Dash (cryptocurrency)

Dash 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. It was previously known as Xcoin and Darkcoin.

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.

, Dash's market capitalization was around $4.3 billion and it was one of the top 12 cryptocurrencies.

, Dash was the most popular cryptocurrency in Venezuela according to Der Spiegel. In Venezuela, it was often used alongside Bitcoin and Petro, with Petro basing much of its technology from Dash. On 1 October 2018, Petro switched to an X11 algorithm-based design, which was copied from Dash.

Design
Dash was designed to allow transactions quickly and to have a swift governance structure in order to overcome shortfalls in Bitcoin.

Governance is handled through a form of decentralized autonomous organization in which decisions are made via a blockchain. The system includes standard nodes and miners.

The system's decentralization has been criticized due to a mishap, which allowed too many coins to be distributed at release. This concentrated the wealth in a small group, giving them disproportionate power in decisions over the currency’s future.

As of 2018, coins were mined using a proof of work algorithm with a hash function called "X11", with eleven rounds of hashing, and the average time to mine a coin was around two and a half minutes.