Privacy coins

Privacy coins are special cryptocurrencies that hides informations about the users transactions, Wallet balance and address. Privacy coins allows anonymity of users.
Bitcoin and altcoins was introduced to replaced the fiat currency just like the fiat currency replaced the barter system but bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies didn't ensure the anonymity and privacy of it users as the transactions and identities of users are made available online and third party can access this details and also track where the transaction came from and it destination. To solve the privacy issue, privacy coin was introduced and it encrypts users transactions thereby keeping the details from public. Examples of privacy coins are ; Moreno, zcash, horizen, etc. The image below is the list of top privacy coins, their market capitalization, trading volume and price.

Dash

Dash is a short name for digital cash and it a is well known digital currency that can be used for payment and also enables quicker transactions, low transactions cost, easy access and privacy of all users.
Dash was developed in 2014 by Evan duffield and was referred to as Xcoin but it later changed to darkcoin which affects it acceptability as people view it as a cryptocurrency that is used to perform illegal transactions so this made them change the name again to DASH.

Dash also uses the blockchain technology that bitcoin uses but the difference is that dash emphasize on privacy of transactions and also dash performs faster transaction than bitcoin. All this are achievable for dash through the use of masternodes. Masternodes are the unique servers that allows dash to offer some features like private send and instant send.

Private send is the privacy of transactions performed on the dash network, the identities of receiver and sender won't be revealed so it will be impossible to trace the transaction to any user. This is one of the solution dash provided to the problem of bitcoin.

Instant send makes transaction to be quickly confirmed by the masternodes and this improves the scalability of the dash as more transactions can be completed within seconds unlike bitcoin that takes several minutes to confirm transactions although a little cost is attached to this instant send.

The masternodes also helps in improving the security and management of the dash network and currently there are 4512 masternodes on dash network. Dash uses the X11 algorithm that is, the different 11 hash functions to mine it coins and when it was first launched 1.9 million coins were mined but there was a bug cause dash was forked from litecoin, later on the network was able to detect and fix the bug and allowed the holders of the 1.9 million coins to keep their coin and they mined more coin which puts the total dash in circulation to 7.4 million. To ensure scarcity of the coin, the developers put a maximum on the total number of coins that will be mined which is 18 million.

Dash coin as witnessed a lot of up and downs as the price is volatile just like other bitcoin, in 2014 when it was launched it was sold at 7 cents, in 2015 it moved higher to $4, 2016 it changed to $10, 2017 it witness a massive growth as the price increased to $570, while in the mid 2018, it begins to witness the down moments as the price fell to $124 and this fall continues till 2019 cause it was sold for $60, in 2020 it started rising slowly again and it was traded for $85 while in 2021 it is was first traded at $289 but as at 31 may 2021, the price is $184. While the market capitalization is $1.88 billion and 58th position according to cryptocurrency with large market cap.

Dash as a lot of developers who are working to improve the network and the dash cryptocurrency also the network Is self funding as 10% of it mining reward goes back to the network and it is used for the improvement of the network. Dash network decisions are made in democratic manner as all participant can give their opinions for the growth and development of the network also they provide 24/7 customer support for users.

Dash is a good cryptocurrency to invest your money into as the cryptocurrency is currently undervalued and has the tendency to increase alot than it old position in 2018.

Question 2

It is very easy to create a dash wallet, let use the binance exchange and the trust wallet as a demonstration on how to create a dash wallets.

Binance

You'll open your binance app on your mobile phone or pc.

You then click on the part I circled in the image above which is the wallet,

You then click on deposit next which will show the list of cryptocurrency on binance then you search for dash and click on it, your dash wallet address will show which will you will copy and send to the site or person you want to buy your dash coin from.

Trust wallet.

Open your trust wallet application, then click on the top right corner of the page

This will show the list of coins on trust wallet and then you search for dash.

After seeing dash, you click on it and the image below will appear then you click on receive next which will show your dash wallet address.

We can see how fast and easy to set up a dash wallet address on the binance and trust wallet network.

Question 3

Advantages of dash

The dash coin founder evan duffield said he studied how bitcoin operates and saw some irregularities associated with it like slow transactions, high cost and the absence of privacy so to resolve these issues he developed dash and this cryptocurrency has been very useful and some of the reason why people prefer it are :

High speed and privacy: the major reason for creating dash is to solve the issues of the first cryptocurrency which is bitcoin and part is speed and privacy, dash enables quicker transactions confirmations as transactions can be processed within 2.5 minutes unlike bitcoin that takes 10 minutes but using instant send of the dash network, transactions will be completed within seconds and this improves the acceptability of the cryptocurrency by organization also the identities of transactionary parties are kept private from the public and it is impossible to track transactions.

Cheaper transaction: dash transaction fee is much more cheaper, the average transaction fee is between 2 to 3 cents which is very cheaper to bitcoin that charges $3 to $5.

The dash network is dedicated to the improvement of it network and cryptocurrency so they dedicate alot of money into the development of the network, 10 % of the treasury is for the development and they also take participant opinion into consideration regarding ways to improve the efficiency of the network.

Despite this advantages, there are some drawbacks associated with dash and this is seriously affecting the acceptability and growth of the network some these drawbacks are:

Dash network is not truly decentralized as claimed, decentralization is very important in cryptocurrency as many people should be involved in the verification and validation process and also in making decision but for dash the network is not truly decentralized as the masternodes is run mostly by the development team of the network and also only three group in the organization are responsible for making key decision in the network so therefore the decentralization is not truly real.

Dash network narrows it purpose to be used as a digital currency only, it does not provide any smart contract functionality. The limit to transactionary purpose is affecting the growth as other cryptocurrencies are enabling smart contract and other features which is helping their development and market value.

The privacy also have some shortcomings, the network uses mixing to ensure privacy of users but the privacy is only limited to general public as the masternodes can still trace transactions to a particular participant so they privacy is not so guaranteed as proclaimed.

Conclusion

Most people view privacy coins as an Avenue to get involved into shady activities like money laundering, embezzlement and financing terrorism, etc because the data of users are hidden and no third part can get access to it. This is wrong as privacy coin are actually made to make transactions private so third party won't be able to get information about people transacting.

Dash coin is one of the top privacy coin which has alot of potential to be one of the top 5 cryptocurrencies in the world due to some features it offers like private send, instant send, it security and also the constant improvement of it network but there are some shortcomings that need to be improved on.
For anyone willing to invest in cryptocurrency, dash is one of the advisable cryptocurrency to invest in right now because it price is cheaper and will rise again soon.

Thank you @levycore for the lesson and @steemcurator02