Dash is Determined to Supersede Bitcoin as a Real PayPal Alternative
Last week, Dash, previously known as Darkcoin, celebrated two years in existence. The project’s community celebrated the anniversary by voting aye on increasing Dash’s block size from 1 MB to 2 MB. Even though the developers never insisted on this kind of solution, 99% of voters agreed with the proposal. Notably, the voting process took less than 24 hours, which comes in acute contrast to the prolonged and dramatic block size debate in bitcoin ecosystem.
Speaking to Coinreport, Dash’s creator Evan Duffield said:
“With pundits in a panic proclaiming the death of bitcoin and other decentralized cryptocurrencies not backed by a bank or government from a single blog post by a former bitcoin developer who has joined a bank blockchain development consortium, we thought it would be instrumental to show how the superior consensus mechanism in the world’s fastest cryptocurrency can be achieved in a single day through Dash’s decentralized governance protocol where one literally votes with one’s coins.”
He added:
“In our case the decision was not so difficult because in Dash full nodes share the block rewards with miners. One of the main reasons for disagreement about a block size increase within Bitcoin is that as you raise the block size the resources required to run full nodes also increase. This means that, in the case of Bitcoin, this change could lead to centralization as volunteer full node operators are unable to keep up with the additional costs of running the nodes. In our case our independent node operators are able to scale up with the network as they are also sharing on the blockchain subsidy just like miners, so it was a naturally less controversial decision for us.”
Duffield is responsible for developing X11, a hashing algorithm specific to Dash. As opposed to SHA-256 of Bitcoin and Scrypt of Litecoin, X11 is thought capable of maintaining long-lasting ASIC-proof features and reducing heat dissipation and power cosumption required for mining process.
Some community members believe that Dash is the closest to what Bitcoin actually should have become. However, this concept, while somewhat popular, is not overwhelming. Comparing Dash to Bitcoin, Duffield said in an interview to Finance Magnates:
“We believe the Bitcoin project and the Dash project are going down two separate paths as far as adoption is concerned. The Bitcoin project is beginning to be treated as a high-value settlement ledger, which is an entire different use case than what the Dash project is intended to achieve. The Dash project is designed to focus on instant-transactions, user privacy and ease of use. This will allow fast purely peer-to-peer low cost commerce that is safe and easy to use. We want to keep the network close to the users and minimize the need for them to go through centralized services on top of Dash.”
Speaking about Dash’s further prospects, Duffield said:
“In five years we see the Dash project growing into that role, as a truly decentralized peer to peer version of paypal built on top of a cryptographic currency. By building out the technology this way we will be facilitating a niche that the Bitcoin project can’t cover as easily without relying on centralized technologies such as the Lightning Network.”
However, the notable block size problem resolution and specific hashing algorithm seem to be just a part of more extensive campaign to catapult Dash to cryptocurrency Top 3, currently occupied by Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple.
In November 2015, Dash developers released an iPhone wallet for dash. Also, the team develops so-called Dash Evolution, an open source project acting as a key component to Dash’s API, which they call the world’s first decentrailzed API.
“Dash Evolution creates a new type of cryptographic currency with various advanced features that assist in the creation of decentralized technology. Dash introduces a tiered network design, which allows users to do various jobs for the network, along with decentralized API access and a decentralized file system,” the project’s website reads.
In addition to that, Dash has recently partnered with Lamassu, a renowned ATM manufacturer. Following the deal, Lamassu ATM’s will be supporting Dash along with Bitcoin.
“We’re really happy to announce that the Dash project is going to be the first alternative to Bitcoin to be supported by the Lamassu ATM project. This is really exciting, because the Lamassu ATM project has about 150 ATMs all around the world. We will be exclusively offered on their platform alongside Bitcoin,” Duffield commented.
Back in early 2015, Darkcoin was renamed Dash in attempt to recover reputational losses, as the name “darkcoin” associated with black markets, which the altcoin was never intended for. With its current market cap at around $24 million, Dash is the world’s fifth cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin.
Subscribe to our Newsletter
<Related posts
- Hackers Compromised 160,000 Nintendo User Accounts to Illegally Make Purchases in Game Stores
- Will Monero, Dash, Zcash, And Other Private Coins Be Delisted?
- Coinbase Restores PayPal Withdrawals for U.S. Citizens
- Japanese Exchanges Could be Forced to Delist Privacy-Focused Cryptocurrencies
- Dash’s Dash: Pseudoanonymity, Masternode Criticism, and Other Problems
- Block Size Games: Bitcoin Unlimited, Dash, and the Rules of Go
- Six Best Performing Altcoins of 2016
- Evan Duffield about Dash Evolution, Crippled ICO, and Lack of Competitors