Dash (cryptocurrency)
Dash (formerly known as XCoin) is an open source cryptocurrency. It is an altcoin that was forked from the Bitcoin protocol. It is also a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) run by a subset of its users, which are called "masternodes".


== History ==
The currency was launched in January 2014 as "Xcoin" by Evan Duffield, as a fork of the Bitcoin protocol. It is an altcoin and in its early days it was subject to pump and dump speculation. It was rebranded as Darkcoin, which received press for being used in dark net markets. In March 2015, it rebranded again with the name Dash as a portmanteau of 'digital cash'. As of August 2016, Dash is no longer used in any major dark net markets worth noting.In early 2017 Duffield, who lived in the Phoenix area, and some other people working on Dash took space in a business incubator at Arizona State University. The Dash DAO later funded a blockchain research lab at ASU.As of April 2018, Dash's market capitalization was around $4.3 billion and it was one of the top 12 cryptocurrencies.As of February 2019, Dash was the most popular cryptocurrency in Venezuela according to Der Spiegel.In October 2022 Dash had a valued market capitalization of 450 million USD.


== Overview ==
The main differences between Dash and Bitcoin are as follows:

InstantSend mechanism, which is applied to all transactions by default, ensures that all transactions are confirmed in less than 2 seconds.
Dash is protected from double-spending due to ChainLocks technology, which makes consensus unambiguous and unreviewable, allowing transactions to be considered fully confirmed after just one block (creating one block takes ~2.5 minutes), even if for some reason InstantSend is inactive, a transaction in Dash can still be finally confirmed extremely quickly.
The user can utilize an increased level of transaction privacy due to the inbuilt optional CoinJoin feature.
Dash uses a combination of several cryptographic algorithms rather than just one.
Dash mining requires less energy.
Decisions on the further development of the system are not made by individual programmers, but by all members of the Dash network through a Decentralized Governance mechanism.
In addition to the mining mechanism, Dash uses masternodes, which provides both faster transaction confirmation and increased transaction privacy.


== Decentralized governance ==
Decisions on changes to Dash are made by general voting among the owners of masternodes and evonodes within the Dash DAO. Anyone can submit a Dash-related project for public discussion (submitting a project for voting costs 1 Dash).
This is how the decision to increase the block size from 1 MB to 2 MB was made. The decision-making process took less than a day.In addition to making key and important decisions about the further development of the Dash blockchain, projects that want to receive funding can be put to a vote. As of early 2024, the Dash DAO treasury budget that can be allocated within 1 cycle (~30 days) is 8,528 Dash.


== Dash Emission ==
Dash, like Bitcoin, has a block reward. The issuance of Dash is algorithmically limited - the reward per block decreases by ~7.14% every 210240 blocks, thus the maximum number of Dash in circulation is less than the maximum number of Bitcoins. The block time of Dash is 2.5 minutes, which means that on average, a decrease occurs every 365 days.
The final total emission is between 17.74 and 18.92 million Dash.
The variation arises because it is unknown how much of the 20% block reward reserved for budget proposals will actually be created and allocated, for it depends on future votes within the Dash DAO.After about 192 years, less than 1 Dash will have been created in a full year. After 2209, only 14 new Dash will be created, and in 2477, generation will cease completely.


== X11 - Hashing algorithm ==
Instead of using the SHA-256 or scrypt algorithm, Dash uses 11 different hash algorithms in sequence to prove work completion.X11 is a system of hashing algorithms that uses a chain of 11 algorithms like Cryptographic hash function to prove work. The X11 algorithm was proposed by Evan Duffield, the chief developer of Dash, to make it more difficult to use specialized mining hardware.
For sequential hashing, last generation CPUs on average give the same performance as GPUs. Running this algorithm on GPUs requires about 30% less electrical power compared to the `scrypt' algorithm and 30% to 50% less resources for heat dissipation. This significantly reduces costs for miners and extends the resources of computer hardware.


== Dark Gravity Wave (DGW) ==
Dark Gravity Wave (DGW) is a mining complexity adjustment algorithm designed to circumvent the flaws in Kimoto's Gravity Well algorithm. It uses a repeated and simple moving average to smoothly adjust the difficulty, which is recalculated for each block. The reward per block does not change strictly with block number, but instead uses a formula based on Moore's Law: 222222222/((Difficulty+2600)/9)2 


== InstantSend ==
«InstantSend» — is a service for instant transactions. In this system, inputs are blocked only for a specific transaction verified by a consensus mechanism in the masternode network. Conflicting transactions are blocked and rejected. If consensus cannot be reached, the transaction is validated using the standard block validation mechanism. InstantSend solves the double spending problem without the long confirmation delay, which occurs in other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.


== Protection from 51% attack ==
The Dash Core 0.14.0 release introduced protection against double spending («51% attack») by implementing ChainLocks based on LLMQs (Long Living Masternode Quorums).


== Masternodes ==
Masternodes are special nodes (servers) of the network, which ensure the operation of CoinJoin and InstantSend mechanisms. Masternodes perform standard node functions like hosting a copy of the blockchain, relaying messages, and validating transactions on the network, and in addition act as shareholders, voting on proposals for improving Dash's ecosystem. Masternodes are managed by a community of volunteers without a single centralized governing body. Each time a user intends to use CoinJoin, he or she specifies the number of rounds of mixing (usually two to eight, but more are possible), which greatly increases the degree of anonymity. Next, randomly selected masternodes perform the coin shuffling. The combination of several random independent masternodes increases the assurance that no one has complete information about all inputs and outputs in the transaction process.

In order to avoid a scenario where multiple masternodes on the network are managed by an attacker who wants to expose anonymous transactions, a deterrent is applied: each masternode that connects to the network requires a 1000 Dash collateral. In order to incentivize volunteers to create and manage masternodes, they are rewarded for their work with 60% of the emission or 75% of the miner's reward per created block .


=== Evolutional masternodes (Evonodes) ===
Evonodes — This is a subset of masternodes that, unlike other nodes, will support not only the operation of the core (payment) Dash blockchain, but also the operation of the Dash platform. An evonode is a lot like a regular masternode with the following differences:


== CoinJoin ==
Dash CoinJoin (formerly known as PrivateSend) — is an optional payment mixing function based on the CoinJoin method. Subsequently, the pre-mixing method was improved and integrated into the client programme.
The current system implementation increases the anonymity of transactions by combining multiple inputs from different users into a single transaction with multiple outputs. This hides the flow of funds and limits the ability to directly trace transactions, but does not guarantee their complete anonymity. A hierarchical list mechanism (based on inputs and outputs) has been proposed to track such transactions, but no practical evidence has been presented to show that such analyses are possible.

Dash has optional privacy and it is incorrect to think of it as an anonymous coin, its overall level of privacy is comparable to bitcoin, as noted on the official Dash Twitter feed on 1 January 2021.CoinJoin mixing involves a number of steps:

Pre-denomination - input transactions are split into the same denominations: 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1, and 10 Dash, which prevents tracking by specific amounts.
The wallet sends a request to the masternode network to mix coins, once the network receives 2 more requests from other people to mix a similar amount, a round of mixing begins.
The user can choose from 2 to 16 rounds of mixing, more rounds means more privacy
Each denomination of coins, goes through its own rounds
Coins do not leave the user's wallet, i.e. mixing in Dash is non-custodial
Only matching denomination pieces are mixed. For each round of denomination mixing, a new mixing masternode is selected
The mixing time depends on the size of the amount to be mixed and the number of rounds
After successful mixing, the coins continue to be stored at new anonymous addresses in the wallet and can be sent via the "CoinJoin" tab. To be able to send urgently without waiting for mixing, it is possible to perform the mixing procedure in advance, but it is acceptable only for cases when the payment amount is known in advance or it can be formed from standard denominations.


== Block reward allocation ==
Dash was designed to allow transactions quickly and to have a swift governance structure in order to overcome shortfalls in Bitcoin. Like most cryptocurrencies, Dash has no centralized management - issuance occurs by mining. Unlike bitcoin, which allocates 100% of the block reward to miners, Dash retains a portion of the block reward for use in the decentralized budget system (Part of Dash DAO). During one cycle, namely ~30 days, miners mine blocks with a reduced reward of 80% of the target size, and then once a month a superblock is mined, which generates the amount of Dash needed to fund Dash DAO-approved proposals. In Dash, masternodes and evonodes receive 60% of the target reward size, while miners receive 20%. The superblock size is limited to 20% of the target size of block rewards mined per cycle.


== References ==


== External links ==

Official website 
Official Discord server
Official Telegram group