Dashing into Confusion

So you planted yourself in front of your computer ready to check the latest cryptocurrency news and prices. Shortly after getting onto coinmarketcap.com, you scroll down to see some newer coins appear in the top ten. That's great... but where is DASH?

Clicking onto the search bar, you type in "dash" and got 3 results.
Wait... What are those two???

DashScrypt (DASHS)

The least known of all the "dash" coins is DashScrypt. Never mind its 1390 ranking at the time of writing or that its volume trade of only $180 USD and an unknown marketcap. DashScrypt is pretty much a dead coin in every sense of the word. Other than a simplified detail in the github repository, this scrypt based cryptocurrency only have a placeholder website with nothing to show.

If unconventional logic dictates that if you're at the bottom and that there is nowhere to go but up, this probably would be a perfect counterargument. But there are people who shrill harder with less so... never say never?

DASH (DASH)

"DASH is digital cash"

Fast, Semi-Decentralized with low fees, the X11 algorithm of "dark coin" changed their name to DASH and sought out to be the digital cryptocurrency to be used on a day-to-day basis instead of the scaling disaster that is Bitcoin. Being the highest ranked coin, DASH is solid with real support not only in the viablilty but also a community who voted to develop the their slick video advertisment campaign as well.

While it is the most used currency of these three, Dash is facing some stiff competiton in the form of the third generation cryptocurrencies that are either fee-free or even faster in confirmation times. However until these technologies become developed and their adoption hits critical mass, DASH will still be used for now and and quite a while into the future.

Dashcoin (DSH)

When even Bitfinix exchange is confused, Dashcoin is the one consistently blamed for the confusion. Its history places blame confusion goes as far back as from the past, the present and as you will soon see, the future. Dashcoin is a fork of bytecoin as a way to distance themselves from the pre-mine controversy that plagued the younger cryptonote pioneer. Originally forked to lower the development time, it is nearly identical with the exception to the max supply of coins. However, its future is far from confusion proof.

Similar... but not the same.

On the Forth of July of 2017, the Dashcoin developers fixed an issue that prevented unlimited creation of coins and released the update. Unfortunately, The popular mining app Minergate and the exchange HitBTC who process the majority of mining and transactions of Dashcoin, did not receive these updates in time and continue to process their current blockchain. As time progressed, the old blockchain ledger and updated ledger diverge further and further to become incredibly out of sync. While there were many discussions and mediation, this problem is still ongoing and yet to be resolved with no end in sight.

The term "dash" is truly confusing in the cryptocurrency space. With so much confusion in terms of upcoming regulations and investment schemes, the last thing we need is a confusing name adding fuel to the fire. In researching for this piece, I find their stories fascinating and hope that it would help bring some insight and wisdom in future trades. But for now, I hope that this article help to not only explain that they are different but also highlight their differences.