About Dash (DASH)

In brief, Dash is digital cash. It was launched in 2014 as ‘Darkcoin’. Its core USP was privacy with built-in anonymity. At its inception, the founders wrote that it was the first privacy-focused crypto to honor Nakamoto’s original vision. 

Since then, Dash has pivoted into a mainstream currency and rebranded to “Dash - Digital Cash” in March 2015. The goal is to become the crypto of choice for society to spend and hold. The project’s strapline is, “Dash is Digital Cash you can spend anywhere.”

While privacy is key, the most important aspect of Dash is its creation of Masternodes.

To understand Masternodes, you need to understand how the blockchain operates. To create a new block, Bitcoin introduced the notion of miners. These are individuals and companies with enough computing power to process blockchain transactions.

Masternodes have access to more powerful hardware and software. This creates a two-tier network in which miners focus on creating new blocks, and Masternodes complete specialized tasks such as Dash InstantSend, PrivateSend, and governance.

According to Dash.org, Dash’s powerful Masternode network allows for features in the protocol level that other digital currencies must push off to centralized third parties.

Unlike Bitcoin, Dash shares its mining block rewards in three ways:

• 45% goes to a pool shared by Masternodes
• 45% goes to the miners
• 10% goes to the virtual Dash corporation to function efficiently

This creates an interesting, scalable ecosystem: If the volume of transactions increases, more profit is made, meaning the Masternode and miner incentive pool grows, encouraging more Masternodes and miners to join and keep transactions fast and secure.

What is Dash trying to achieve?

Dash aims to be the most user-friendly and scalable payments-focused cryptocurrency in the world. To achieve this lofty goal, the Dash Network features instant transaction confirmation, double-spend protection, anonymity equal to that of physical cash, and a self-governing, self-funding model driven by incentivized full nodes.

• Masternodes And Transaction Speed: To prevent the slow transaction speeds that Bitcoin experienced due to its fast-growing user base, the Dash network introduced Masternodes. These are professional service providers with access to more powerful hardware and software than regular miners, who do most of the work on the Dash network. The result is an efficient two-tier network with transactions confirmed in seconds. The Bitcoin network can take up to 10 minutes.
• Governance, Funding, And Innovation: Masternodes have all the voting power in the Dash community, resulting in clearly defined and effective governance,. This does not exist in many crypto communities. In the Bitcoin network, decisions are made by the entire user base. Dash has the potential to outpace many cryptocurrencies, but its more centralized model draws censure from some crypto purists.

How much Dash is on the open market?

Dash has a capped supply of 19million tokens, which gives it a lower supply than Bitcoin. That’s unusual. Most cryptos have a much larger supply than Bitcoin

There is 9,669,984 DASH in circulating supply. Total supply is 18,900,000 DASH

What the bears are saying about Dash (DASH)

• Is it different enough? Dash caused controversy over claims members of its core development team set aside 2 million of the total 18 million coins for themselves by fast mining in the first 48 hours. 
• Is it that decentralized? There is speculation that many masternodes are owned and run by the development team. That has raised questions about Dash’s decentralized nature.

What the bulls are saying about Dash (DASH)

• Transaction times: Dash transaction fees are way lower than credit cards and banks. 
• Privacy: There is an option to send your funds privately as well as the ‘InstantSend’ option, where your funds arrive in 4 seconds. Having such choices may accelerate adoption.