Evolution” to make Dash the most user-friendly blockchain-based payment network in the world.

Available to anyone who wants to use it, the system runs on a distributed governance system operated by a network of masternodes. Masternodes enable Dash’s fast, secure payments by reaching consensus via “quorums” on the validity of transactions.

Our development team recently introduced several network upgrades to Testnet which, after sufficient testing, we plan to introduce to Mainnet in Release 0.13.0. This release focuses on improving consensus methods on the network. It includes:

Automatic InstantSend, which will improve the speed of most transactions at no additional cost;

of most transactions at no additional cost; A deterministic masternode list to provide a single source of truth for clients validating transactions;

for clients validating transactions; Special transactions to accommodate non-financial transactions on the blockchain;

on the blockchain; A third masternode key to enable delegation of masternode voting ; and

; and Several improvements to private transactions.

What are the highlights?

💨 Automatic InstantSend for Simple Transactions — No Extra Cost

InstantSend payments allow users to exchange payment instantly using Dash’s masternodes. When a user sends a payment via InstantSend, a quorum of 10 masternodes is selected for each input of the transaction. The transaction is then “locked” when a majority of masternodes for each input agree that the input they are responsible for is valid, thus preventing double-spending.

With Release 0.13.0, the system will automatically attempt to lock any transaction with 4 or fewer inputs — which are referred to as “simple” transactions — and remove the additional fee for InstantSend, so only the standard transaction fee applies. These transactions make up over 90% of all transactions on the Dash network — which means the majority of Dash transactions are about to get even faster, at no additional cost.

📝 Deterministic Masternode List

When a quorum is used (for example, in an InstantSend transaction), nodes sometimes calculate different quorum sets to validate a transaction. Each node maintains its own individual masternode list through peer-to-peer messages, instead of pulling data straight from the blockchain. These discrepancies can result in problems with consensus and limit the possible uses of quorums.

The deterministic masternode list is derived from information found on the blockchain itself, providing a single source of truth for all clients wanting to verify transactions. This includes SPV wallets, which historically have relied on trusted SPV servers to relay transactions.

🗝🗝🗝 3 Masternode Keys: Owner, Operator and Voting

Today, a masternode owner has two keys for their masternode: (1) key to show they own the masternode, and (2) key to operate the masternode and also use it to vote. However, operating a masternode requires the operator to be online at all times in order to maximize rewards. The current system allows masternode owners to delegate the 2nd key to a third party, but then the owner must either give up the ability to vote, or maintain frequent contact with the third party to discuss votes. With the 0.13.0 release, we will break the 2nd masternode key into two, so masternode owners can have the flexibility to either retain or delegate voting as they wish.

💥 Special Transactions

Traditional transactions only have inputs and outputs, which makes them useful for financial transactions — but not for transactions that carry additional data. There are workarounds, but they require developers to manipulate the current system in inconsistent ways to enable non-financial transactions. Special transactions provide new structures to enable non-financial transactions on the blockchain, thus laying the groundwork for many future uses of the Dash payment system.

🛡PrivateSend Improvements

Dash users have the option of using the PrivateSend feature to protect their financial privacy. This way, no one can see the origin of the funds that were used, the same way you can’t deduce the origin of the paper cash in your wallet. It works by breaking transactions down into a few standard denominations of Dash (.01 Dash, .1 Dash, 1 Dash, and 10 Dash) and then “mixing” these with other transactions, all without the funds ever leaving a user’s wallet.

Updates to PrivateSend in 0.13.0 will speed up the mixing process slightly, as well as introduce an additional denomination of .001 Dash.

Anything else?

Yes! All network operators will need to update to 0.13.0 as soon as possible once the release goes out. Please check out this post for detailed upgrade and testing instructions.

What’s next?

The next release will include, among other things, Long-Living Masternode Quorums. Stay tuned for more information on this and the other exciting features of that release.