Steemit Crypto Academy Season 2: Privacy Coins || DASH Coin
INTRODUCTION
Going away from fiat, Bitcoin was created as a digital currency that is decentralized (owned by nobody), fast, transparent (every transaction is broadcasted publicly on the network). While Bitcoin has great functionality including the use of public addresses which is a string of alphanumeric characters, making it difficult to identify who performs a transaction, it doesn't mean it is impossible. Since the transactions are broadcasted on a public ledger, it is easy for people to trace which address sent what and how much was sent, and with further investigation, the entity behind the transaction can be singled out. One of the major reasons for transacting on the blockchain is privacy but if people could identify the entities behind so many transactions, then privacy is lost.
Privacy coin solves the entire problem of privacy and anonymity while transacting bringing a better solution to Bitcoin's pseudo-anonymous issue. Privacy coin, instead of using pseudo-anonymity, completely keeps the data of transactions from the public. this is done by hiding the addresses and mixing transactions together to hide the information from the public. There are several privacy blockchain coins viz;
- Monero
- Dash
- ZCash
- Verge
- Horizen
- Beam
For the purpose of this post, I will be discussing Dash Coin and I hope to my best to participate in the assignment.
Choose a Privacy Coin and perform a fundamental analysis of the coin in detail.
Dash Profile
Launched on January 18, 2014, by Evan Duffield, Dash Coin was initially named Xcoin but the name didn't stay for long as the coin was renamed Dark Coin on January 28, 2014, before finally holding the name Dash Coin on March 25, 2015. 1.
Dash coin with the symbol DASH focuses on privacy, micro-fee, and transaction speeds. Dash is minable and it uses the Proof of Work and Masternode (PoSE) consensus mechanism and X11 Hashing Algorithm.
Functionality of Dash
Dash has three unique features which allow it to serve its users well and create an edge over other cryptocurrencies, these features are PrivateSend, InstaSend and Chainlock.
PrivateSend
Public blockchains broadcast transactions publicly giving information such as the address of the sender and the receiver, the transaction id, and the amount. With PrivateSend on Dash, privacy is considered first as the addresses, transaction id, and amount is kept away from the public thereby giving the users complete anonymity. When transactions are initiated with PrivateSend, the transaction is received and executed by Masternodes.
InstaSend
Dash supports two ways of sending funds, one is the normal send to address and the other is the InstaSend. The normal method of sending dash takes 2.5 minutes to get confirmed but with InstaSend, it takes seconds for transactions to be confirmed. It uses Masternodes to validate the transaction before it is sent to the next block to be mined.
Chainlock
Is a protocol that protects against 51% attack on the blockchain when using the InstaSend or PrivateSend. With this, Masternodes broadcast transactions to themselves and ensure that the transaction is inserted into the next block to be mined.
Mining Dash and Masternode
Mining
Mining Dash can be done by any simple CPU and GPU but then, miners now use ASIC mining machine to enable better mining. Dash network utilizes X11 hashing algorithm, the 2MB block is hashed in 2.6 minutes with 56 transactions per second. Miners receive 45% of the mining reward after mining.
Masternode
Masternode does not require purchasing an ASIC mining rig. To participate in Masternode, users just have to stake at least 1000 DASH. Masternodes can participate in governance (voting), and validate InstaSend and PrivateSend transactions. Masternodes get 45% of the mining reward after mining. Since Dash is self-funding, 10% of the mining reward goes towards network improvements.
Market Analysis and Overview
| Coin Name | Dash |
|---|---|
| Symbol/Ticker | DASH |
| Circulating supply | 10,162,239.29 DASH |
| Maximum supply | 18,900,000 |
| Coins Distributed in ICO | N/A |
| Current Price | $189.72 |
| All Time Low | $0.2139 |
| All-Time High | $1,642.22 |
| Coinmarketcap Ranking [based on market cap] | 52 |
| Market Cap | $1,926,846,882 |
| Volume (24h) | $515,045,525 |
Exchanges
According to https://www.dash.org, there are over 265 exchanges and brokers where DASH can be bought and sold. The coin can be bought and sold in exchanges such as Binance, Huobi global, Poloniex, IndoEx, Bitrue, 50X, Probit Exchange, Bitpay, HitBTC, Bittrex, Bithumb, Bitbay, Stex, Latoken, Kucoin, Coinbase Exchange, and many more.
The Dash Team
According to https://www.dash.org/dcg/, there are 33 members who make up the Dash Team with Ryan Taylor as the CEO, Bob Carroll as the CTO, Glenn Austin as CFO, and so on. The details and how to contact the team is available on the team page. the team can be contacted via email, Keybase, and Dash Forum.
Other Important Information
| Github link | https://github.com/dashpay/dashgithub.com/dashevo |
|---|---|
| Dash Roadmap address | https://github.com/dashpay/dash-roadmap |
| Whitepaper | https://github.com/dashpay/docs/raw/master/binary/Dash%20Whitepaper%20-%20V1.pdf |
| FAQ | https://www.dash.org/faq/ |
| Explorer | https://insight.dash.org/insight/ |
| Website | https://www.dash.org/ |
| - | https://www.dashfoundation.io/ |
| [email protected]@dash.org | |
| Contacts | https://www.dashfoundation.io/contact/ |
| Forum | https://www.dash.org/forum/ |
| https://twitter.com/dashpay | |
| Discord | https://discordapp.com/invite/PXbUxJB |
| https://www.facebook.com/DashPay/ | |
| Blog | https://www.dash.org/news/ |
Creating a Dash Wallet
After purchasing Dash, the coin would definitely be kept in a wallet. In this section, I will be showing you how to create a wallet. There are several wallets available to keep DASH after purchase and I will be going through how to create one. The wallet range from Desktop wallets, Mobile Wallets, Text (SMS) Wallets, Web Wallets, Paper Wallets, Hardware wallets, and extension wallets. In this case, I will be creating a desktop wallet, and to do this, I will visit https://www.dash.org/ and click on view all apps.
On the downloads page, click on "download for windows" where you will be taken to the desktop wallet section.
Select a wallet of your choice, which for me in this case is the Dash Core Wallet. To download the wallet, I will click on the Download Installer.
After clicking on the downloaded installer, the option to save appears, and I clicked on "save file".
When the setup file is downloaded, I will launch it so the wallet will be installed on my computer.
To install the setup, click on the "next" button.
Choose the location where the wallet application would be saved. In most cases, it is placed in a default location. Click on the "Next" button to get to the next step.
The page to choose start menu folder appears and most times, this is saved by default. Click on the "install" button.
The wallet starts to install.
Setup is completed. Click on the "finish" button.
At the launch of the wallet, a location to save data is requested, i will be using the default setting, after which I will click on "OK"
The wallet loads to open.
The wallet appearance setup is the next step, I will be using the default setup and will click on "save" to save my option.
A pop-up with warnings about not seeing recent transactions since the wallet is yet to synchronize completely. Click on the "hide" button.
After clicking on the "hide" button, the wallet appears.
The wallet is yet to sync. After syncing, it will work perfectly. The next step is to back up the wallet. To back up the wallet, click on file, then, backup wallet.
Save the backup at a location of your choice on your computer.
Reason for choosing DASH
Dash is one of the early cryptocurrencies to be launched and the earliest privacy coin. It is ranked among the top 100 coins based on market capitalization and among the top privacy coin to be referred to anyone who wants to get privacy coins.
Compared to other projects, DASH is very well organized and all data needed to know about the project and the coin is available to the public. The project is on a continuous improvement spree, as there is always a new product to be launched. Currently, the DASH Pay wallet is about to be launched.
Advantages and Disadvantages of DASH
Advantages
- Dash is fast compared to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin
- Privacy is beyond using public addresses but rather transactions can be hidden thereby increasing anonymity.
- It is self-sustainable as it funds its infrastructure with 10% of the rewards from mining.
- It is Secured.
- Dash can be sent to anyone in the world
Disadvantages
- Dash PrivateSend feature can be used for illicit transactions including laundering of money.
- Dash is believed to be having a shaky decentralized system as it is believed that the Masternode is being run by a few people with money.
Conclusion
Blockchain brought decentralization in a public ledger, privacy coin brought innovation with anonymity on the blockchain. Dash although not widely known by everyone, it is used in so many countries by merchants and consumers. Dash in the near future will be a coin with more usage and its price would have skyrocketed as a result of more products compared to what it is today.
Thanks for reading through my post.
@gbenga