What is Dash? (DASH) | Dash Network

Dash Network

Before we really dive in, I want to clarify a few things about Dash. Dash is the actual network, DASH is the cryptocurrency of the network, and the Dash Blockchain is the underlying technology. I know, it's a little confusing but you'll be alright. Obviously we will be talking about Dash as a whole, but there's a lot of parts that make it up. Dash is the world's first and longest-running DAO according to their documentation, which does not surprise me. It has been around a very long time, and as actually based on Bitcoin.

It's a truly decentralized network and there was no pre-mine, ICO, or venture capital. Sounds familiar, huh? wink

It's built on Bitcoin & Cosmos Tendermint and offers APIs that make it super easy for developers to tap in. They took the concept of "digital cash" and made it a reality, which was sort-of the original vision for Bitcoin, a "peer to peer electronic cash system". Dash took the approach of being the "PayPal of crypto" by making transactions nearly instant, insanely cheap, and easy to integrate payments for businesses.

What makes Dash truly unique is the way the network is secured, by second-layer masternodes. Having the blockchain-based payments on layer 1 and everything else on layer 2 is a huge advantage in mitigating attacks to the network. Transactions happen on layer 1, governance & everything else on layer 2. I love this idea of keeping it separate.

Dash is built on battle-tested technology including Bitcoin and Cosmos Tendermint, and implements cutting-edge threshold signing features on masternodes to guarantee transaction finality in little more than a second. Dash is fast, private, secure, decentralized, and open-source, your first choice for truly decentralized Web3 services and for earning yield in return for providing infrastructure services.

Masternodes

Masternodes are collateral-backed nodes that provide services to the overall Dash Network such as InstandSend and CoinJoin. Masternodes are paid on a Proof of Service mechanism, similar to how the miners on Layer 1 are paid on a Proof of Work mechanism. They are also able to vote on governance and funding proposals at a 1 vote to 1 node level. So who runs these masternodes? Well, you do. The community. Anyone can run a node provided they have a system that meets the technical specifications as well as 1000 DASH for collateral.

This keeps the network very decentralized. Every masternode also hosts a full copy of the DASH blockchain, allowing developers to deploy updates very quickly. As of last year, Dash had nearly 3500 masternodes acorss 19 countries. If that isn't decentralized, I don't know what is. It's able to maintain so many masternodes because of the incentives through block rewards. Rewards for a masternodes are roughly 7% APR, which is nothing to scoff at. Plus if the price of DASH goes up, it becomes even more profitable.

DashPay

When I said Dash was looking to become the "PayPal of crypto", I meant it. They set out with a business-first mentality focused on building a simple payments platform for businesses. Right now, you can use DASH to pay for hotels, coffee, flights, & much more thanks to DashPay. The app is very similar to PayPal or Venmo. Tit has that small social aspect to it. You create a username, and that username is how people are able to send you payments. This makes it very familiar for a business (or regular user) that wants to sign up and start receiving/sending payments.

Instead of dealing with crazy wallet addresses, you send to a username. Users can even create a profile with a bio, profile picture, and a display name. Public wallet addresses are encrypted, so users don't even have to think about them. The app also features a Contacts function, which can show you transaction history between you and those users. Information is securely encrypted so that only the 2 parties sending/receiving can see the public wallet addresses, keeping things pseudo-private.

Focusing on selling the platform as a service to business is key, in my opinion. Especially outside the US, businesses are always looking for cheaper payment processors. I say outside the US, because most businesses here will not touch anything having to do with crypto out of fear. One of the biggest selling points is the insanely low fees. Compared to credit cards, it can be significantly cheaper. Especially cheaper than American Express, which has fees sometimes as high as 7% per transaction. The standard is around 3-4%, which is still very high just for using a card.

With 1 second transaction send/receive times, and 1 second settlement, it's an easy sell to a business looking for faster access to their revenue. Not to mention if they regularly do wire transfers, which can easily cost hundreds of dollars for a single transaction and take 5+ days to actually settle into their account. Dash offers a much better solution for businesses than most other cryptocurrencies ever could. Something a lot of people wouldn't even consider is the fact that there are no charge-backs in crypto. With credit cards, anyone can charge back if they aren't happy with the product or service.

Decentralized API (DAPI) + Drive

In addition to its focus on businesses, Dash also makes everything easy for developers through a variety of different tools they've built. The Decentralized API that Dash provides allows nodes in different networks/blockchains to interact with Dash directly through a single interface. This eliminates the fragmentation and challenges that come with relying on peer to peer connections and trusting third party applications. The Dash Masternode layer provides this API that allows interaction with both Layer 1 and Layer 2.

Dash uses TLS to encrypto data transmited between the client and API. This ensures security of that data requiring cryptographic proofs to access it.

DAPI currently provides 2 types of endpoints: JSON-RPC and gRPC. The JSON-RPC endpoints expose some layer 1 information while the gRPC endpoints support layer 2 as well as streaming of events related to blocks and transactions/transitions.

A major component here is Drive. Dash does not store data for applications on layer 1 because, as we know, that can be very expensive and cumbersome for the network. Dash stores data in Drive, a component of its Layer 2 dedicated to storing data about applications, hosted by the masternodes. Drive updates as data changes and keeps record of that data for easy access for clients through the DAPI. This provides a very straightforward interface for clients to access chain state and data information.

Privacy

Dash offers privacy to its users as well, courtesy of CoinJoin. CoinJoin
is a trustless method of mixing your assets to obfuscate transaction history. This is done by a series of transactions to make it difficult to trace the original origin of the asset. Users can mix any amount of DASH, and can even use CoinJoin in send transactions. So if the user wants to make a payment that is not able to be traced, they can use CoinJoin to send it. The transaction will take place over a series of different transactions and will have a different origin address. CoinJoin is not totally bullet-proof, though. There are chain analysis companies that are able to trace to a certain degree.

Regardless, having the ability to send and mix your assets for privacy is extremely valuable. There are not a lot of assets that offer any level of privacy to the user.

CoinJoin gives you consumer grade financial privacy by shuffling your Dash with other users. All the Dash in your wallet consists of different inputs, which you can think of as separate, discrete coins. It uses an innovative process to join your inputs with the inputs of at least two other people in a single transaction, so the value in Dash never leaves your wallet. You retain control of your money at all times.

DASH is digital cash.

Staying true to the vision of being the easiest payment-focused cryptocurrency... DASH aims to be digital cash that's easy enough for your grandma to use. It's been around since 2014 and has some incredibly powerful features that make it a perfect vehicle for transactions, both public and private.

Want to pick up some DASH for yourself? It's stupid easy. You can swap HIVE, HBD, DEC, SPS, and a number of assets with DASH on LeoDex! Sub $150 swaps are free. Happy trading.

Peace

Posted Using InLeo Alpha