CRYPTO PROJECTS: DUE DILIGENCE, RATING, BLACKJACK
11th of June 2019
Dash ruen
Rating 83.13%
4 rank in the rating
11th of June 2019
What is Dash?

Dash is a promising cryptocurrency, originally developed on the basis of Bitcoin code. Dash has appeared on January 18, 2014 and was firstly called XCoin. On February 28, 2014, the name was changed to Darkcoin, and on March 25, 2015, the cryptocurrency was named Dash. Dash is a short name for Digital Cash.

Despite the fact that the base code of Dash is Bitcoin code, the cryptocurrency has a number of significant improvements and unique characteristics, such as:

  • anonymous transactions;
  • masternodes;
  • X11 combined hashing algorithm;
  • instant payment system;
  • voting and self-financing system, etc.

Dash is distinguished by a decentralized management system in which each member of the network can submit his proposals for public discussion. By voting for the proposals put forward, decisions are made on projects related to the development of Dash. This approach increases the degree of cryptocurrency decentralization and allows to quickly make decisions on its development.

The goal of Dash is to become the most convenient cryptocurrency payment method in use. Dash allows to perform instant and, if necessary, anonymous transactions, has developed systems of self-management and self-financing, which contribute to its full development.

Architecture and Logic
Mechanisms and principles of emission

Native project token is DASH.
The maximum number of tokens is between 17.74 million and 18.92 million.

The inaccuracy of determining the upper limit is related to the feature of distribution of tokens: it is not known how much of the 10% reward per block  reserved for proposals from the budget, will be actually allocated, since it depends on the voting process and, accordingly, the approval of budget proposals.

The main Dash emission will end in about 192 years, after which more than a year will be spent on generating 1 DASH. In “Dash emission projection” document can be seen Dash emission forecast. After 2029, only 14 DASH will be created. As of June 4, 2018, there are about 8.1 million DASH in circulation.

Dash emission reduction (rewards for a block) is smoother than Bitcoin’s: in Dash every 210’240 blocks (about 383.25 days) emission is reduced by 1/14, approximately 7.14%.

The image shows Dash and Bitcoin emission graphs:

On June 4, 2018, the reward for the block #881406 reached 3.34559821 Dash. The current reward for the block can be viewed in Dash Block Explorer: the first transaction in the block.

Unlike many cryptocurrencies, the reward for finding a block does not go completely to miners, but is distributed as follows:

  • 45% miners reward;
  • 45% masternodes reward;
  • 10% to decentralized management system budget.
Launch error

During the launch of network, XCoin at that time, the most well-known error occurred in Dash: in the first two days, almost 2 million DASH were mined, which is about 10-15% of the total of DASH. According to the author and chief developer of Dash, Evan Duffield, an error occurred on block 42, during which the network was suspended and a restart was scheduled. When the work resumed, a very large number of miners joined the network, which caused a big surge in the production of coins and the algorithm for adjusting the complexity of the calculations did not cope.

Most of those coins were redistributed on exchanges in the coming months at very low prices.

The problem that arose was a prerequisite for improving the complexity setting algorithm and revising the distribution of reward for the block. This error is called Dash Instamine, a section in the documentation is dedicated to it.

Consensus building mechanisms

The main consensus building mechanism in Dash network is Proof-of-Work: to add a new block to the chain, miners solve complex computational tasks.

However, the difference with Dash is that it has two-tier architecture. The second layer in network consists of masternodes, full network nodes, which ensure the execution of anonymous and instant transactions, the work of decentralized management system and budget allocation. The operating principle of masternodes system is called Proof of Service (PoSe).

Thus, miners are the first layer of network, they add new blocks and provide basic transactional capabilities, and masternodes are the second layer of network, responsible for additional functionality.

Architecture

As mentioned above, Dash is a two-tier network, as it contains masternodes.

Masternodes

Masternodes are servers with the full version of Dash blockchain, providing a specified minimum level of performance and functionality to maintain individual processes of the system. In order to launch masternode, it's needed to deposit a 1000 DASH. It is worth noting that, unlike the traditional deposit, the owner of masternode remains the owner of his funds and can transfer or spend them at any time, but in this case his masternode will be excluded from the list of active network masternodes and, thereafter, will no longer receive rewards for its work. A deposit of 1000 DASH is necessary for protection against the increasing of the number of network masternodes and to filter out irresponsible operators.

45% of the reward for the block goes to masternodes. Since the number of masternodes in the system varies, the frequency of rewards also varies. Payments to masternodes occur in accordance with the queue, the distribution in which has a probabilistic nature.

All masternodes are displayed in the global list, the position in the list is determined by the time of the last payout. At the end of the list are placed those masternodes, which were new to join the network and which received rewards. When masternode gets into the top 10% of the list, it can be selected to make a payment. For example, if 4500 masternodes are active in the network, 450 go to “selection pool”. The hash of the block that was confirmed 100 blocks back determines which masternode will be selected. The double SHA256 of the pay-off transaction hash and the index of all masternodes in the “selection pool” are compared to the hash of the block, confirmed 100 blocks back (PoW). Masternode with the closest numeric hash value is selected to make a payout. After payment, it gets to the end of the list and the process repeats.

Thus, the order of payments for masternodes from the selection pool has probabilistic nature, which depends on the entropy of hash of the block. For an  example with 450 masternodes in the selection pool, the probability of payout on each block is 1/450. Below is a table that shows the probability of payment after a fixed amount of time. For example, the probability that a payment will be made within 12 hours is 46%. It should be taken into account, that the probability that the masternode will receive payment on the next block stays 1/450.

The probabilistic nature of payments makes the network more reliable. As an alternative method can be considered a payment for masternode, which last provided an anonymous transaction. But in this case, masternodes could attempt to perform fictitious anonymous transactions to increase the chances of payment.

The payment per day can be calculated by the following formula:

(n / t) * r * b * a, where

n — the number of masternodes  under operator control;

t  — the number of masternodes in the network;

r — the current reward for the block (as of June 5, 2018 approximately 3,346 DASH);

b — the average number of blocks per day (about 576 in Dash);
a — the average payout for masternode (45%).

Dash documentation provides detailed instructions on how to launch masternode, and the support of its work, including setting up payment withdrawals, participation in decentralized voting, etc.

The link can be used to study the parameters of the current masternodes: their number, number of servers, masternodes map. On June 5, 2018, 4860 masternodes were launched in 46 countries. The return on investment ratio for launching masternode is about 7%.

The image below shows a historical graph of the number of masternodes in the network. Drawdowns on the chart refer to the moments of a protocol change in new releases.

The check of masternodes network

Masternodes are responsible for performing additional services in the network. The masternode operation principle is called Proof-of-Service and means that the masternodes must remain active in the network.

Since a masternode can be launched by an unscrupulous participant who may not provide a service of good quality, Dash provides a tool for checking (pinging) the network.

On each block, two quorums are selected in the network, quorum A checks the operation of quorum B on each block. Quorum A — the closest nodes to the current hash of the block, quorum B, on the contrary, are the farthest. The work on checking the network and confirming its activity is performed by masternodes  themselves.

Approximately 1% of the network is checked on each block, the entire network is checked about 6 times per day. Nodes are selected randomly and 6 violations in the work leads to deactivation of the node. To perform fraudulent actions, an unscrupulous participant must be selected 6 times in a row, otherwise the system will not accept previous violations. To increase the probability of successful fraud, an attacker can launch more masternodes. However, to launch a masternode, it is needed to make a deposit of 1’000 DASH, wherein the probability will remain low. The documentation provides a table with the calculation of the probability when the total number of nodes is 2300:

X11 Hash Algorithm

Dash cryptocurrency uses X11 hashing algorithm that uses a chain of 11 hashing algorithms: each algorithm calculates hash and passes it to the next algorithm in the chain. The algorithm is proposed by Dash chief developer Evan Duffield. One of the reasons for the use of the algorithm was the complication of creating specialized mining equipment, and reducing the probability of centralizing mining capacities. The use of 11 hashing algorithms at once increases the network security parameters, since the probability of hacking all functions at once is much lower than that of cryptocurrencies using only one. In the case of hacking one of the 11 functions, this will become a timely warning for the system, thanks to which it will be possible to take action and replace the unreliable algorithm.

Dark Gravity Wave difficulty setting algorithm

Dash cryptocurrency uses Dark Gravity Wave (DGW) complexity adjustment algorithm developed by Evan Duffield. Unlike Bitcoin, in which the complexity of mining computing changes every 2016 blocks, in Dash the complexity changes on every block. DGW simultaneously uses simple and exponential moving average to ensure smooth and adequate tuning of network complexity. This contributes to stabilization of network and to the time of generation of blocks in conditions of large fluctuations in mining capacities. This is especially true in connection with the existence of multipool mining, in which miners’ capacities are transferred from one cryptocurrency to another, depending on the expected benefit of calculations. Thus, DGW improves stability and security parameters of network.

Decentralized management

Dash network management takes place on decentralized basis; there is no company or director involved in management. The decentralized management system works efficiently thanks to masternodes voting mechanisms (for more details, see “Built-in mechanisms and functions”).

Chainlocks

В мае 2019 была запущена новая версия основной сети Dash 0.14, вместе с ней был запущен механизм Chainlocks, который призван защищать сеть от атаки 51%. Внедрение механизма стало возможно благодаря появлению новой сущности — Long Living Masternode Quorums (LLMQ) — долгосрочных кворумов мастернод, квоурмов, состоящих из большого количества мастернод. Кворумы мастернод формируются заранее а не по срочному требованию и выполняют заданные функции на определенном промежутке времени. Для каждого нового блока в сети выбирается определенный кворум, и мастерноды в этом кворуме подписывают блок, который они увидели первым. Если более 60% мастернод увидели первым один и тот же блок, они создают специальное сообщение CLSIG и распространяют его по всем нодам, и этот блок становится валидным на данной высоте цепочки. Это делает невозможными атаки, когда майнер тайно добывает свою цепочку, а затем публикует ее в сеть, потому что если какой-то блок до этого уже получил пометку CLSIG, цепочку уже нельзя будет реорганизовать, даже если майнер пытается добавить цепочку с большим количеством блоков. Таким образом, майнеры заинтересованы как можно быстрее добавлять новые блоки, а пользователи могут быть уверены в том, что одного подтверждения транзакции уже достаточно для ее однозначной валидности.

Licensing and legal aspects

Dash documentation provides a section describing the compliance of aspects of Dash network with the US law.

The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) decided that when a taxpayer successfully mines a cryptocurrency, the fair market value of cryptocurrency at the time of receiving should be included in income. In fact, masternodes don't mine cryptocurrency, but IRS sees mining as a use of computer resources to confirm transactions and maintain network performance. Given such a formulation, masternodes’ activity can be considered as mining, and the owner of masternode should include received reward in the income

The owner of masternode should pay a deposit of 1000 DASH to launch it. Given that he remains the owner of his own funds and can spend or transfer them at his own discretion, this cannot be considered as a tax liability, the user does not transfer ownership.

From the point of view of masternodes’ responsibility for the technical support of anonymous transactions that may be related to criminal activity, the possibility that masternode can be considered involved in criminal activity is practically absent. Masternodes are not aware of users’ credentials, the purpose of funds, and any other transaction parameters.

The possibility of conducting anonymous transactions can be interpreted in two ways. Confidential transactions can be used within the law, all the more they are correlated with the laws on personal and commercial secrets. At their core, they are not suspicious, but their combination with other risk factors identified, for example, by the exchange or regulatory authorities, may shift the use of anonymous transactions to the area of ​​suspicious activity. For example, in Japan, anonymous cryptocurrencies, including Dash, began to be delisted from exchanges in accordance with the requirements of Japanese FSA, since anonymous transactions contradict Money Laundering Act. There is a risk of vector development in other jurisdictions. However, it is worth noting that in Dash transaction anonymization is an optional feature: user chooses to send the Dash transaction anonymously or publicly.

Separately, documentation provides a section on ensuring the legal component of the exchange of Dash cryptocurrency for fiat. Specially hired qualified lawyers have made a list of necessary requirements, a package of documents for companies that want to provide such services.

Globally, the legal aspects of cryptocurrency-related activities differ according to jurisdiction.

If we consider DASH in the context of Howie test, it is unlikely that the token can be viewed as security.

1. "Architecture and Logic" evaluation: 12 points out of 13 (+3 points for ensuring anonymity). The outlook is positive.
Mechanisms and principles of emission — 3 points out of 3 (an error in the emission at network launching, which had led to instant mining).
Blockchain (architecture and consensus building mechanism) — 4 points out of 4.
Licensing and legal aspects — 2 points out of 3 (detailed manual in documentation, but there are risks associated with anonymity of cryptocurrency).
Anonymization — 3 points out of 3.
The outlook is positive. Stable and advanced system. The only error in the network is the initial emission. Two-tier architecture in combination with innovative features improves stability and safety of work.

Functionality and software platform
Performance and scalability

Currently, the block size in Dash is 2 MB, the block generation time is 2,6 minutes, the number of transactions per second is 56.

Separately, it is worth noting the existence of instant payments — InstantSend (more details in “Built-in mechanisms and functions” section), which ensures the execution of transaction in a few seconds.

Built-in mechanisms and functions
Anonymous transactions

Dash network has a mechanism for sending anonymous transactions — PrivateSend, which is an enhanced version of CoinJoin.

CoinJoin is an anonymization method proposed for Bitcoin by Gregory Maxwell. The idea of ​​the approach is to merge several transactions into one, which complicates the establishment of unambiguous relationship between inputs and outputs of transactions.

Standard versions of CoinJoin have a number of disadvantages:

  • Tracking by amount
    Simple mixing of user transactions allows to restore the chain by adding the values ​​of outputs until they match the corresponding inputs.
  • Linking
    If, after anonymization of funds, user sends them, for example, to an exchange in which he corresponds to a personal identifier, then the return chain from the exchange to an anonymous transaction violates anonymity.

PrivateSend in Dash uses multiple identical inputs and outputs, with sent funds being broken into fixed DASH denominations: 0.01; 0.1; 1; 10 and 100 DASH. At least 3 users are required to complete each mixing round. The maximum transfer amount by anonymous PrivateSend transaction is 1000 DASH by default. Accordingly, to transfer a larger amount will require splitting into several transactions.

To complicate the conduction of attacks on time, PrivateSend works in passive (background) mode. At specified time intervals, user sends a request to perform an anonymous transaction and, therefore, to join other users for mixing through masternode. Information is distributed in masternode network about which currencies denominations user intends to mix, and no other information is distributed. Each session of PrivateSend is considered as an independent event that increases the anonymity of funds. Each session is limited to three users, respectively, the chance of de-anonymization is 1 of 3. To increase the depth of anonymization, a chain approach is used, in which funds are sequentially mixed through different masternode chains. The parameters of anonymization degree, depended on the number of rounds of mixing, are presented below.

On the one hand, Dash uses decentralized masternodes network to mix funds, that is, the central server that needs to be contacted to find users for mixing is not available. On the other hand, there is a risk that during mixing and merging funds, masternode can “look into” user transaction data and de-anonymize it. Below is a table from the project documentation, which shows the probability of de-anonymization of transactions depending on the number of controlled masternodes and the number of anonymization rounds. The main focus is on the fact that the connection to the masternode for mixing occurs randomly.

Back in 2014, an audit of Dash anonymization systems (then DarkCoin) was conducted by a recognized expert in the field — Kristov Atlas. In the results of the audit, the risk of de-anonymization of funds by taking over or by unauthorized interference in the work of masternode was recognized as high, however, the elimination of this weak spot is not considered to be time-consuming. The audit was conducted with the support of Dash community (DarkCoin at that time) and the author gives references to the reaction of main developer, which confirm the intention to introduce mechanisms for improving technologies. According to open data, it is not clear whether the corresponding improvements have been made, although there is information about the  existence of dialogue between the auditor and developers.

Dash anonymization system continues to improve along with the network; you can follow updates in releases on github.

Thus, the system of anonymous transactions in Dash has several advantages: a decentralized approach to mixing, a random selection of masternode, a denomination of funds, a chain of sequential anonymization; but it also has potential vulnerabilities.

The project documentation provides detailed instructions for making anonymous payments.

Instant transactions (InstantSend)

One of the most important features of Dash is the ability to send instant transactions. For the formation of a convenient and demanded payment system, it must be possible to quickly send funds. In most cryptocurrencies, this issue is acute, because it may take from several minutes to several hours to confirm a transaction, which makes them inapplicable as a means of payment. In Dash, instant transactions are possible because of masternodes network.

For each transaction in the network, a random algorithm selects a new masternode quorum of 10 items, which are responsible for performing the current instant transaction. Masternodes’ main function is fixing and blocking  transaction inputs so that they can be spent exclusively in this transaction. In this way, InstantSend consensus is reached among the masternodes quorum, and all conflicting transactions will be rejected by the network, as they do not match the blocking of funds identifier in a particular transaction.

The project documentation provides detailed instructions for performing instant transactions.

For more information on the need to block funds when performing instant transactions, see the official Transaction Locking and Masternode Consensus document. Also on YouTube you can watch a video from the popular blogger Amanda about solving the problem of double spend while performing InstantSend.

Decentralized management and financing system

In decentralized network, by definition, there is no central government, which complicates the decision-making process regarding changes in the system. Dash has a decentralized management and financing system that works effectively throughout the life of the project.

In Dash decisions are made on the basis of decentralized masternode voting, which can leave one vote for each proposal put forward: “yes”, “no”, “abstain”.

As a rule, before being submitted to a vote, proposals are discussed on forum, where they receive the necessary feedback, which helps to correct the proposal and evaluate its prospects. At that moment, when the author of the proposal considers that it can be approved, a proposal can be created and submitted for voting. When submitting an application, a fee of 5 DASH must be paid, which is destroyed at the time of application. Commission is introduced to protect against spam.

The community is concentrated in Dashcentral website, where the proposals put forward are discussed and the voting process for them is displayed. Also, voting can be monitored on the tracker.

After putting forward a proposal the voting among the owners of masternodes begins. Financing of proposals is carried out from 10% of emission of new coins, reserved during creation of new blocks. These funds are saved and paid at the moment of creation of superblock. Superblock is created every 16616 blocks, which takes about 30.29 days. The end of the voting takes place in 1662 blocks before the creation of superblock. During this time, votes are counted and approved proposals are selected.

In order for the proposal to be approved, it must get more than 10% of positive votes from masternodes. The condition for approval of the proposal is as follows: (“yes voices” minus “no voices”) / (total number of masternodes / 10).

If the budget payment on the superblock is not enough to pay for all approved proposals, those that have received greater approval are paid first. If the budget of approved payments is less than the planned budget, the unallocated budget is not issued and does not create additional inflation.

With the help of DashWatch tool, the creation of which was also funded by budget proposal, it is possible to monitor the work of contractors in carrying out the work on financed proposals. This project team actively interacts with application owners to track the progress and to check reports.

The documentation contains a section on the system of self-government and financing, where you can find the necessary instructions.

Dash decentralized system of voting and budgeting allows to effectively manage the project. As an example, accepting the decision to increase the block size from 1 MB to 2 MB took about one day. For example, in Bitcoin, the discussion of this issue took several years.

All Dash development is funded from the above system, so Dash does not need to rely on third-party development funding. In addition, community can choose which tasks for it are of higher priority.

Dash Evolution

Back in 2015, the main developer of Dash spoke about the plan for improving Dash network. During Dash Evolution new features should be developed that will make Dash a more technically advanced and convenient system. In the Internet you can find a large number of videos with prototypes of future system.

Among the future opportunities is the development of DAPI — a decentralized API, which will allow third-party applications and clients to access Dash blockchain without the need for a central server. DAPI will be implemented using the second layer of network — masternodes network.

Also, for example, developers are working on a decentralized DashDrive file storage system based on IPFS. It is planned to modify the masternodes activity monitoring system, implementation of “age” record of masternode, duration of its presence in the network during the formation of quorums. Improving network performance by optimizing block creation parameters, increasing technical requirements for masternodes owners.

At the same time, mechanisms are being worked out that ensure user convenience: regular payments; usernames in the interface instead of long addresses; list of application stores where Dash is accepted for payment, etc.

User basic software

The main blockchain was launched in January 2014, the code is open-source and available on github of the project.

A wide variety of wallets are available for working with Dash:

  • Dash Core Wallet
    A full official wallet that supports all the functionality of Dash. The wallet stores the full version of Dash blockchain and can be used to manage masternode.
  • Dash Electrum Wallet
    A light Dash wallet that does not yet support InstantSend and PrivateSend.
  • Dash Android Wallet
    Android wallet that supports instant payments and has a number of interesting features, for example, an address book for storing addresses to which you often transfer money.
  • Dash iOS Wallet
    iOS wallet that supports instant payments.
  • Dash Copay Wallet
    Light multi-functional wallet, available for both mobile and desktop devices. Copay also supports multi-signature.
  • Dash Paper Wallet
    A paper wallet suitable for long-term secure storage of funds without an internet connection.
  • Hardware wallets
    Dash is supported by Trezor, Ledger, KeepKey hardware wallets.
  • Web Wallet
    MyDashWallet is a web wallet that supports instant and anonymous payments.
  • Third-party wallets
    Dash is supported in third-party wallets, for example, Jaxx, Coinomi, Exodus.

The documentation provides detailed instructions on all aspects of work for all wallets.

Also detailed instructions for working with masternodes are presented in documentation.

Also on June 5, 2018, a message about compatibility of Dash with Blocknet Protocol appeared. Using the protocol, it will be possible to create dAPPs based on Dash blockchain.

Integration options

For ease of integrating Dash into other systems, the following tools are provided:

There is a section in documentation, which includes instructions and recommendations on the work of merchants with Dash.

2. "Functionality and software platform" evaluation: 8 points out of 10. The outlook is positive.
Performance and scalability — 1 point out of 2 (low productivity, but there is availability of instant payments).
Built-in mechanisms and functions — 2 points out of 3 (risks of de-anonymization of payments. The team should provide information on the results of code modifications due to third-party audit).
Product — 4 points out of 4.
Integration options — 1 point out of 1.
The outlook is positive. Dash has all the necessary features of a modern payment system. The self-management and self-financing system allows the project to develop competently, improving technology. A large number of integration tools with detailed documentation contribute to the expansion of user audience. Dash Evolution release is able to bring Dash to a new level.

Statistics
Spread

As of June 6, 2018, DASH cryptocurrency is represented on more than 70 exchange platforms. According to coinmarketcap, the distribution by trading volume on June 6, 2018 is as follows:

It is worth noting that because of requirements of FSA of Japan, Japanese exchanges have begun to delist anonymous cryptocurrencies, including Dash. It is unclear whether this trend will extend to other jurisdictions, and if so, at what pace, but it is necessary to identify this risk.

Capitalization dynamics

On June 6, 2018, 8’118’132 DASH tokens are in circulation, which is about 42% of the maximum amount.

The beginning of capitalization growth refers to the beginning of 2017. Growth is associated with an increase in general interest of users to cryptocurrencies and, accordingly, an increase in demand for them.

Over the past year, a relatively smooth behavior has been observed, except for the winter period of 2017-2018. During this period, there was a general rapid growth and then a fall in the market. The maximum was reached on December 20, 2017, capitalization amounted to more than $12.75 billion. In terms of capitalization, Dash is consistently in the top 20 cryptocurrencies. As of June 6, 2018, according to coinmarketcap, the capitalization volume is $2’580’802’619 / 338 879 BTC, and Dash ranks 13th in general list.

Token price dynamics

During the first 3 years of the project’s existence, the cost has gradually increased from approximately $0.2 for 1 DASH to $20. Over the past year, the cost did not fall below $145. From the beginning of November 2017, there was a rapid increase in value, correlating with general movement of the market. The maximum was reached on December 20, 2017 and was $1’642.22. Further, until the beginning of February 2018, a rapid fall in value was observed, after which a correction took place and a further smoother depreciation. According to coinmarketcap as of 06.06.18, the cost is $316.99, which corresponds to the values ​​before the rush period in winter of 2017-2018.

It is worth noting that since the beginning of February, there has been a consistently high daily trading volume that exceeds six months old value by more than 2 times. This demonstrates an increase in user interest in this asset, even despite a significant decrease in value after the peak value.

3. "Statistics" evaluation: 7 points out of 10. The outlook is neutral.
Distribution — 2 points out of 3 (in the spring of 2018 there was a partial delisting of cryptocurrency due to the possibility of anonymous transactions).
Capitalization dynamics — 3 points out of 4 (there is a dependence on market movements).
Price dynamics of tokens — 2 points out of 3 (there is a dependence on market movements).
The outlook is neutral. Despite the dependence on market movements, there is an increase in trading volumes and stabilization of cryptocurrency cost. Due to delisting of token from Japanese exchanges and the risk of additional complications in other jurisdictions, it is worth following this situation progress. For users, the possibility of switching from less familiar and convenient exchanges to other platforms is undesirable.

Due diligence
Road Map and White Paper

The official github presents the current version of White Paper in 10 languages, which is constantly being finalized.

White Paper contains basic information on technical features of the network, in particular: the work of masternodes, InstantSend, PrivateSend.

Another paper, dedicated to the work of InstantSend: Transaction Locking and Masternode Consensus. Online version is temporarily unavailable on the official website, but it can be downloaded from the link from the documentation. The document is dated September 2014 and describes the work of masternodes on providing security of instant transactions performance. The original White Paper DarkCoin is also available.

The main information resource is a very detailed structured official documentation, which contains not only theoretical information about the work of the system, but also practical tutorials on interaction with all aspects of the network.

Github is highly active and contains source code and instructions for all products.

On the forum in developers section, you can follow the discussion of tasks progress, releases of new versions, etc.

In June 2017, Road Map Dash Evolution was published on the forum. The updated version is presented on github.

Road Map 2.2

DashPay Wallet Alpha (September 2017):

  • Dash version of CoPay, pre-Evolution functions, on test-net
  • Will lead to full Evolution wallet (not merely a web wallet)
  • DashCore 12.2 Release (September 2017), rehaul of networking code
  • 2MB block size increase, activation in November 2017
  • 2MB / 5MB block research documentation
  • Launch of a read-only/view-only portal for project documentation which will be open to the entire community (to ensure transparency)
  • Lowering transaction fees 10x, activation in November 2017

DashPay Evolution Wallet Testnet Release (November 2017):

  • User signup and friending process (Signup procedure for Evolution on testnet // reservation testnet)
  • Evolution Account Management (Create, Review, Update, Delete)
  • DAPI testnet release

DashCore 12.3 Release (December 2017):

  • HD wallets
  • Evolution Alpha Release to Partners
  • Integration partner testing
  • API & SDK testing

DashPay Evolution Wallet Livenet release (February 2018):

  • Signup and Friending Process Evolution on Mainnet
  • Evolution Account Management on MainNet
  • DAPI Mainnet Release

13.0 Evolution v1 - Mainnet (June 2018):

  • Public DashPay, DAPI, DashDrive, DashCore v13.0 release
  • Quorum-based DAPI implementation
  • Governance object support for users, groups, accounts
  • State transitions
  • Encryption of object data
  • Offices in Arizona, Europe (CORE), and Asia (Dash Labs)
  • Age-based quorums
  • IPFS DashDrive implementation / Limited sharding ability
  • Official user-friendly Wallet
  • Masternode blocks
  • Multi-key spork technology

14.0 - Evolution v2 (date to be confirmed):

  • Fifth Hiring Wave - Full-time developers
  • Ability to move money between public and private accounts
  • Governance objects for multi-user accounts (multisig)
  • Masternode redundancy planning
  • Automatic form filling for delivery addresses using encrypted blobs
  • Evolution marketplace / Add-ons / Rating system
  • Hardened entropy-based wallet seeding system

15.0 - Evolution v3 (date to be confirmed):

  • GPU based block accelerator
  • Masternode shares via governance objects

To date, it is not yet possible to complete all tasks on time, but the development team keeps users informed about implementation delays. The Road Map has a large plan of changes that requires a lot of time and resources, it is difficult to predict the problems that may arise during the work.

The latest global release was the public launch of test-net v 12.3 on June 3, 2018.

4. "Analysis of Road Map and White Paper" evaluation: 8 points out of 10. The outlook is neutral.
White Paper — 5 points out of 5.
Road Map — 3 points out of 5 (shift in the tasks timing and a small planning horizon).
The outlook is neutral. The project has high-quality project documentation. However, there is a shift in the tasks timing regarding to declared in the Road Map. Despite the naturalness of this process, taking into account the global nature of the tasks that have been set, it is necessary to review the actual timing of next releases in connection with the situation. This will give users a more adequate idea of ​​the development process.

The project team and affiliated persons

Dash is a network with a developed and actively operating decentralized management and budgeting system. In fact, the network is owned by Dash DAO, but as the project team it's needed to name the main development team of Dash Core Group Inc., which consists of over 50 people. Dash Core Group Inc. is engaged in the main development and maintenance of Dash, but there are other organizations that contribute to development of the project.

 

The project management board includes:

  • Ryan Taylor — CEO.
    An acknowledged financial expert with more than 15 years of experience in financial services and technology. He was holding the position of analyst in large hedge funds. He was an associate partner at McKinsey & Company’s Business Technology Office in New York.
  • Holger Schinzel — Head of Quality Management, Automation, Testing.
    An experienced developer and tester, headed the direction of scientific and technical development in several companies, a specialist in the field of quality control.
  • Glenn Austin — CFO.
    Bachelor of Economics at Harvard, M.B.A. in finance and management at Columbia Business School. He was working in financial industry for over 20 years, he was Vice President at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and held a senior position at UBS and Chain IQ, a consulting company division of UBS.
  • Fernando Gutierrez — Chief Marketing Officer.
    Registered lawyer and economist. He was working in sales and marketing at HP and Telefonica for nearly 10 years. He worked in both B2B and B2C. He joined Dash team in 2014 and in January 2018 took up this position.
  • Robert Wiecko —COO.
    IT specialist and entrepreneur, was helding senior positions in the world's leading IT and banking corporations, such as HP, UBS. He is also a co-founder and CTO in online gallery of modern art.
  • Nathan Marley — Deputy CTO.
    He has more than 15 years of experience in full-cycle software development and architecture development, including AWS-based cloud architecture. He has experience in information security, DevOps, cloud computing.
  • Philipp Engelhorn — Press & Multitool.
    Award winning documentary and travel photographer.
  • Andy Freer — Chief Architect.
    Before joining Dash, he was serving as CTO in other projects for 8 years, he has extensive programming experience. He joined Dash in 2015 and worked on architecture with Evan Duffield (founder and main initial  developer).
  • Bradley Zastrow — Business Development.
    He was working in American Express over 17 years, where he was engaged in international partnerships and financial processes. For the past 13 years, he worked in Sydney, Australia, where he led a regional team, was engaged in finding and managing strategic partnerships for American Express Centurion and Platinum card.
  • Alexander Chopan — Head of Strategy.
    He has more than 10 years of experience in analytics and strategy development. He was holding a senior position at Bridgewater Associates, the large hedge fund, where he paid special attention to optimizing business processes and developing strategies.
  • Kelly Kopp-Schuetz — Human Resources Director.
    More than 12 years of experience in the field of personnel management. She headed HR department at j2 global, a large technology company.

At the beginning of June 2018, it was announced about appointment of Bob Carroll as CTO. Bob previously held the post of CIO at the University of Phoenix. He was working at North America Systems Engineers, Everspring and Informix Software for over 20 years.

Dash Core Group team is actively expanding and recruiting people with exceptional professional experience to senior positions. Recruitment and redeployment are associated with extensive preparation for Dash Evolution.

Dash Core Group technical development team has over 25 experienced employees. The team also has a marketing department, a development management department, which includes project managers, testers, quality control specialists, etc., business development and strategy development unit, human resources department, and community coordinators for individual countries.

Advisors  

  • Evan Duffield — Strategy Advisor.
    Evan is the founder, main initial developer and ideological inspirer of Dash. He has developed and implemented all the main features of the project. Evan does not leave the team from the very beginning, but he has replaced the post of development manager with the strategic adviser to the core team. At the same time he is leading Dash Labs — his own independent team of promising developments. Evan is also the founder of Hawk Financial Group, a former software developer at iAcquire, Wells Fargo Bank and Warped AI LLC.
  • Perry Woodin — Advisor.
    He has been working as developer in IT field for over 20 years, specializing in web applications. He became interested in cryptocurrency in 2012, after which he began to invest and develop infrastructure projects in crypto industry.

Partners

 

Dash has an impressive number of partner companies: a large number of companies have entered into an agreement to accept Dash cryptocurrency as a means of payment in their projects. Moreover, the projects relate to a variety of industries.

 

Among such partnerships can be mentioned:

  • Rewards.com — a catalog of rewards programs, with the use of cashback programs. Dash will become the first digital currency to be paid as a reward.
  • BlockCypher and National Renewable Energy Laboratory have partnered on using Dash as the first payment tool on the future p2p energy metering platform.
  • Strike Social — the world's largest advertising optimization company on Youtube, whose clients are Coca-Cola, Netflix, XBox, etc., introduces the option of paying for services in DASH.
  • GoCoin has announced the integration of Dash into its online payment processing.
  • Piiko, a company offering mobile top-ups worldwide, will now use Dash as the main form of cryptocurrency payment. Initially, the company was accepting Bitcoin, but abandoned it in favor of Dash.
  • TenX launches Dash debit cryptocurrency cards.
  • Arizona State University (ASU) has announced a partnership with Dash project, which will provide $350,000 to "accelerate research in ways that advance blockchain transaction speed, efficiency, security, and expand its uses."

This list is only a small part of Dash partnerships. All the updates you can quickly find on the official news resource. It is noteworthy that the availability of decentralized budgeting not only fully ensures the development of Dash project itself, eliminating the need to attract third-party investors, but also allows the project to invest in third-party research and any approved by community proposals — a good example is partnership with Arizona State University.

5. "Analysis of the project team and affiliated persons" evaluation: 10 points out of 10. The outlook is positive.
The number of the team — 2 points out of 2.
Team structure — 3 points out of 3
Team competencies — 3 points out of 3.
Affiliated persons — 2 points out of 2 (a small number of affiliates is compensated by the long-term successful project history and the number of diverse partnerships).
The outlook is positive. The project has an experienced universal team and continues to expand its staff, attracting new employees for large-scale development in accordance with the stated plan.

Nearest competitors

The main competitors of Dash is considered to be anonymous cryptocurrencies, such as Monero and ZenCash. These cryptocurrencies use different anonymization mechanisms, which have their own advantages and disadvantages. Monero network has quite high performance parameters, it was launched in 2014, same as Dash. This cryptocurrency uses ring signatures to ensure anonymity.

ZCash network was launched in 2016. This cryptocurrency uses zero-knowledge proof protocol to ensure anonymity. In ZCash, as well as in Dash, transactions are divided into public and anonymous.

Also among competitors of Dash can be classic cryptocurrencies, as their main goal is to perform payment transactions, for example, Bitcoin, or Litecoin.

6. "Competitors" evaluation: 5 points out of 10. The outlook is positive.
Direct competitors — 3 points out of 4 (high competition).
Industry competitors — 2 points out of 4 (high competition).
Project monitoring of competition —0 points out of 2 (is missing in the project documentation).
The outlook is positive. Despite the high competition in the industry, Dash is actively developing, adding new functionality. The well-coordinated work of the community in project development helps Dash to find its niche in the industry.

Fame

Citation, social networks

Dash cryptocurrency team has begun to pay much attention to expanding the audience of the project. Representatives of the community are actively participate in conferences, lead thematic channels, etc. Dash is often mentioned in media, where it finds a mostly positive response.

There is a high activity and a large number of subscribers in Dash social networks (data as of June 6, 2018):

  • Twitter 304 thousand readers;
  • Youtube — 23,6 thousand subscribers;
  • Facebook — 38,4 thousand subscribers;
  • Reddit — 21,4 thousand subscribers;
  • Telegram — 6,4 thousand subscribers.
  • Russian-language Dash channel — 3.9 thousand subscribers.

On project forum, there is a very active dialogue between users and project representatives. Bitcointalk thread is also very active and has high quality of responses from the project representatives. It is worth mentioning the most active communication platform of English-speaking community —  Discord chat.

Applicability

As of June 6, 2018, according to cryptoID explorer, DASH is distributed on 669’724 addresses. The map of physical location of network nodes at the moment is as follows:

It can be concluded about the wide geography of the project.

The distribution of funds to addresses is relatively even, there are no addresses where the prevailing amount of DASH cryptocurrency would be stored.

The daily number of transactions for the last month is from 7.5 to 16 thousand.

As of June 6, 2018, 4850 masternodes were launched in 47 countries, with 28% in the US, 21% in Netherlands, 10% in Germany, 9% in Lithuania, 7% in France, 4% in Russia, 4% in Canada, etc.

Projects working with Dash

The main goal of Dash is to create a convenient and demanded payment system. Dash moves in the right direction and stands out against other cryptocurrencies in the number of companies that accept Dash as a means of paying for goods and services. The combination of many years of positive reputation and the ability of instant payments contribute to further development.

The project has launched a separate resource, which contains places where DASH cryptocurrency is accepted as a payment. On the site you can sort places by type of goods and services, by location, etc.

Dash is also integrated into cryptocurrency cards, for example, TenX and Wirex.

Famous persons in the team

There are no bright personalities from crypto industry or opinion leaders in the team. But Dash project managers themselves can be called authoritative representatives, since from the very beginning they are heading the technological project with a number of innovations that were later borrowed by third-party projects.

7. “Fame of the project” evaluation: 9 points out of 10. The outlook is positive.
Citation, social network — 3 points out of 3.
Applicability / distribution — 3 points out of 3.
Projects based on technology — 2 points out of 2.
Famous persons in the team — 1 out of 2 points (Dash creators).
The outlook is positive. One of the few cryptocurrencies that actively expands the user audience, attracting it with its working payment qualities.

Индекс доверия

В момент первоначального запуска сети произошла наиболее известная ошибка в работе сети: в связи с недостаточной гибкостью алгоритма настройки сложности в первые несколько суток было добыто около 10-15% от общего количества Dash. После этого алгоритм был переработан, а команда проекта предложила провести бесплатную раздачу монет, сейчас подобное явление называется airdrop. Было проведено голосование в сообществе, в результате было решено не перераспределять добытые монеты, а просто дальше работать над усовершенствованием проекта.

Еще в 2015 году было объявлено о масштабных планах по реорганизации и усовершенствованию сети, чтобы Dash смогла стать действительно удобным и востребованным средством платежа. Однако, команде не удалось в близкие к первоначальной Road Map сроки реализовать задуманный функционал, что привело к критике в сообществе. Разработчики активно обсуждали этот вопрос, объясняя отставание публикацией Road Map без достаточного осознания предстоящей работы. Дополнительной причиной для критики, помимо значительной задержки релиза, стало отсутствие активности в github репозиториях. Это было вызвано тем, что команда не хотела публиковать код в открытый доступ для сохранения конкурентного преимущества на этапе разработки.

Начиная с конца 2018 года было сделано несколько крупных релизов, которые успешно работают в основной сети, что снизило уровень критики. Большая часть запланированного функционала уже реализована, и в марте 2019 был открыт доступ к репозиториям на github, что подтвердило активную работу команды над Dash Evolution.

Однако, на текущий момент не до конца ясно, какое дальнейшее развитие планируется в рамках проекта, так как основная Road Map ограничена концом 2019 года. Пока неизвестно, на каких технических улучшениях или интеграциях  сосредоточится команда в будущем.

Стоит заметить, что прогрессивная модель децентрализованного управления и финансирования делает сеть Dash в существенной степени независимым проектом, участники сети Dash непосредственно влияют на ее развитие и могут принимать решения в случае непредвиденных ситуаций. Любой участник сети может предлагать свои направления развития, которые могут быть одобрены и получить финансирование в случае признания их ценными в ходе голосования мастернод.

  1. Оценка «Индекс доверия»: 9 баллов из 10. Вероятность скама: низкая.

Вероятность скама — низкая. Dash поддерживается командой со всего мира, совершенствуя реализацию проекта как и с точки зрения повышения удобства для конечного пользователя, так и с точки зрения архитектурных и управленческих новшеств.

Summary

RATING. “Dash” evaluation: 59 points out of 73 — 80.82%. The outlook is positive.

The outlook is positive. Dash stands out among other cryptocurrency projects not only in technical components, but also by management and budgeting efficiency. The number of partners accepting Dash as payment clearly demonstrates the correctness of chosen path to achieve the main goal — to become the most convenient and popular means of payment. Prospects for implementation of Dash Evolution can not only take the project to a new level and strengthen its leadership in the current niche, but also open up completely new prospects.

Dash cryptocurrency has a four-year positive history and is actively increasing both the audience of users and the number of partners, merchants, etc. One of the main directions of the team is creating a user-friendly environment for users who may not have experience in using cryptocurrencies. Dash has every chance to gain a foothold as a popular means of payment thanks to InstantSend and PrivateSend systems that meet the real needs of users.

At this stage in cryptocurrencies development many anonymous transactions are associated with criminal activity. However, it's needed to understand that a huge number of standard payments, such as wages, can not always be transparent for everyone, not only for ethical reasons, but also in accordance with law. Due to the youth of the industry, international legislation on such operations has not yet been formed. It is worth noting once again that anonymity in Dash is possible, but is not required.

The project has an experienced team that leads an open dialogue with users and develops Dash, taking into account the views of the community. Decentralized management and budgeting systems work efficiently and are examples of successful DAO.

The progress of work on Dash Evolution and the details of updates in the system should definitely be monitored.

References

Изменения в редакции №2
  1. Проведено комплексное обновление разделов анализа в связи с обновлениями сети и расширением функционала и архитектурных особенностей.
  2. В анализ добавлен раздел “Индекс доверия”. Общий балл раздела 9 из 10.
  3. В связи с вышеуказанными изменениями общий балл проекта изменен с 59 баллов из 73 — 80,82% на 69 баллов из 83 —  83,13%.
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