What is Dash Coin (DASH)? The Digital Cash Explained

If you’ve been around the crypto space, you probably know that cryptocurrencies offer distinctive perks compared to fiat currencies, such as decentralisation and more importantly, the anonymity that it offers.

While it is true that cryptocurrencies can be used to facilitate transactions and remittances around the world without any centralised authority, the anonymity aspect is still debatable.

You see, crypto transactions are recorded on a public ledger known as a blockchain, where everyone can publicly view and potentially trace it. While this method does offer more privacy than traditional transactions, it’s not completely anonymous.

This is where Dash comes in, offering a privacy-centred cryptocurrency that is designed to focus on anonymity of the parties using the network.

Key takeaways

• Dash (DASH) is a cryptocurrency that is designed to become a medium for day-to-day transactions, much like cash, bank-issued cards, or PayPal.
• The Dash network is operated by a subset of its users, known as masternodes.
• To participate and become a masternode, a user must stake a minimum of 1,000 DASH.

What is Dash Coin?

Dash, short for Digital Cash, is a cryptocurrency that focuses on privacy, anonymity, and speed.The transaction process is very much similar to other coins, but with additional features that emphasize on privacy.

Launched in early 2014, Dash was originally launched as XCoin which was then rebranded to Darkcoin, before landing on its current name in 2015.

The Dash whitepaper was co-authored by Evan Duffield and Daniel Diaz, and was designed to be a user-friendly and scalable payment cryptocurrency with added privacy and anonymity features.

Some features employed on the Dash network include:

• Instant transaction confirmation
• Enhanced privacy features
• Double spend protection
• Self-governing and self -funding model
• On-chain scaling up to 400MB blocks using open source hardware.

View the Dash Whitepaper by visiting their official website.

Like Bitoin, Dash uses a decentralised peer-to-peer network that allows anyone to make transactions without having to go through a bank or other financial institution.

However, the Dash network does offer improvements over the Bitcoin ecosystem in terms of transaction speed, governance, and privacy.

How Does Dash Coin Work?

As prefaced above, while the Dash network is based on Bitcoin’s network and shared compatibility with many components on its ecosystem, Dash does have its own blockchain, which offers improvements that are catered to speed, efficiency, and privacy.

Dash works differently than most cryptocurrencies because it has several different components that work together to create one decentralised ecosystem focused on privacy and security. It is the first decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) to be self-funded and self-governed. 

Dash uses a two-tier architecture for its network.

• The first tier consists of miners who use mining rigs to solve cryptographic puzzles and complete transactions (i.e., mining blocks). 

• The second tier consists of masternodes that work as full nodes on the network and provide additional services such as PrivateSend (anonymous transactions) and InstantSend (instant transactions). Proof-of-Service is the consensus algorithm that they use. 

Additionally it votes on budget funding proposals submitted by the Core Team and Proposals submitted by community members for various projects within the Dash ecosystem.

If you want to run a masternode and earn rewards from doing so, then you need 1000 Dash coins in your wallet and need to be online 24 x 7 to secure the network. 

Masternodes are similar to proof-of-stake algorithms in that they require a certain amount of collateral and must be kept online 24/7.

The key difference between masternodes and proof-of-stake algorithms is that masternodes provide extra services to the network such as hosting and maintaining private transactions, instant transactions, governance and voting.

Learn more: What is Blockchain?

Dash Coin Tokenomics

By the time of this writing, the total supply of Dashcoin is capped at 18,900,000 coins. The current circulating supply of Dashcoin is 10,770,391.86 coins. This means that there are still some coins yet to be mined.

The mining rewards are split between miners and masternodes according to a set schedule. Miners receive 45% of the block reward while masternodes receive 45% and 10% goes towards treasury proposals (which can be submitted by anyone).

To see more information about Dash Masternode, jump to this site. 

What Makes Dash Coin Unique?

PrivateSend

This feature allows users to send funds privately. The sender can choose how many “mixers” they want to use before sending the funds. This ensures complete privacy of all transactions made on the blockchain network.

This feature is useful for people who want to keep their spending private from others.

InstantSend

This feature allows users to send transactions instantly. The transaction gets confirmed within seconds after it is sent out of your wallet, which makes it ideal for merchants who accept payments in Dash coins. 

InstantSend also allows merchants to accept transactions without having to worry about double spend attacks or chargebacks because there won’t be any time lag between sending out the payment and receiving confirmation from miners on whether the transaction will go through or not.

Governance and Community

Dash Coin is unique because it has a built-in governance system that allows the network to decide how they spend their budget. This means that as Dash grows, so do its users.

The owners of masternodes vote on proposals submitted by other users in order to determine where their 10% of block rewards goes (out of 100%). This allows for development and growth of the company while keeping everyone involved in the process. 

It also has a strong community behind it, including investors and developers who are constantly coming up with new ideas for how to improve the coin and make it more useful as a payment method or investment vehicle.

Dash Wallet

In order to use the feature of privatesend and instantsend, Dash have provided their own wallet known as Dash Core. This wallet is available for all operating systems and can be downloaded from the official website of Dash. 

If you’re using a computer, you need to download it and install it on your computer. Once it is installed, you will be able to send, receive and store Dash coins. Additionally, it is available on IOS and Android.

Related: How to Create and Manage Your Passwords The Smart Way?

Dash Direct app

The DashDirect app is another method of using the DASH ecosystem that allows users to instantly purchase goods and transact with supported merchants that support DASH integration.

The list of merchants include both offline and online stores from the likes of BestBuy, eBay, DoorDash, Airbnb, AMC, and many more. The app is available for both iOS and Android powered devices.

Visit the official Dash website for more information.

Takeaways

We can’t predict exactly what the future will look like. But, what we can do is just analyse the fundamentals of cryptocurrencies. 

Dash has been able to solve two major problems with other cryptocurrencies: privacy and speed. While many other coins have recently developed privacy features, Dash has been doing it since 2014.

Its instant send feature allows transactions to be confirmed in less than four seconds, which is much faster than Bitcoin (which takes about 10 minutes).

These features make it an attractive option for merchants who want to keep their customers’ information private and want to be able to accept payments instantly. Some of the businesses have accepted Dash Coin as payment for goods or services. 

Dash Coin also has a close relationship with many businesses that accept it as payment for goods or services (such as BitCart), and these businesses can provide services to users at lower costs than traditional methods like PayPal or credit cards because there are no transaction fees associated with transactions made through Dash Coin wallets (as opposed to paying with cash).

Another businesses that use Dash Coin is Churchs Chicken Venezuela, which became the first company to accept cryptocurrencies in Latin America in December 2018.

Churchs Chicken Venezuela accepts Dash Coin as a payment method for its food products including chicken sandwiches, fries, burgers and more.

As more merchants begin accepting cryptocurrencies as payment options, Dash’s popularity will continue growing along with them.

How to buy Dash (DASH)?

With that being said, what are your own thoughts on DASH?

If you’re looking to invest in the innovations build by the Dash network, Easy Crypto offers a quick and simple way to buy and sell DASH tokens.

We are a non-custodial exchange, meaning we deliver your crypto purchases directly to your wallet address, where you hold the true ownership of your crypto assets.

Invest in Dash: Buy DASH with Easy Crypto.

DASH is just one of hundreds of crypto assets that we provide here at Easy Crypto. Our collection also includes:

• Stablecoins
• NFT Tokens
• Metaverse Tokens
• DEX (Decentralised Exchanges)
• DeFi (Decentralised Finance)
• And many more.

View the latest rates for DASH: Check the latest rates.

Pro tip: you can preview the conversion rates for DASH or any other crypto in our collection by going to our complete list of crypto assets.

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