What is DASH?
Created in 2014, the DASH Network is a direct descendant of Bitcoin, making DASH kind of like Bitcoin’s 2nd cousin. While DASH and Bitcoin are very different cryptocurrencies, they shared some of the same basic principles at the beginning of their life cycles. Those similarities have separated over time and now DASH has very few things in common. The association between DASH and Bitcoin stems from DASH being created as a copy of Litecoin, which is a copy of the Bitcoin Network.
DASH was developed to rival Bitcoin when it was first released to the community, known in the Bitcoin community as XCoin, and renamed Darkcoin for a brief moment before settling on the name DASH in 2015. DASH is not related to the popular delivery service DoorDASH despite its familiarity with namesakes. The name DASH simply stands for “Digital Cash”. While both DASH and Bitcoin have full transparency through the use of open-source code and a worldwide community of self-funded developers, that’s about where the similarities end in 2022.
DASH currently has over 50,000 daily users with an average of 8,000 unique transactions made every day, making it one of the most widely used Blockchains in the world.
Differences Between DASH and Bitcoin?
There are several good arguments to be made on why some consider DASH to be a better cryptocurrency than Bitcoin in 2022.
Private Transactions
For starters, DASH has private transactions made available through the use of its PrivateSend feature. A feature not “yet” available on the Bitcoin network. This is something that many consider a requirement every blockchain should adopt to protect the privacy of its users.
DASH doesn’t receive nearly as much negative attention as other privacy-focused projects like Monero and the ability to provide users with a completely anonymous transaction has been a proud feature of the DASH Blockchain. But, unlike other privacy-only coins that often hide addresses, or have intricate stealth features, DASH’s PrivateSend feature works like a traditional Bitcoin CoinJoin mixer. This works by combining many outgoing transactions and “mixing” them up before the transaction is received by its intended recipient. This works well to hide the sender’s address but it does not hide the receiver’s address. This allows DASH users a certain level of anonymity but not a completely untraceable transaction. In fact, in 2018 Japan issued numerous bans on DASH trading and usage. This was due to the country’s limited understanding of the differences between a transaction that is untraceable vs those which are considered anonymous. In retrospect, only around 1% of all daily DASH transactions make use of this PrivateSend feature.
InstantSend
While Bitcoin has privacy features in the works with “MimbleWimble” and Lightning Network “Point Time Lock Contracts” that will offer private transactions in the future, DASH has one additional feature that is safe to say will never be available on the Bitcoin Network. That feature is known as InstantSend. Just like it sounds, this allows a user to send a transaction instantly using the DASH Blockchain. This feature is only made possible due to how the DASH Blockchain updates its transactions on the network. While you should be familiar with how the Bitcoin Blockchain is updated through the use of Proof of…
Head of Research Jesse is a passionate seeker of truth who enjoys educating others about Bitcoin. As a free thinker and 2nd amendment advocate, Jesse believes each individual has the right to monetary freedom. “The swarm is headed towards us” -Satoshi Nakamoto
