What is Dash?

DASH is a cryptocurrency that focuses on instant and private transactions. Because of the emphasis on instant transactions, DASH is often referred to as Digital Cash. The coin uses the Proof of Work method to secure its transactions. Developed by Dash founder Evan Duffield, the hashing algorithm x11 uses eleven different hashes, making it one of the safest cryptographic hashes in today’s cryptocurrency industry.

Table of Contents

1. The History of Dash
2. The Technical Specifications of Dash
3. The Price of Dash
4. Unique Aspects of Dash
5. Why Use Dash?
6. Resources of Dash

The History of Dash

The beginning of DASH was very tumultuous. The cryptocurrency was created on 18th of January, 2014 by Evan Duffield. The project was initially founded under the name Xcoin, which was actually a fork of the bitcoin protocol. Since its inception the coin was subject to pump and dump speculation. Pump and Dump or P&D for short is a type of fraud that includes artificial inflation of the price of an owned stock through false and misleading statements. This type of fraud is often done to sell the cheap stocks at a higher price. However, these speculations were unfounded as the coin became a stable factor in the cryptocurrency world later on.

Darkcoin's Start

After this bad start, the Xcoin developers decided to re-brand the cryptocurrency to Darkcoin. Due to the name Darkcoin, the coin was immediately associated with dark net markets, which eventually led to them re-branding it again. This time, the coin was given the name DASH, which is a combination of words digital and cash. After the latest change in the name, the associations with dark markets vanished. Thus, the developers were now able to focus on a new start with the goal to make DASH as useful as possible.

Improving DASH

The developers aimed to improve DASH by connecting the coin to their existing crypto products and services. In 2015, they added the function “InstantSend,” which is a process that uses the instantX masternode feature to send and confirm transactions in seconds instead of minutes. This drastic change in transaction speed is what strengthened the reputation of DASH as a digital cash cryptocurrency.

InstantSend and PrivateSend Features

The InstantSend feature is able to increase the speed of transactions by locking the amount of money that is sent, without having to wait for a block confirmation. After this, DASH introduced their “PrivateSend” feature. “PrivateSend” allows users to send funds privately by mixing them with several other transactions. This makes it hard to identify any specific transaction. DASH uses a coin mixing service based on CoinJoin.

Specifications of Dash

The Price of Dash

Unique Aspects of Dash

DASH profiles itself as peer to peer decentralized electronic cash. Evan Duffield, the founder of DASH, saw the need for an anonymous cryptocurrency where users could make completely private transactions. He initially had many ideas on how to make Bitcoin anonymous, but he knew that Bitcoin core developers were not sharing his vision. This is what led Evan to create a more anonymous forked version of Bitcoin, which later became known as DASH.

Different Dash

Dash differs from other cryptocurrencies because of its self-funded structure. Namely, DASH mining works in unique ways. 45% of all DASH coins that are mined are earned by the miners. Another 45 percent are awarded to the masternodes running the network. The remaining 10 percent are sent to the treasury that helps provide funds for its development team, for marketing purposes, and customer support centers.

The Voting Mechanism

DASH is unique in the fact that it is democratic and consensus based - it has a voting mechanism that allows its users to vote on changes in the system. This system makes quick change implementation possible. In DASH’s governance and voting system, anyone can propose a new feature, change, or marketing plan that will improve the DASH network. The masternodes then vote on each proposal. The number of yes votes for the proposal must outnumber the no votes by at least 10 percent of the total masternode number. This allows the users of DASH to be more involved in the network.

Why Use Dash?

Due to being branded as “Digital Cash,” DASH is becoming accepted by many legitimate merchants. Unlike Bitcoin, the DASH network can fund itself and allow its own users to make further improvements and suggestions for the DASH technology. This is possible because DASH operates on a self-governing and self-funding model.

Solving Bitcoin’s Issues

One of the main reasons why the DASH cryptocurrency has become popular is because it is solving two of Bitcoin’s major problems - lack of privacy and slow transaction speeds. Thanks to Evan Duffield’s determination to create a private cryptocurrency, you can now use DASH to send transactions completely anonymously. On top of that, the transactions are processed in seconds rather than minutes thanks to the InstantSend feature.

Resources of Dash