Dash Cryptocurrency A Review

By
Rafael Vieira (CreativeCompany.com)
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Dash Review

Dash is a token based on cryptography system called the blockchain. In practice, it is used as a private money, which is controlled by a decentralised community. On a general level Dash is similar to Bitcoin because is uses a blockchain database to coordinate the updating of values between untrusted individuals. The biggest difference between Dash and Bitcoin is their governance model. Dash is governed by masternode owner/s, while bitcoin is governed through consensus on the blockchain.

The Bitcoin software has created a digitised system of digital scarcity, this creates an eco-system of demand and supply for their tokens. On top of this Satoshi Nakamoto has solved the Byzantine General problem through some clever computer programming. Innovation does not need to stop there and Dash has continued to build on the original invention of Bitcoin, to add more value to the original code.

See more: Simple Explanation and an Academic One of the Byzantine General problem and solution.

Dash was created on January 18, 2014, by Evan Duffield. (The Satoshi Nakamoto of Dash). Today there are many more developers working on Dash, which you can find here: Dash’s team

Dash Core Features:

  • InstantX: Coins can be sent instantly across the network the dash network without being spent twice. (Double spend is a challenge for all digital forms of cash)
  • Private Send or Dark Send, allows a transaction to become untraceable.
  • Dash can be transferred to any part of the globe with an internet connection.
  • Masternodes or Proof of Service “miners”. These are servers which function as Private Send, Instant Send and the Governance System. They can be created by anyone who freeze 1,000 Dash coins.
  • Low transaction fees.

Strengths of the Crypto-Currency Dash

Structured Approach to the development of the system components:

Dash Structured Development

See more: Business Development Strategy

Community

The Dash community is broad and vibrant, It could be called a grassroots movement which wants to build a fair world money. Some are doing it for money but others are doing it for ideological reasons.

You can connect with the Dash Community on the Dash Slack and Dash Sub reddit

Marketing

Dash has one of the strongest ongoing marketing campaigns of any cryptocurrency, they manage this because of the proposal and treasury system and the high price of Dash which results in a chunky marketing budget. There is an in-house marketing team which focuses more on the long-term development of Dash called the Business Development Blog and of course there is also Amanda B Johnson, which has a weekly update on all the happenings of Dash. Marketing towards more mainstream users will probably take place once evolution is fully released.

Dash masternodes

The community members who own a masternode can vote in favour or against proposals that help build the Dash Ecosystem. This crowd also provides, forward waypoints for the currency, the strategic direction for Dash is not determined centrally but through the intelligence (and at time groupthink) of the crowd.

See more:

Governance System

Dash’s governance system avoids any Segwit vs Bitcoin Unlimited showdowns in the future. This creates stability and focusses minds on building user value, rather than a pissing contest between miners, the developers and users each of them trying to promote the system which fav their own agenda.

Dash Evolution

Evolution optimises usability and future integration with other systems.

Makes Dash more accessible to the average users, rather than something which is in the purview of cryptography geeks.

Dash aims to create a system that relies on usernames instead of these alphanumeric addresses which are not user-friendly.

Recent Enhancements

Kraken has added Dash to its list of currencies being traded (April 2017)

Wall of coins has added Dash (February 2017)

Dash available on Keepkey and Trezor (Hardware Wallets)

You can follow the latest news here: Dash Blog

Economics:

  • Total dash planned to be in circulation: around 19,000,000 coins.
  • Dash in circulation as of 15/04/2017:
  • Type of coin: Deflationary oriented.

Deflationary oriented currencies are those which are not inflated through “money printing”. A coin supply divided by the market capitalisation (market cap) of a coin determines the value per coin. If the coin has a policy of creating more coins or inflating, then the price per coin will drop. In the case of Dash, the upper limit of the coins is set, and this is one less worry for the altcoin investor.

Investors know before hand that owning 1 Dash means owning 1 / 19,000,000. In most national currencies the base is continually inflating. Pivx, for example, inflates by 2,529,000 PIV per year.

Negative aspects of Dash Coin

  • Dash has a fixed count of around 19,000,000 coins, however, there are actually fewer coins circulating around the Dash economy because of the masternodes. A masternode represents 1,000 Dash. There are currently (24/03/2017) 4,000 MNs, that means = 4,000,000 Dash which are not avilable to the ecosystem to use.Think of these 4,000,000 Dash as water behind a dam, as long as the dam does its job the coins create value. If the masternode owners are spooked, there is room for cataclysmic socks as they dump 4,000,000 Dash coins.An old thread on Bitcointalk describes how Dash Maternodes are Centralised on the assumption that one owner will most likely host many masternodes on the same server.Masternodes are prone to DDos attacks. See more on Dash Forum:  Masternode attacks.
  • Dash does not yet have a critical mass of merchants or users. See below a compartive of transactions on Bitcoin, Etherum and Dash.Bitcoin Transactions (16/04/2017)
    Total Transactions on 16/04/2017 270,550

    Etherum Transactions  (16/04/2017)

    Total Transactions on 16/04/2017 74,820

    Dash Transactions  (16/04/2017)

    Total Transactions on 16/04/2017  3,362

    This graph gives you the actual umber of transactions of Bitcoin, Dash and Etherum between January and April 2017. Bitcoin and Etherum dwarf Dash, use is an important metric when measuring utility and the long-term resilience of a project, Dash is not doing too good on this aspect.

  • The number of merchants that accept Dash is still growing.
  • Dash keeps being picked on for the “premine” event. Where it is said that the original founders of Dash one of which is Evan Duffield created a lot of coins for themselves. This event has been explained by Dash here: Dash’s response on the instamine.
  • There are several other altcoins which are very similar to dash most notably: Crown, MUE and Pivx.
  • The name Dash sounds like a washing liquid, which may sound trivial, but this has an impact on the amount of marketing that needs to happen in order to mentally shift people from associating Dash with a washing liquid to something which has monetary value.
  • The keyword Dash is used by many other companies and it is difficult to associate Dash with only the cryptocurrency. Compare this to other cryptos such as Monero and Bitcoin, those words are unique and can carry more brand recognition and weight as their sole meaning is the cryptocurrency and nothing else.

How can you earn Dash?

How to invest in Dash?

Buy Dash from any of the listed companies here:

More information on Dash:

 

Dash Review Conclusion

 

DashPay Review  (out of 5 stars) as of 16/04/2017
Fundamentals / Technology (PoW / PoS / MNodes)
Social / Community / Governance
Dash Eco System (# of Merchants / End Users)
Investor Interest  
Potential Future Regulatory Challenges (MNodes / PSend)
Marketing
Controversial issues (instamine)
InvestItIn.com Rating 3/5

This rating is not to be compared with ratings for other investment ideas in other sectors, it should only be compared to reviews of other cryptocurrencies on InvestItIn.com

Dash has a market capitalisation of $547,838,805 as of 16/04/2017, such value is a recognition from investors that Dash is something valuable and investors in Dash see long-term future potential. If they didn’t they would dump it. Dash is not perfect, but it has a lot gong for it, much more than other cryptocurrencies. Its value has seen a huge spike during the early months of 2017 and it remains to be seen if this price is sustainable in the long term, nothing goes up in a straight line.

I might have sounded negative in this article on Dash, but I am long Dash – it surely has potential if the developers, masternodes and community focus on the users rather than short-term gains. It would be ingenuine of me to “pump” the coin without mentioning all the negative aspects as well.

Like all other cryptocurrencies, Dash is a speculative investment which has the potential to become the second Bitcoin. There is also the possibility of other cryptocurrencies which address the needs of the users and business more efficiently to become the favourite of speculators and eventually the users. In the next few years, we will see if Dash is a MySpace or Google.

As usual – do not take any of my opinions as investment advice!

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