Dash (DASH)

Dash is an open source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency with a strong focus on the payments industry. Dash offers a form of money that is anonymous, portable, inexpensive and fast

It can be spent securely both online and in person with only minimal transaction fees. Based on the Bitcoin project, Dash aims to be the most user-friendly and scalable payments system in the world

In addition to Bitcoin's feature set, Dash currently also includes a second-layer network of masternodes to facilitate instant transactions (InstantSend), private transactions (PrivateSend) and governance functions to create a self-governing and self-funding network capable of paying individuals and businesses for work that adds value to Dash. This decentralized governance and budgeting system makes it one of the first ever successful decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO).

The former XCoin project was forked off the Bitcoin code but the founder, Evan Duffield, programmed it so that only Linux systems could mine it in the beginning. He said that a bug was implemented through this fork. This bug made a so-called instamine possible where 2 Million out of 84 Million were minted within 24 hours. These were mined by 127 computers. 100 of these were rented cloud computers that someone set up. This was an insider, as the blockchain wasn’t even functional at that time. 2 Million is 2.38% of the 84 Million total supply, but when Evan Duffield rebranded the XCoin to Dash, he changed the total supply from 84 Million to 18.9 Million, without changing the existing supply in the same proportion. The instamined coins were then 10.58% of the total supply. As these coins are used to create masternodes, they are still generating Dash rewards each day. Suspicious history to say the least. [1]
The Dash team published the news that KFC Venezuela accepted Dash as a form of payment, but KFC Venezuela denied that statement. [2]
In early 2018 only two people or companies controlled more than 80% of the Dash mining. [3]

1.5

The team is currently working on security measurements to stop 51% mining attacks via chainlocks. [1] [2]

4.6

Dash is a cryptocurrency that aims to be the easiest one to use for buyers and merchants. Dash could be used for microtransactions as the fees start at a price of below $0.01 but users can choose to make instant transactions (InstantSend) and private transactions (PrivateSend) that cost additional fees. [1]

4.5

The current Dash product is stable, as coins can be sent through the network that are controlled by masternodes. The fees are relatively small as costs can be as low as $0.01. By paying additional fees it’s possible for a sender to make an instant transaction and/or a private transaction, but around 13% of these private transactions are traceable to their origin. [1]

3.5

The founder and lead developer is Evan Duffield, who originally released Dash as XCoin on January 2014. This name was later changed to Darkcoin and got its current name Dash (Digital Cash) on March 2015. Not much is known about his previous work. [1]

3.5

The Dash team has an enormous amount of money through the self-sustaining system. This could help to pay for partnerships and marketing, but the general codebase seems not to be ready for what the Dash coin should be used for. Many people in Venezuela might have heard of Dash, but people who live in poverty will rather buy food for their children instead of spending their money on a risky investment.

2.7

The Dash team plans on introducing a platform where stores should be able to easily connect to the decentralized Dash API.

3.5

The potential for Dash might be big if technical obstacles and centralizational risks could be overcome.

4.7

There are much better solutions for scalability, privacy and the speed of transactions. Monero is superior in context of privacy and Nano is superior in context of transaction fees and speed.

1.0

More than 2500 merchants in Venezuela started accepting Dash as a form of payment. One of these merchants is Church’s Chicken, that has 9 locations and only accepts cash and Dash. [1]
CheapAir, a big travel agency started accepting Dash, Bitcoin, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash as a form of payment in March 2019. [2]
In May 2019 Dash partnered with Blucon, a payment processing company, to push adoption in Thailand. [3]

3.7

Dash has been very welcomed by the Reddit community at first, but many changed their sentiment as deadlines weren’t met. Now a much smaller circle of the Dash community stands against many that highlight the problems of the Dash project.

1.5

The current team consists of 30 developers. The lead developer is the founder Evan Duffield. [1]

4.2