Dash, a top cryptocurrency for payments and e-commerce, today has announced the release of the Dash Core v0.13.0 software to serve as the foundation for Dash Evolution, a series of network updates designed to make Dash a more user-friendly blockchain-based payment system

The Dash Core team is encouraging all Masternode operators, exchanges, pools, and explorers to update to v0.13.0, as the upgrade will be required in order to continue receiving rewards.

The software release focuses on improving consensus methods on the network, and includes the following highlights:

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

A deterministic masternode list, which will provide a single source of truth for clients validating transactions

Special transactions to accommodate non-financial transactions on the blockchain

Several improvements to private transactions, including speeding up the mixing process, as well as introducing an additional denomination of .001 Dash

Currently, Dash offers instant, peer-to-peer payments with micro-fees and is accepted by thousands of merchants worldwide. Dash Evolution is a decentralized payments platform built on Dash blockchain technology. The platform will take payments to the next level by providing businesses and developers with the ability to build user-friendly, Venmo-like applications that allow people to create accounts with customized usernames instead of cryptographic addresses to exchange Dash.

Additionally, Evolution will enable developers to build dApps without the infrastructure needed to run a full node, made possible through decentralized hosting. As part of Dash Evolution, Dash Core Group, Inc. plans to release its own consumer-facing payments app called Dashpay to demonstrate the platform’s capabilities.