Formerly known as Xcoin, and later Darkcoin, Dash (or Digital Cash as it was rebranded in 2015) is a fork of Bitcoin. That means it began as a mimic of Bitcoin's existent code, then incorporated improvements to address issues present in the original Bitcoin system. Dash is primarily geared toward allowing users to make instant payments for purchasing goods and services, touting a private and secure network that shields the financial information of its community. Creator and one-time lead developer Evan Duffield now serves as a strategic advisor for Dash, and the Core Team -- which consists of over 20 members -- is helmed by current CEO Ryan Taylor.
Dash has experienced substantial growth, with Forbes reporting the currency's value rose some 8,000 percent in 2017, in no small part thanks to the company's unique self-funding structure, which sets aside funds whenever new Dash are minted so that the Core Team can continue improving on the platform. Currently, Dash has a market cap of $5,367,873,230, about 509,025 BTC, with a value sitting at $679.68, a 24-hour volume of $152,059,000, and a circulating supply of 7,897,659 DASH.
On Bitcoin's platform, it could take minutes to hours for transactions to be confirmed and finalized. On Dash, that time is reduced to seconds, and with a rate far below the several dollars that Bitcoin transactions can cost. Dash couples these features with double spend protection, a high level of anonymity for users (equivalent to using cash), and a plan to scale block sizes up to 400MB.
In their whitepaper, Dash describes themselves as the first "privacy-centric" cryptocurrency. Privacy and anonymity are hallmarks of the service, as evidenced by features like PrivateSend, an "improved and extended version" of CoinJoin that mixes in some decentralization, anonymity by way of chaining, denominations, and passive ahead-of-time mixing. Dash's methodology also allows for improved fungibility, so that the history of assets and their previous users is disassociated, meaning all tokens are kept equal.
Another key difference that sets Dash apart is their two-tier network. Unlike the single-tier network that Bitcoin employs, where all jobs on the platform are performed by miners, only certain functions, like creating new blocks, are handled by Dash's miners. The other functions -- PrivateSend, InstantSend, Governance, and Dash Evolution -- are handled by Masternodes on Dash's second network tier. The two-tiered system allows for them to implement these features in a way that is trustless and more decentralized.
The Masternode system also plays into Dash's incentive, governance, and self-funding schemes. Masternode users (who must hold at least 1000 DASH to qualify as such) have voting rights on proposals, such as budgets and important decisions about the platform. They also take a cut of the block rewards: 45 percent go to miners, 45 percent go to Masternodes, and 10 percent goes into the Dash Network, something that makes it unique from Bitcoin. Dash uses these funds to expand the platform, hire new developers, enhance integration with other networks and ensures that they don't have to rely on donations or charity (like some other cryptocurrencies).
As for the other features on Dash, they include InstantSend, the service that provides for near-instantaneous transactions, and DashEvolution, a proposed expansion that will introduce new components like DashDrive, DAPI, DashPay Decentralized Wallets, compensated infrastructure for the Masternode Network, Budgets and Governance for the second-tier network, Quorum Chain, and Social Wallet. Dash's wide range of services and features have made it popular, and, to date, they can claim they have one of the largest peer-to-peer networks on the globe, a factor that greatly enhances the scope and capacities of the platform.
