An example of Dash marketing its currency and network - in this example with fashion. Since it's Dash, is it called Dashion?

In my book, The Decentralized Retirement Plan, I wrote that Dash was the greatest cryptocurrency and provided some reasons. I wrote that when Dash used to be called darkcoin and was a handful of change - nothing like the $12-13 we see now. In those days, one could have bought 1000 Dash, started a masternode, and would have generated at least a 10% return. Now, that would be even higher if measured in Dollar amounts. Let's look at a couple of good and bad things about Dash, and why I still think it's the greatest.

Drawbacks of Dash

Dash experienced an early pre-mine and I understand Evan's point about having a day job. I think people can overlook that some people balance both their crypto work and their main work. What this means is that it's possible that someone has a lot of Dash - close to 2 million - and people think that this person might dump them at some point and that the distribution isn't fair. As a note, fairness is not necessarily guaranteed by all cryptos anyway, so an unfair cryptocurrency does not necessarily mean that it's bad and if someone really owns a lot of one - like people suspect with Satoshi and bitcoin - it might help the currency, not hurt it.

Note: people who say that a person owning a lot of Dash and then dumping it must realize that the United States government tried this technique with gold in the 1970s and it failed. Dumping a financial instrument does not always mean that prices will fall in the long run. In fact, it might do the opposite as Dash temporarily becomes cheaper and people jump in to start a masternode. The result of this though in the long run is that Dash could soar even higher. My point here is that someone owning a lot of the supply does not mean that the currency will be hurt by this - possibly, but no guarantees.

Another drawback of Dash is the constant name change. It was darkcoin when I wrote my book, then became Dash. People like their money stable and they like money that feels stable. Rebranding ideas might attract new attention, but it also might push out people who plan to stick with it in the long run. This isn't a major concern, but it's something for the Dash community to think about. As a general note, I like the name Dash and it sounds well when you consider businesses like @dashpaymag - Dash Pay Magazine - that also fit well with the name.

Where Dash Excels

Outside of what I wrote in my book, two big reasons why I really like Dash are that it recognizes economic incentives and has built those into the platform and that it continues to build infrastructure behind it. If you took a chance early in Dash - and that was an easy call at the time due to its anonymity feature and supply limit (lower than bitcoin) - then you could have easily set up a Dash masternode and starting earning Dash. Now, that initial risk would be paying quite a few dividends, if measured in dollar terms. The same is true with mining; what's key here in this post is that 10% of block earnings goes into infrastructure proposals that this network votes for and look at just the network of masternodes from Wikipedia:

That's a lot of diversity of masternodes around the world, and they're voting on proposals that benefit the network - each coming with different strengths and weaknesses. What this means in the long run for people who use Dash is that the people who support the network of Dash will want a higher price and more uses for Dash. A masternode - even if it only makes 1 Dash a week - will want the price to be higher because if Dash goes to $100, then 52 Dash a year equates to $5,200 per year - and if that masternode jumped in early, that may be a return well over the initial principle invested. Given its smaller supply than bitcoin and the effects of masternodes on the supply, a higher price in the long run can be achieved and if Dash needs to change the terminology to use smaller units - like a dite being one-thousandth of a Dash (or 1 Dash equaling 1000 Dites) - then it can.

Conclusion

One key point here is that just because a cryptocurrency builds itself well does not mean that it will be the top. Bitcoin, as an example, may not be the best of all the cryptocurrencies, but it doesn't matter because it was the first cryptocurrency and being first can sometimes be more important than being best, when it comes to price. In the same manner, many people in the community can be bullish many cryptos, as we may see advantages with all of them. In my mind, Dash is the greatest, but it certainly isn't the only crypto I own.

Up to this point, Dash has returned over 6000% for people willing to take an early risk. For people invested in the community, it's been even greater. I think that in the long run, Dash will return over 10,000% easily and if it continues to build infrastructure and a community that is incentivized to want a higher price, a 100,000% return is a possibility I think might happen.

Note: some of our posts appear on our blog FinTekNeeks.