Dash, the seventh largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization has received a major software upgrade. The update codenamed Sentinel, also referred to as Dash ver 12.1 will serve as the foundation for an efficient decentralized payments system.

The upcoming decentralized payments system, codename Evolution will be first of its kind to facilitate cryptocurrency payments with negligible merchant fees and zero customer fees. It is a deviation from the current Bitcoin-based payments, where the people making transactions between wallets are forced to pay miner fees. The Dash-based Evolution payment system will also support instant transactions and comes with an integrated marketplace and an easy to use interface.

The Dash Sentinel upgrade adds new features to the platform. It also improves the existing backend protocols, governance, voting and privacy functions. The future Evolution upgrade, to be built on the latest version of Dash is expected to give a stiff competition to conventional payment processors like PayPal and Venmo. But unlike them, Evolution won’t involve any intermediary to facilitate payments between two parties.

The founder of Dash, Evan Duffield is quoted in the press release saying,

“Evolution will profoundly change the user experience and expand the cryptocurrency market to users from all walks of life by making it easy to use and relevant to people’s lives. It’s my belief that digital currencies will never be the same after Evolution, in the same way, we would never consider going back to a text-only internet.”

According to Dash, the Evolution payments system can be used seamlessly across devices, and it comes with a cryptocurrency equivalent of a hack-proof savings account that issues interest to users. In addition to the usual benefits offered by cryptocurrencies, Evolution will also allow users to integrate their regular bank accounts to facilitate fiat payments and settlements over Dash network.

The announcement of a Dash based payments system couldn’t have come at a better time. As Bitcoin continues to struggle with scalability problems, the cryptocurrency community is expected to look for alternatives and Evolution could be the answer they are looking for.

Ref: Dash Press Release | Image: NewsBTC