Dash – a fork of Litecoin – includes the features of Litecoin (limited supply, 2.5 minute block times, proof-of-work (POW) validation system) along with the ability to transact instantly, via an instant send feature, and anonymously, via a private send feature, and to vote on updates to the network. This is implemented through a two-tiered validation system. The first tier involves the traditional mining/POW system from Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and many others. The second tier includes a network of Masternodes which are required to maintain a minimum of 1000 DASH. Each node that maintains this minimum is deemed a Masternode that participates in confirming transactions instantly, anonymizing transactions by mixing public keys so you don’t know who the sender or receiver are, and voting on updates to the network. In exchange, the Masternodes receive rewards of about 2 DASH to every Masternode per week.

Pros: Contains many of the benefits of Bitcoin including decentralization, immutability, and limited supply; two-tiered system allows for very fast (~ 1 second) and/or private transactions for users willing to pay an additional fee as well as governance where Masternodes can vote on updates to improve the network (e.g., such as increased block sizes to improve scalability); fungible – due to the anonymity associated with the private send features, unlike Bitcoin where coins used in illegal transactions may be “marked”

Cons: Two-tiered system can lead to centralization as the cost to operate a Masternode of 1000 DASH is prohibitive to most; several competitors in the daily transactions space (Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Nano) and in the privacy coin space (Monero, Zcash, ByteCoin); private send feature does not fully anonymize transactions and they can be traced to previous transactions that were not anonymized; attempts to address multiple problems (transactions speed, anonymity, etc.) with one coin, whereas multiple coins focus on each of these problems individually and arguably in a better way

Analysis

To perform an objective analysis, each cryptocurrency is rated based on the following factors: (1) validation method; (2) leadership; (3) community participation in development; (4) transaction volume and market capitalization; (5) industry participation; (6) security; (7) usability; (8) technical features; (9) growth; (10) legal risks; and (11) estimated time of arrival.

Validation Method

Dash uses the same proof-of-work (POW) system as Bitcoin to validate transactions, but a different mining algorithm in X11.[1] Originally, miners could run X11 on CPUs but hashing power has increased considerably and now requires ASICs. As described above, Dash has a second tier made up of Masternodes that perform decentralized governance by voting on updates, mix transactions to anonymize them, and instantly validate transactions within a second as opposed to about 2.5 minutes to validate a transaction via the first tier POW system.[2] Masternodes receive 45% of the block reward (currently 5 DASH per block), miners obtain another 45%, and the remaining 10% goes to the treasury system for development.[3] Each Masternode has 1 vote for updates to the network. If a threshold number of Masternodes vote in favor of the update then it is enacted.[4] In other systems like Bitcoin and Ethereum, updates to the network are made through a fork where the chain splits into two. Miners effectively vote for the update by continuing to validate transactions from the old chain or moving over to the new chain. However, this voting occurs after the fork, so the developers can add an update which does not end up being enacted if the miners continue to devote computing resources to the original chain. In Dash’s Masternode governance system, updates are voted on before they are added into the protocol.

Leadership/Community Participation

Dash is led by its creator and lead developer Evan Duffield and the Dash Core Team, a company made up of about 30 employees. Duffield has received some criticism for the release of Dash where almost 2 million coins were released due to a bug when the code was forked from Litecoin.[5] Although Duffield claims that the community did not want him to relaunch or perform an airdrop, some suspect he did this on purpose to ensure he would have a significant portion of the coins. In this manner, he could control the network through the use of Masternodes by running a large percentage of them and voting for his own proposals and against proposals that did not directly benefit him.[6] To be fair no one knows how many Masternodes are owned by Duffield or members of the Dash Core Team.

Transaction Volume and Market Capitalization

Dash is 13th in market cap (~4B) with a transaction volume of about $130M per day.[7]

Industry Participation

A few online retailer and businesses accept Dash such as Dash Video Casino, Organic Contraband Coffee, and a few other small companies.[8] Additionally, it can be purchased through several exchanges, such as Bittrex, Binance, Bitfinex and many others. There are also Dash ATMs in select locations throughout the world.[9] However, Dash has yet not received widespread acceptance and may only be used at very limited locations.

Security

In terms of security, Dash has many of the same advantages and disadvantages as Litecoin. Some argue that the second tier of Masternodes leads to additional security vulnerabilities, because the large cost (1000 DASH) of running a Masternode prohibits individual users or small entities from participating.[10] Thus, only large entities may be able to run Masternodes which can lead to centralization. On the other hand, currently there are over 4700 Masternodes running on the network and while some speculate that the Masternodes are owned by a few entities, it seems more likely that there are at least a thousand owners.[11] Accordingly, it is unlikely one company can take over the network or a hacker can attack one company that owns thousands of Masternodes and gain control.

Usability

Like Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and NANO, Dash is intended to be used for day-to-day transactions. With the advent of the instant send feature, transactions can be completed in less than a second which allows for very fast cash like transactions. Additionally, Dash can be used with an element of privacy due its private send feature. There are many reasons why someone would want to transact privately. For example, on the Bitcoin network hackers and thieves may identify the wallets with the largest number of coins and target them.

Technical Features

As described above, Dash has many of the same features as Litecoin. The main difference is its second tiered network of Masternodes that performs decentralized governance and instant and/or anonymized transactions. Decentralized governance allows for the Masternodes to vote on updates to the network (where each Masternode has 1 vote) before they are implemented into the protocol. For example, Dash has dynamically increased block sizes through these updates during periods of high transaction volume.[12] Though this seems to be more efficient than alternative mining systems which fork the code to perform an update, critics argue that a user or company, such as Evan Duffield or the Dash Core Team could control the voting power and thus, the network by owning enough Masternodes. Furthermore, unlike Monero the transactions executed by the private send feature are not fully anonymized. For one, they can be traced to previous transactions that were not anonymized. Additionally, the private send feature is a coin mixing service based on CoinJoin. The coin mixing service breaks down transactions into specific dominations of 0.01, 0.1, 1, and 10 DASH, mixes the denominations with similar denominations from other users and includes several outputs to each person’s wallet at a different address called a change address.[13] Though the senders are anonymous in this implementation the transactions are not. Other privacy coins such as Monero utilize Ring Confidential Transactions to anonymize the transactions themselves.[14] Therefore, while Dash does include privacy features there are some vulnerabilities addressed by competitor privacy coins.

Growth/Legal Risks

Being in both the daily transactions and privacy coin arenas, Dash has many competitors including Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, NANO, Monero, ZCash, and Bytecoin. Nevertheless, Dash does set itself apart via its two-tier system that allows for decentralized governance and by providing both privacy and daily transactions features in one coin. If only a small percentage of altcoins survive in the long term as many have predicted, Dash may be one of them since it implements multiple features.

Estimated Time of Arrival

Dash launched in 2014 and is now fully developed and ready for use. However, the Dash network has not been tested to the same extent as Bitcoin’s.

ETA: Now

Conclusion

The two-tiered network sets Dash apart in a unique way and allows for even more features to be implemented through its decentralized governance. Nonetheless, as Dash has not yet shown it is the best at any single feature (e.g., daily transactions, privacy), users may prefer coins that can focus on and perfect individual attributes within cryptocurrency over one that addresses several.

[1] https://www.ccn.com/pros-cons-x11-algorithm/

[2] https://github.com/dashpay/dash/wiki/Whitepaper

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash_(cryptocurrency)

[4] https://steemit.com/crypocurrencies/@jabba-q/dash-decentralized-governance-or-centralized-tyranny-of-the-few

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dash_(cryptocurrency)

[6] https://steemit.com/crypocurrencies/@jabba-q/dash-decentralized-governance-or-centralized-tyranny-of-the-few

[7] https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/dash/

[8] https://www.dash.org/merchants/

[9] https://discoverdash.com/listing-category/atm/

[10] https://medium.com/@EricRSammons/the-dash-masternode-network-a-response-to-critics-202bcdb68f7a

[11] http://178.254.23.111/%7Epub/Dash/Dash_Info.html

[12] https://cointelegraph.com/news/as-bitcoin-rejects-2mb-blocks-dash-prepares-to-implement-them

[13] https://coincentral.com/top-privacy-cryptocurrency-race/

[14] https://blockgeeks.com/guides/monero/