The currency was launched in January 2014 as "Xcoin" by Evan Duffield, as a fork of the Bitcoin protocol.[1][2] It is an altcoin and in its early days it was subject to pump and dump speculation.[3] It was rebranded as Darkcoin,[4] which received press for being used in dark net markets.[5] In March 2015, it rebranded again with the name Dash as a portmanteau of 'digital cash'.[3] As of August 2016, Dash is no longer used in any major dark net markets.[4]
As of February2019[update], Dash was the most popular cryptocurrency in Venezuela according to Der Spiegel.[9] 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.[10]
Design
Dash was designed to allow transactions to occur quickly and to implement a governance structure that addresses perceived shortcomings in Bitcoin.[3]
The system's decentralization has been criticized due to a mishap during its initial coin distribution, which allowed too many coins to be distributed at release. This concentrated wealth within a small group of early adopters, giving them disproportionate power in decisions regarding the currency’s future.[8]
As of 2018, coins were mined using a proof of work algorithm with a hash function called "X11," which involves eleven rounds of hashing. The average time to mine a block was around two and a half minutes.[1]
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