Evan Duffield Explains Dash Technology and Announces Evolution

In this video Evan Duffield Explains Dash Technology and Announces Evolution of Dash 

And in this video Evan Duffield Takes Questions from the Audience about Dash

DASH – The First Decentralized Autonomous Organization?

DASH has released a decentralized voting and fund allocation mechanism that could bypass the internal tensions of Bitcoin and its dramatic block size debate.

Who will decide?

A great deal of attention has been going to Bitcoin's blocksize debate, which includes fundamental aspects of how Core Development is funded, distributed, and by whom. While Bitcoin is going through the computer science equivalent of group therapy, DASH, the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has released a Decentralized Governance by Blockchain System while taking notes from Bitcoin's internal turmoil, in an attempt to completely bypass it.

A few of the problems with decentralized and open source projects are development planning, funding and fund management. Mike Hearn and Gavin Andresen have argued that Bitcoin needs a benevolent dictator, a notion that enough people have recoiled from as evidenced by the low popularity of Bitcoin XT.

The notion nevertheless highlights the need for a swift and reliable decision making process. Consensus is great for many things, but fast decision making is not usually one of them.

The most common approach to this problem is the creation of not-for-profit foundations tasked with maintaining the core protocol and promoting the project at hand. However, as demonstrated by the controversies involving the Bitcoin Foundation, these are not connected to the users and community in any meaningful way.

For example, three of Bitcoin's core developers are now funded by the MIT's Media Lab, Digital Currency Initiative, an arm of MIT Labs, lead by White House advisor, Brian Forde. His proud connections with the executive branch are bound to set off some people's alarm bells – to put it nicely.

Granted, funding of Bitcoin Core is already decentralized, according to Jeff Garzik, who claims that it is “spread across several companies/entities.” However, this still relies on human organizations and processes that are susceptible to censorship, human error, and back room deals, which is far from ideal. But what must be noted is that this is now avoidable.

DASH: the game & the players

DASH's new Decentralized Governance by Blockchain (DGB) was clearly designed with this problem in mind. But to get an idea of how it works, let’s take a quick look at DASH's network set up, since it does has some notable differences compared to Bitcoin.

DGB could be thought of as a mathematically enforceable and fully transparent democratic process. It is a blockchain hosted voting system with decentralized fund management built in.

DASH is comprised of three types of 'nodes' - software clients with specific roles and responsibilities to the network.

The first are miners, who provide proof-of-work security to the cryptocurrency in a similar fashion to Bitcoin, though instead using X11, an algorithm designed and believed to be ASIC resistant. Miners provide computing power in exchange for a regular payment from the network to the tune of 40% of the block rewards.

The second are full node wallets, which host the accounting ledger (blockchain) allowing users to access the network and use the currency.

And the third and most innovative element of DASH are its “Masternodes.” These are regular full nodes that anyone can run, but with the difference that they host a 1,000 DASH collateral, equivalent to roughly US$2,500 at current rates (works with cold storage). The collateral earns hosts the right to provide services to DASH users at a profit – 45% of block rewards. Services such as DarkSend — the feature that brought DASH to fame — as well as Instant Transactions, the controversial 4 second transaction locking feature.

The 1,000 DASH collateral is intended as a security mechanism, making it prohibitively expensive to cheat the system by attempting a 51% attack.

There are currently over 3,000 Masternodes live, roughly half of the amount of active full nodes of the much older Bitcoin network.

Decentralized Governance by Blockchain

DGB is built on top of this network of Masternodes. It allows anyone to propose changes or upgrades to the currency. Initiatives the community deems necessary, be it legal, marketing or otherwise, can also be submitted to the network directly through the blockchain, while 15% of the block rewards go towards funding elected proposals.

Proposals are then voted on by the community on a monthly basis. Masternode hosts are the only parties with a right to vote on these. Their choices are Yea, Nay, or Abstain.

Proposals must have at-least 10% more Yea votes then Nay and must also compete with other submissions for a grand prize of roughly 8,000 DASH a month, or today's US$19,000.00 dollar equivalent.

If MN Hosts take back their collateral, i.e. disconnect from the network, their vote is disabled until they return.

Decentralized Autonomous Organization

One possible problem this system might run into might be voter apathy. What is the incentive for Masternodes to vote? It could be argued that since DASH is effectively at the mercy of other voters now, then that will be enough for them to be alert and willing to participate. However, this remains to be seen.

The cost of submitting a proposal is 5 DASH, but these units are destroyed, instead of serving as an incentive to do something else, like votes, which is similar to how Augur's wisdom of the crowd system works.

So just how well this system will work remains to be seen. If successful, it could potentially make decisions like the block size debate much more efficient and provide a unified means of communication on the blockchain itself.

The fact that DASH is officially funded by the blockchain itself — the value of its units supported by a democratic process of investment election — may mean that DASH is a kind of self-propagating and living organism. Or at the very least, a clear cut example of the mythical and up until now imaginary, Decentralized Autonomous Organization.

How does the decentralized masternode payment system work?

By Evan Duffield

Each time a block is generated on the network, there is a voting process that begins which all masternodes take part in. All masternodes begin the process by deterministically figuring out if they're part of the sub-quorum for the next block that needs to be voted on. Sub-quorums within the network are 10 masternodes and randomly pick masternodes for each block (in a deterministic, tamper proof way). 

Next if a masternode is selected it goes through the  following very complex process to pick the winner. First it will look at every masternode on the network and get the last paid time, according to the masternode list. "LastPaid" according to this process means a node has at least 2 votes for a given block. Notice there are ten votes total, so it's actually possible for up to 5 nodes to be flagged as "Paid" from a given block. This allows the network to quickly solve disagreements about the order in which nodes should get paid, then establish a permanent payment cycle. However, the downside is, it's possible to have a payment skipped when the cycle is getting established. 

Second, the masternodes are then added to a list by last paid, then 10% of that list that was paid the furthest in the past is eligible for payment each block. At this point, the masternode with the highest score (deterministically again) is the one that nodes will vote for. This means there's really no order of payment each block, each masternode will simply remain in this winning queue until it randomly gets picked. Currently on average it would take 4.68 days to get into the eligible queue, then you have a 1 in 300 chance of being selected each block. This means on average the nodes should stay eligible for 3/4 a day before finally getting paid, but that could actually take longer if unlucky. 

To determine if you were skipped you can do a "masternode winners 2000 | grep XAddr" from a linux console to find every time you were seen in the list. If you see >=2 votes and are not the winner, then you were super unlucky. Otherwise if you're in the list and it's going past 6 days, it would be the later situation, where you're eligible and just temporarily unlucky. There's also a third option, if you issue a "masternode start" from the cold node, you will reset your queue position.

When a miner pays a masternode, it will select the entry with the highest votes from the network. That's also the node that will get enforced for payment. This was quite difficult to write, but has worked great (although is somewhat resource intensive).

Source: Bitcointalk

Dash Delivers Decentralized Governance System as “Superblocks” Pass Through Blockchain

The project team behind Dash, the privacy-centric cryptocurrency, has successfully passed three “superblocks” of data through its blockchain.

Evan Duffield, Dash’s leader developer, explain the significance of superblocks to AllCoinsNews:

Every month a few superblocks are created to reflect the current budget that has been determined by the Masternode network. These blocks have much larger coinbase payouts then normal blocks, thus we call them “superblocks”. This is quite significant because this is the first ever decentralized governance and budget method ever implemented.

The superblocks were created to work on the payment side of Dash’s decentralised voting proposals. If a proposal is voted in and confirmed by the “Masternodes” – the network constituents, a superblock will appear at certain block counts and take care of all payouts automatically as confirmed by the code. This secures the decentralized payment voting process.

Dash started implementing its voting system, known as “Self-sustainable Decentralized Governance by Blockchain”, in June to provide a decentralized governance system for the project’s funding proposals.

Duffield noted:

One of the greatest challenges for a decentralized project like Dash is getting enough funding to do the things we need to do to protect and expand the ecosystem. When it comes to other projects such as Bitcoin, they’ve relied on centralized funding and generous donations, but neither of those is robust enough to actually finance what needs to be done on a project like this. To address this issue, we’ve added a decentralized proposal system where anyone can submit a proposal to the network for a specific amount and purpose, then the masternode network votes on the proposals and decides which to fund for a given period of time.

According to Duffield, the Dash community now has an established method of financing public awareness, website design, core development, legal work and any other core requirements. The budget is 10% of the total amount of DASH coins created, which works out to about $21,600 or $2.50 per DASH per month.

Duffield added:

If we use the money successfully to educate and draw investment, we should see price appreciation, which would allow us to create a “budget snowball” effect. For example, if the price hits $5.00 per coin, we would have an expanded by of $43,200 per month. You can see how powerful this type of system can be for a decentralized project like Dash. We are quite excited at the prospects.

The superblocks created and passed through the blockchain can be viewed in Dash’s block explorer:

*http://explorer.dashpay.io/block/000000000014702a849cddf3145c495086ef5235b8e1a08fbea8e9c17c7d149b
*http://explorer.dashpay.io/block/000000000008ad3b2d5419b8206c02b3ec1abf10bd3039de15ce2e5ce0e13680
*http://explorer.dashpay.io/block/000000000010ac0d276f4c44274274022b82769386f26926d6890903763721a5

One of Dash’s first “Superblocks”

More detail on Dash’s decentralized governance system is available in the project team’s original announcement in April 2015 regarding its proposal to the Dash community.

Funding Proposals for Voting

Formerly known as Xcoin and then Darkcoin, Dash is attempting to improve on Bitcoin by fully anonymizing transactions and making them instantaneous. Dash theoretically accomplishes more privacy through a mixing protocol utilizing a decentralized network of servers called “Masternodes” to avoid the need for trusted third parties that could compromise the integrity of the system.

Source: allcoinsnews.com

Evan Duffield revealed about his solution for 51% attack

He said: "The goal is to make a confirmationless wallet, where all transactions are protected by IX. 51% attacks become much less powerful in that case, they can't really touch IX. That would protect our millions of users we're currently shooting for (valid / non-illegal users btw), which leaves an attacker one option... to buy masternodes to attack Dash. We know how that will go.

We really do have an end-to-end solution to all problems within crypto now. I'm working on a 50+ page whitepaper that details the rest of the solution, I'm quite excited about it   

Here's another one for good measure. We have sub-quorums for super secure tasks, but we could implement full-quorum based actions the masternode network can take as a whole. For example, banning attacking pools from the network, people, countries, etc."

What to Conclude from the XT Fork Proposition

The XT "debate" on bitcoin forums is becoming deafening. On other forums, I have tried to argue a monetary perspective as opposed to a technical one.

Unfortunately, most of the protagonists in the various strands of argument seem to be unaware of what economic objective cryptocurrencies have (creating money). They have all re-invented an objective according to their own particular agenda, and most of those objectives are technical, not economic.

For example:

 • the cryptonote people think hiding the blockchain is the most important priority

 • the monopolist lobby think that consolidation of a one-world crypto is the priority

 • the hardcore miners think that observance of published supply profile is the priority

 • the XT/20Mb block people think that large blocks are the priority

 • the security maniacs think that small blocks are the priority

What do you notice about all these priorities ? - they are all in conflict with one another.

Hiding the blockchain to support privacy is in conflict with keeping the blockchain public to support transparency. Diversifying bitcoin's appeal using sidechains is in conflict with the requirement of optimising monetary fungibility. Increasing blocksize to facilitate network capacity is in conflict with a myriad of things including security, efficiency and client accessibility.

Why are all these priorities in conflict and why is cryptocurrency encountering these problems ?

Because they all have to be reconciled within a logically mono-tiered network. The network functions according to the principles of unity (multiple units of cloned logic that don't help each other in any way other than providing redundancy) as opposed to harmony (multiple units of diverse logic that are complimentary in function).

In the 1950's and 60's, computing science determined unambiguously that functional diversity amongst network peers was far more powerful than "unity" (redundant, mono-tiered logic) and client-server computing was born. This then found its way onto desktops in the eighties in the form of client-server database computing and client-server web computing. 

The problem with that paradigm for decentralised cryptocurrencies is that a 'server' (as in web server or database server) represented a single point of failure and also conflicted with the objective of creating a 'trustless' monetary media.

What Dash has done is migrate the old client-server physical model to a logical one so that the server element can be reproduced redundantly just as the client can, thereby creating a decentralised network exhibiting a logical diversity that no other cryptocurrency has.

I don’t think most people realise the huge significance of this. By definition, there is no server and no client anymore so the network is simply flat and diverse. Despite that, it is still able to operate in an articulated mode with 2 tiers of complimentary logic.

As far as doing an investment appraisal of this characteristic, 2 questions spring to mind:

 • what are the technical implications of a cryptocurrency network with logical diversity over one with no logical diversity?

 • what are the monetary implications of a cryptocurrency network with logical diversity over one with no logical diversity?

These are the 2 questions I've asked myself over the last year, however, never did I get more relevant answers than during the current XT vs Core debate in the Bitcoin forums:

The technical implications are that a logically diversified network can independently optimise technical properties that would otherwise be in conflict with each other. *

The monetary implications are that the electronic monetary token known as 'Dash' can exist as a totally fungible unit which is not dependent (nor derives any of its value from) financial superstructures. **

Cryptocurrencies have arrived at another transition phase right now because the predicted 2015 revaluation hasn’t happened. Bitcoin may well continue to be the “crypto reserve” but it isn’t capable of diversified protocol logic and Dash is. It doesn’t support native coin mixing and Dash does. Its technical priorities are now dictated by the personal egos of 5 developers while Dash’s will be determined by its holders to whom developers will be accountable.

Native coin mixing in a public context is a basic premise of what defines ‘cash’, not just digital cash - any cash. Dash adds all these subtle monetary enhancements without compromising the one thing that made bitcoin work without a trusted counterparty - the public blockchain.

I keep investigating other cryptos and I keep concluding that while they are all creating very interesting solutions, they are not creating money. Bitcoin is (in a confused way) and Dash is (in an organised way).

------------------------------------------------

* - Capacity can be addressed without recourse to blocksize. Confirmation time can be addressed without recourse to blocktime. Governance can be addressed without recourse to developer politics.

** - PORTABILITY and FUNGIBILITY are monetary properties which the Dash network is optimising far and away more than any other electronic monetary token. For PORTABILITY read [bitcoin-protocol compliance and InstantX]. For FUNGIBILITY read [Darksend] which supports anonymity in a public blockchain. Something that no other cryptocurrency does anywhere near to the same extent.

Written by Toknormal

Source: Bitcointalk.org

ICO vs Decentralized Budget system

I think the introduction of projects like Ethereum, Blockstream and many crypto start ups with VC funding makes clear that in order to develop a project long term you need funding.  I think an adaptive system like Dash's decentralized budget system, where funding is voted by an assembly of people on an ongoing basis, without the existence of a central budget under the control of a central authority is far superior than the ICO model for a crypto start-up. 

From experience, investing too much too soon is a very common mistake when building a new project/company. At the beginning you know less about your own business and it takes time to build a vision that you are ready to follow for several years.  That means you normally have to try a few different things before you find your way and are at risk of investing too much on those first 3 years of operation and then having funding issues later on.  

On the other hand,  having no funds at all is a far worse situation to be in as it does not allow you to hire the services of companies and individuals a project needs to reach its development goals and to communicate to the public about the solution.  So is clear that either an ICO or Dash's system is far superior than no funds or relying solely on altruism. 

The advantage I see in Dash's approach is that getting funds on a as needed basis and through a public approval process prevents unnecessary spending, is more transparent and most importantly it allows the project to invest organically and adapt to a changing market environment.  So as the priorities of the market shift you are able to invest in different directions. For example, the market right now is very interested in scalability solutions, Evan is already working on a very cool model for Dash that will be presented when he is ready.  Other important hidden needs may come up in the future that are not visible right now but with an adaptive funding system we will be ready to approach those when they come up.

I think during the fist few years an adaptive decentralized funding system, like Dash's, is superior to getting a large amount of money up-front.  After you reach critical mass and a project has found its niche and is more stable; having a larger centralized budget could be better. But having controls and voted spending at the beginning will give a community driven project like Dash a far greater chance of success. It is not the only factor, you also need true talent and innovation, a hard working community, good timing to market  and good karma, but a sustainable funding model is definitely a very important factor and quite challenging to implement.  So I think after September 5th a whole new paradigm begins for Dash.

By Minotaur26
Source: Bitcointalk.org 

Dash Tutorial - Difference Between Dashd, Dash-cli & Dash-tx

Evan Duffield from DASH on Decentralized Governance & the Bitcoin block size debate

Introduction

On this episode I’ve got an extended interview with Evan Duffield, the inventor of Darkcoin and now the lead developer of DASH, which is the same thing, just rebranded if you missed that.

In it we talk about the block size debate, what really sets the DASH project apart and what the future of crypto currency could look like.

CCN

So I’m on the line with Even Duffield, Hi Even it’s a great pleasure to have you today.

Evan

Hi, it’s great to be here.

CCN

As listeners are probably aware you are the progenitor of Darkcoin, which later became DASH and is one of the leading contenders of the crypto currency scene and I’m kind of interested to know what you did prior to launching Darkcoin.

Evan

Well prior to launching Darkcoin I worked as a software engineer pretty much my whole adult life. I started programming when I was 15 and it’s always been a passion of mine. More recently I’ve been working with companies doing social marketing. I was writing the back end for large web crawlers and basically built the same engine that google uses to rank websites and we were using that to rank fortune 500 and fortune 100 clients. I was using lots of machine learning techniques to have an edge.

I got interested in crypto in mid 2010, started following along and I realised there was an issue with privacy and that’s what lead to the creation of Darkcoin originally.

CCN

Ok, and so Darkcoin, which wasn’t meant to be an nefarious label as far as I’m aware had an existential crises in which you guys said we can’t be Darkcoin anymore and we need a rebrand. I was watching the market at the time and it seemed that the market agreed with you. You didn’t see a mass exodus or a serious tanking of the price. So congratulations on that but how would you say the regular DASH development is going now?

Evan

It’s doing great! We did successfully rebrand the currency, which was a relief. You know Darkcoin was not actually intended to be a nefarious coin. With the name Darkcoin I was originally thinking that the block chain is hidden and that’s all it meant to me but to the Average person it apparently meant crime, which was unfortunate and we had to do something about it and we acted quickly and things are now working out really well with that and so we’re moving on.

The next thing we’ve been really working on behind the scenes is what we’re called the v12 release, which includes the decentralised budgeting and it includes the removal of the reference node which has been a huge issue for DASH and Darkcoin since the very beginning so we’re really excited about both of those projects.

CCN

OK, so tell me about why the reference node needs to go away.

Evan

DASH includes a variety of features which are not included in the Bitcoin project and one of those is anonymity and the anonymity comes from things called masternodes. These masternodes can be run by anyone of the network and they basically run a full node and you can connect to any one of these and you can make transactions that obfuscate the block chain and in return for providing this service and for providing other services to the network like syncing clients and things like that the masternodes are paid part of the block chain reward. To do this originally because it’s really difficult to do it a decentralised way we had one node that co-ordinated who got paid next and that node was called the reference node. We’ve figured out a way to remove that node and still have the same quality of payments.

CCN

I imagine that was a point of contention amongst people to say the reference node could maybe be compromised of something, probably came up a lot.

Evan

Yeah, In the spirit of crypto you don’t want anything centralised and the goal was always to remove it eventually. It was really a temporary solution and we are now at the point where we’re able to remove it, which is great.

CCN

The reason we’re here to talk today is because you have a decentralised governance. Basically a new voting system that enables the masternodes and like you said anyone can become a masternode to vote on important changes in the development process and I guess we may as well not hide it, what we’re talking about here is [a solution to] what bitcoin is facing where it seems like the whole community is paralysed over this question of “can we raise the block limit” and there seems to be equal arguments for and against. DASH now has a simple mechanism to get around that

Evan

There are two aspects to the decentralised governance proposal and one of them is what you alluded to in that masternodes get a yes/no vote on any proposal, so you could create a proposal that DASH should increase the block reward or you could create a proposal to increase the block size… anything really, and you can gage the support of the community in a way that you can’t tamper with and is pretty final.

By utilising this logic we’ve also included what we’re calling the decentralised budgeting. What we’re really trying to solve is the funding mechanism of crypto and there’s been only a couple of ways that it’s been done to this point. One of them is to create a foundation (not for profit). These have been underfunded and in my opinion they’ve done pretty poorly at doing their job.

The masternodes can vote on a proposal and you can think of this as a decentralised Kickstarter and the masternodes are kind of like senators. So there are proposals that come before them and they vote yes or no. These votes are tallied and the proposals with the most support (the most yes votes) will get paid first and the budget will be filled out [with proposals] from the most support to the least support, until it runs out of money and then all of these proposals will be paid directly from the block chain.

CCN

Say I don’t own a masternode but I have a great idea, can I take it to someone with a masternode and they can propose it or can I propose it without a masternode?

Evan

So the whole system is completely decentralised which means it is all done from within the protocol itself so if you have access to a masternode you submit the proposal and the proposal appears on the network and then anyone with a masternode can vote for it [or against it]. We’re going to make available a piece of software [or website] and it’s going to look like a decentralised kickstarter where anyone without a masternode can make an account and submit a proposal. The community can then give feedback and you can see how many votes you have and you can make changes to the proposal based on the feedback until you get enough votes to have it funded.

CCN

You’ve said before that you intend to challenge Bitcoin directly and is this one of the ways you’re doing it by removing the need to have yourself or any directorate and creating a system where the people interested in DASH are able to suggest ideas for the future and the people with the most holdings have to ability to advance DASH?

Evan

The way I see is Bitcoin basically has a monopoly on crypto currently and I don’t think that their strategy of the way they want to run Bitcoin is the only legitimate way to run a crypto and we need more ideas in crypto and I think we need a healthy market of ideas, so I wanted to make DASH and show that there are other ways to do things that work and that work really really well. One of those ways is to leverage the block chain technology and to use this like a decentralised kickstarter and to fund all of these things within the ecosystem to support itself and it’s better than taking grant money to pay developers or getting the money through the foundation and paying developers or anything like that.

CCN

I would say the one thing that the Bitcoin foundation has succeeded at is a centralised place for people to be angry at it. I means in a regulatory sense its been useless, you know it didn’t do anything to stop the bit-licence.

Evan

One of the biggest issues with crypto is that people have a huge incentive to get involved in projects when they’re really young because the crypto itself is very cheap and if you put in some effort you’ll make returns on your investment really easily as we’ve seen with bitcoin and a lot of these other cryptos. The generation after that, the second and third and fourth generation, those peoples only incentive to get aboard is to buy low so they can sell at a higher price but they’re not benefitting themselves by supporting it long term.

CCN

So how is DASH preventing this problem, are you suggesting DASH is going to solve this problem?

Evan

The fact that if you get involved in any crypto, even Bitcoin, currently there’s no financial incentive, like if I was working on the Bitcoin project fulltime, I wouldn’t get paid until I was supported by either grant money or by the foundation, which is almost non-existent right now.

The way that DASH intends to solve this is with the budgeting system. Anyone can get involved at any time within the projects lifecycle and earn money, so if you have an idea for advertising and you had some skill for advertising you can make a proposal, put it towards the community and if they vote yes, suddenly you’re getting paid for the work you’re doing. So it allows anyone to get involved for a lifetime and allows the second and third and fourth and fifth generations to contribute and get something back for their effort.

CNN

There’s a huge debate going on in the bitcoin community which has now got beyond technical now, now it’s really ideological it seems. As somebody with a deep interest in crypto and as a programmer, what do you think is going on and what do you think should happen.

Evan

I see it from both sides and I think the issue is that there’s some merit to both of their arguments. On the one hand if you increase the block size the full nodes suffer because they’re not being incentivised like they are in DASH and that means the people running the full nodes will have to pay for the extra bandwidth and also syncing will take a lot more time and there are other issues of a technical nature. If you don’t increase it and they implement lightening then suddenly you can do most of the transactions off of the chain and you can just commit that as needed later on, which is also another solution and I think I would prefer that solution because it keeps the full nodes happy and it keeps the block chain smaller.

CCN

In the DASH protocol the Masternodes (Full nodes) actually receive part of the mining rewards, is that right?

Evan

Yeah, so in the DASH project if we wanted to increase the block size, the full nodes would actually be compensated for the traffic so we wouldn’t actually lose the full nodes like the Bitcoin project would.

CNN

Suppose somebody was coming to DASH, what would be your biggest advice to them as far as getting involved at this time?

Evan

Anyone can get involved, you just head over to dashtalk.org and check us out or head to the main website dashpay.io and you can help with developing or any of the initiatives, We have about 50 volunteers working on the project at any given time so the more the merrier.

CCN

So what’s next for DASH? You guys continually impress many of us with instant transactions [instantX] and now you have a system that subverts the need for any central authority and a self-funding system… I mean what do you do when you’ve conquered the world 

Evan

The next goal would be to use the budgeting system to advertise and show the world what we have created to try and make that a real competitor to the Bitcoin project and give this space some competition.

The last thing I that want to see is the Bitcoin developers to make some tragic mistake and the whole of crypto is not trusted for the next fifteen years. But if there are two projects at least and one of them is ok and the other one fails then we’re not going to have that situation.

CCN

Thank you and have a great day

Evan

Thank you, Thanks for having me

https://soundcloud.com/cryptocoinsnews/ccn-podcast-10-week-26evan-duffield-from-dash-on-decentralized-governance-the-bitcoin-block-size-debate

Source: Cryptocoinnews.com

Dash Proposes Decentralized, Anonymous and Sustainable Funding Structure

The traditional incentive and funding systems for cryptocurrencies are broken. Right now, they only serve well the early adopters, so we get new coins launched all the time because it doesn't make economical sense to work for established ones. Of course, money is not the only incentive, but it is quite a big one, and it is absolutely necessary to compete with the established system.

Developing a new cryptocurrency not only requires skills and workforce, but it also requires plenty of other resources that are expensive, including servers, tools, bandwidth, communication, among many others.

In the past we've had, broadly, three models to fund projects:

1. Donation based: This model relies on people donating, directly or via platforms, to the development of the coin. It may work while the early adopters are still around, as there is a clear incentive to donate: they will profit hugely from their big stash if the coin gets big. However, this model cracks the minute that the distribution improves and wealth is less concentrated. The average coin holder is not so eager to donate and let the free rider benefit.

It also has problems to attract top talent because it is really difficult to get enough funds for that. Because of this, most devs are also early adopters or investors.

2. Prefunded: This one relies on people putting money towards development, before the project starts. It usually takes the form of some kind of pre-sale. This system has many problems and bad reputation because it has been repeatedly abused. It encourages hyping and over promising.

Also, it is impossible to know accurately what the needs will be before even launching. Finally, it is not sustainable because there is no solution for the time the funds are spent.

3. Privately backed: We have recently seen a rise in privately backed entities that have more resources than the other projects. In the near future, it is likely that this model will become more common as big companies want to enter into the space.

The first two models are usually centralized, but that can be graduated with distributed decision systems or structures. The third one is fully centralized and that makes it more vulnerable to regulation, as well as third party pressures.

The more centralized the model, the more dependent the developers are on specific people or entities to fund the project, and the less prone they will be to make radical decisions and to really innovate. Their freedom to code is at risk without new models.

Dash Network

Dash has come up with another model that is sustainable, decentralized and may let them compete with the well-funded projects. To explain this, let's first make a quick detour into the architecture of the Dash network.

Most coins only reward the miners for the maintenance of the ledger, leaving nothing for the full nodes that also do important tasks for the network. Dash, in contrast, shares the block reward between the miners and the Masternodes, which is its take on the classical full nodes.

Along with being incentivizing the network is healthy with around 2,400 Masternodes at the time being and it can ask these nodes to do even more things for the coin. In Dash's case, nodes take care of the anonymization of coins and of transaction validation for instant confirmations.

While miners might be reluctant to share their reward, they can also feel like being part of a wider system in which they valuably contribute. In this sense, Masternodes are what make Dash different and innovative.

There is also a second specificity that makes this system noteworthy. The nodes need to prove they control a certain amount of coins (1,000 DASH). Nodes can spend them at any time, but if they do, the Masternode will stop working. Thanks to this feature, no rogue party can try to subvert the network by starting a huge number of nodes to damage Dash: the cost would be too high.

Dash Funding Proposal

Dash wants to use part of the block reward to fund development initiatives and give control of those funds to the Masternode network as a group.

They already have a voting system in the protocol that Masternodes can use to manage everything. Those funds will be sent to an escrow account. Then anyone can submit development/promotion proposals with a budget to fund them, and the Masternodes will vote.

Approved proposals will be funded directly from the blockchain with those reserved funds. If there is an excess of funds, they will not get spent until there are projects approved.

Those proposals can be anything: paying a developer a monthly salary, hiring a company to work on a specific integration ... someone could even propose to keep funds in a savings account with certain conditions. All proposals will be submitted to a website and the community at large will be able to discuss them. If the promoter of a proposal doesn't deliver on his promises after it is approved, the Masternodes can change their vote and he would stop receiving funds.

The system is sustainable because there are new funds in each block. It is also decentralized because nobody can really control it and anyone can take part if they buy coins. Finally, it is as transparent as it gets. Everything is public and happens in the blockchain

This idea takes the blockchain to a new level: decentralized anonymous voting build into the network to sustain the network.

Dash has published this proposal to the Dash community to get feedback. You can follow the discussion at Dashtalk.org.

Disclaimer: The author, Fernando Gutierrez, is the Vice-Chairman of the Dash Foundation. 

Source: Cointelegraph.com

EVAN DUFFIELD OF DASH (DARKCOIN): DASH WILL POSITION ITSELF AS A DIRECT COMPETITOR TO BITCOIN

Since early in 2013, Darkcoin has been a permanent fixture in the daily digital currency news. From Darkcoin's initial meteoric rise, quickly reaching a USD value of $15, to the level of security and innovation it provides for privacy seekers, to the failures and triumphs of the "Masternode Network", Darkoin has been almost as interesting and intriguing as Bitcoin itself. And 2015 is shaping up to be a year of rebirth for Darkcoin, which is now Dash. We discuss the state of Dash, and the digital currency industry, with core developer Evan Duffield here on CCN.

Interview with core developer Evan Duffield

You recently made some sweeping brand changes, going from Darkcoin to Dash. Can you tell us about your strategy behind that? Is Dashcoin the correct term, or just Dash?

The goal of this project has always been to try and create a technology as similar to digital cash as possible. We decided to change the name to Dash because we believe it better represents our new vision, to create a medium of exchange that is both private and instant for the masses. Dashcoin is a separate project though; we’d prefer to be known simply as Dash.

For readers who might be somewhat new to digital currency, what separates Dash from Bitcoin, if you can briefly go over two or three key differences.

Dash is built on the same technology that made Bitcoin successful. In addition, it employs a secondary network known as the Masternode Network. Master Nodes are a new concept in digital currency, where users are incentivized to run full nodes and provide extra services to the network such as Darksend and InstantX. Put simply, they allow us to add features to Dash that are impossible in Bitcoin.

Over the last year, there has been quite a serious issue with exchange risk in the digital currency industry. Either exchanges are getting hacked and losing currency or closing altogether with user's funds inside. What would you do to stop this scourge from turning people off to digital currency, considering the potential investment unsafe? What do you suggest for the digital currency industry as a whole when it comes to managing exchange risk? Insurance? Oversight? Regulation?

It's a shame that many new users get burned this way, but I don’t believe that regulation or insurance is the answer. There're a few different routes to fixing this issue; first we have plans to add 2-factor authentication to the reference client. With this implemented, even exchanges could use the 2-factor authentication on their cold/hot wallets, limiting their exposure to theft.

Having heard you speak on Bitcoin before, you seem very sure you have a better currency than Bitcoin itself and seem dedicated to competing more directly with Bitcoin. Is that your goal? To knock Bitcoin off of the mountain top, per se?

Eventually, I believe Dash will position itself as a direct competitor to Bitcoin. In the meantime, Bitcoin enjoys a monopoly more or less on the space, which is unhealthy. For example, if the only crypto-currency in use is Bitcoin and it has an issue, the entire crypto-economy would be affected, burning the vast majority of it’s users. However, if there are 5 or 10 crypto-currencies in common use, it will reduce the systemic risk on the sector as a whole and make it safer for everyone.

What metrics do you use to judge the success of your work? What do you monitor daily or weekly to monitor your progress in the market? Is US Dollar value important to you and your currency?

I try to avoid looking at the price too often, I think it's mostly noise unless you're looking at longer term charts that look very healthy. The statistics that I find the most informative are website traffic statistics, including which countries are interested in Dash (China and Russia are the biggest sources currently). Also the amount of core team members that are active on a day-to-day basis.

What is one feature that Dash maintains that would surprise people? Some trick that Dash can do that even seasoned digital investors may not know about?

There's a really interesting way to pay people using the Masternode system and donation feature. Say you want to settle a 20DASH debt, youcan configure your node, which receives payments periodically for the services it does for the network, to tell the network to pay that personinstead of yourself. The money is effectively being created by the blockchain and sent directly to them, instead of you. 

Any new features you're looking to add in 2015 that you can reveal to our audience. What can we look forward to in the short-term from Dash?

Can we do another article about this? I have something, it’s giant and could be a standalone article if you're interested. It could solve the lack offunds for development in a completely decentralized way, while involving the main stakeholders in the decisions. 

Teaser received. Any advice for new digital currency investors, besides investing in Dash? What do you tell people about getting into digital currency when you first meet someone new to the concept? What do you tell your friends and family when they ask about getting started?

Crypto-currency is still new and dangerous. It is still "The Wild West" right now, and you've got to be very careful about who you trust. Don't invest more than you can afford to lose. And do lots of research. Also, don't store coins in exchanges.

Evander Smart: That's what Andreas told me last week. Do not use exchanges as wallets. Do your trade and remove your funds expeditiously. Hopefully, people are heeding the advice of industry experts.

Final question: Five years from now, where will Dash be in 2020?

By 2020, we should have a completely working Masternode system and 100% decentralization. Also mobile wallets for sending and receiving money instantly, in a secure way, without having to wait for block chain confirmation. With all of this technology implemented, the goal is to get many small businesses to take Dash directly through mobile devices. This allows customers to buy something in person and walk out 10 seconds later after InstantX confirms the transaction is valid and locks it.

One thing he said really resonated with me is that Bitcoin does need some competition within the marketplace. Monopolies are always bad for the consumer, and Dash has many innovations that can only make digital currency better going forward. Bitcoin can improve, and that's what competition does. It makes you step up your game and improve. If all of digital currency's eggs are in Bitcoin's basket, that is not a great long-term strategy.

We at CCN cannot give investment advice, so do your own due diligence, but I haven't seen a better altcoin on the market than Dash. If you want increased privacy and innovative technology that really provides value in an altcoin, Dash is where I'd start looking. I believe Litecoin's days as the silver to Bitcoin's Gold are numbered. From what I've seen, Dash is just a better currency. And isn't that what we really wanted all along?

To me, it is simply the best altcoin on the market. In a world where privacy and freedom are becoming four-letter words, this is the right currency at the right time. I believe there will come a day when everybody needs a little Dash.

Images provided by Dash and Medium.com

What is your favorite altcoin on the market today? Is Dash a good competitor for Bitcoin? Does Bitcoin need competition? Share above and comment below.

BY EVANDER SMART

Source: Cryptocoinnews.com