Review on Dash by Nate Mielnik

Name: Dash
Item: Dash
Rating: 5

February 01, 2018

Overall, I think DASH has demonstrated it's role as a thought leader, and I…

Overall, I think DASH has demonstrated it's role as a thought leader, and I think its model for a positive-feedback loop guiding innovation and self-improvement means we should expect to see even more big and interesting things coming from the project.  There have been so many succesful proposals to the platform that there's a better chance of more ideas coming than there is of the ideas just stopping suddenly.  Because of its ability to innovate, there is no ceiling for what DASH can evolve into, even if it's not the #1 candidate for a currency at the current moment.
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Pros

DASH is one of the biggest innovators in the blockchain space and has brought some powerful ideas to the table. They remain one of the most significant players in the space of ensuring customer privacy and fast transaction speeds as an alternative currency to Bitcoin. Beyond their longevity in the space, some of their biggest innovations and contribution to the idea space include: 1. Masternodes - One of the first projects to introduce the idea of a set of nodes that hold a certain amount of the currency and provide an extra layer of optional functionality beyond the normal transaction processing from proof of work miners. 2. Private & Instant Transactions - Thanks to the masternode layer, they can add features like private transactions by mixing together groups of coins to prevent tracking exactly how transactions occured, or allowing the masternode to attempt to get fast consensus on instant transactions, but falling back to proof of work miners for conflicts. 3. DGBB - By providing a system for users to propose improvements to the platform and get rewarded, DASH created a self-sustaining system of constant evolution and innovation. Users can propose changes, masternodes can then vote on those changes, and based on the percentage of yes votes, the proposals can get a percentage of the fund set aside from every transaction to pay for them to build the new feature/concept. This makes the platform better, attracting more users, and creating more money for new features and additions. 4. Easy Innovation - Because of the DGBB, there is a plethora of helpful documentation, steps for onboarding, instructional videos walking you through the process...it's incredibly easy to contribute to DASH and thus get rewarded for those contributions.

Cons

DASH had a rocky beginning, as the distribution of the pre-mine went very poorly. However, out of that controversy arose a series of community guided decisions and the beginnings of a revolutionary platform. DASH's system for making transactions private is not as technically advanced as those like Monero, Verge, ZCash, PIVX, NAV, or other privacy-focused projects. The "mixing" approach is a bit shakey, and still make it possible for some sort of information to be inferred by the visible parts of transactions.