Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Transactions in Dash (But Were Afraid to Ask)

21.04.2016

Dash transactions use two e-wallets with digital signatures ensuring security. Similar to Bitcoin’s, Dash’s transactions are public, and their history may be traced down to the first minted coins.

Storing Dash is good if you’re a trader waiting for the price to go up. However, money is about spending. Let’s see what happens when you spend Dash.

Dash Transaction Basics

Suppose Bob is a friend of Alice, and she recently told him about Dash. She would like him to have some, so she sends him a few coins. The transaction incorporates three components:

Initial data: a record on the address Alice received her Dash in the first place (for instance, she got the coins from her friend Ted, and then it is his address that would be provided).
Amount: amount of Dash Alice has sent to Bob.
Output data: Bob’s Dash address.

How to Transact

In order to send cryptocurrency, you will need a wallet with two basic components: public Dash address and a private key. Dash address is randomly generated from a combination of letters and numbers.

Private key resembles public address, however, as opposed to Dash address, it should be kept in secret.

Your wallet is a safe storage vault with a glass door. Everyone knows what’s inside, but it’s locked with a private key. In order to open it, to put something inside or take something out, you will have to know the key.

When Alice sends coins to Bob, she uses her private key by signing the message with initial data, output data, and amount data. Then she sends data from her wallet to Dash network.

What Happens Next

After the transaction has been sent, miners or masternodes check it to record the transaction into the block. Ways of processing a transaction depend on whether it uses InstantX or not.

A standard transaction, which doesn’t use InstantX, is accepted with zero confirmation of block and is dubbed unconfirmed transaction upon receipt. Around two minutes later, the block is decrypted, and the transaction is recorded in the blockchain.

The transaction becomes valid following six confirmations, which take around 15 minutes to occur. However, Dash incorporates an alternate option dubbed Instant X. It’s a technology invented by Evan Duffield. Instant X employs a network of masternodes to instantly confirm transactions and eliminate risks of zero confirmation for retail merchants and other involved parties.

Masternodes record the transaction with InstantX and proclaim it the first and only being valid to the network. The network thus ignores any other transactions contradicting the first one.

Usually, the process takes 1 to 4 seconds, a result beyond achievements of any other cryptocurrency. However, the transaction is still maintained by mining network and gets included in the blockchain.

Instead of six confirmations for regular operations, the receiver’s wallet records six InstantX-confirmed blocks in just a few seconds. InstantX also checks for double spending attack by blocking masternode operations on the network’s second layers. It is one of key features available in Dash only.

Senders have to pay 0.01 Dash for each transaction using InstantX. However, the amount is said to be changed in a short while.

Payments for Dash Operations

Payments for transactions depend on various factors. Miners and masternode owners charge commissions for processing a transaction.

Now that you know how to transact, the only thing left is actually buying Dash. You may use a cryptocurrency exchange to do so. Your best choice is an exchange where Dash trading volumes are high. Such exchanges fiercely compete with each other, and you may be sure the price is right.