Everything is Falling Apart
A few days ago, I would have been completely on board with investing in Dash. Now I’m not so sure…
Centralized
Do you remember the selling point of the blockchain? The fact that everything on a blockchain is completely decentralized allows for safer transactions between buyers and sellers, as well as creating a digital ledger that records all of those transactions. This was the major selling point of not only the blockchain, but for Bitcoin as well. Now that a few ALT coins have started gaining ground, it looked like Dash may have been promising.
But any investment would mean throwing away money.
Formerly known as “Darkcoin,” Dash had made promises it couldn’t keep. According to this post by @thedashguy back in February, he explained that Dash and the people behind it were heading in the wrong direction. For one, it looks like the Dash ecosystem is completely centralized, in that everything is controlled by Dash’s creator, Evan Duffield. @thedashguy explains that he was actually able to hop on board and join the Dash team in it’s early stages.
The only problem was that he began asking too many questions. He explained that he was eventually “sidelined” on many Dash projects because everyone else in the community had something to hide. Furthermore, it looks like Dash could have been an empire, but due to mismanagement, Dash’s chances of becoming the next Skynet are growing slimmer.
The author also explains that the direction Dash is going is one of self support, in that they are
controlling the governance mechanism to ring as much money out of the project before it collapses on itself
This means that any benefits that would go out to the investors and traders of Dash are instead going directly to the top of the food chain, because under Dash’s governance system, only the top dogs control the nodes used to run the Dash infrastructure.
Marketing Over Progress
So far, it looks like the only real benefit that Dash has going for it is that it has an “Instant Send” and “Instant Confirm” feature that allows for quicker transactions on the blockchain. While this may be true, there is absolutely nothing stopping any of the other ALT coins from completing the same tasks, or even outpacing them at their own game. Even the big dogs in the game, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, could all easily implement better versions of anything Dash has to offer.
The problem with Dash is that it’s oversold and underperforms.
Dash is basically a huge echo chamber supporting its own weight due to the Masternode system, it's nowhere close to being "digital cash' as it's marketed.
Under it’s self sustaining infrastructure, Dash is able to grow within itself, but doesn’t look like it’ll become the actual “digital cash” as promised.
Dash Community
As of writing this article, Dash sits at the number 7 spot for highest cryptocurrency market cap, and with good reason. There is a lot of support in the Dash ecosystem. But it’s that same community that perpetuates the false truths that are being fed to them.
I've had repeated conversations with the core team in the past and various community members who blindly support them and I've asked them which they would prefer, digital cash or Paypal 2.0, and to my surprise the only ones who actually support the whole Paypal idea are the people in charge (core team) and their blind followers, because who wouldn't want to be the next billion dollar company? I mean I get it, but what happened to changing the world and doing it the right way?
Even though it looks like the Dash ecosystem has a healthy home on the internet, it is doomed to be quickly outpaced by its competitors. There is nothing preventing any mainstream or alt coin from becoming the next Darkcoin, picking up where it left off, (because it was doing a fairly good job in its initial stages,) and using Dash’s mistakes to become a better coin.
Ultimately, I’m rooting for whatever coin proves the most practical functionality within the marketplace. If you want to invest, look deeper into what each coin has to offer BEFORE you make your move. It just looks like right now, Dash might not be the way to go.
Alternatives
Although I mentioned in a previous post details about why Dash is better than Bitcoin, there is still an opportunity for Bitcoin to stay ahead. Right now, there are talks between developers about how to solve a few of Bitcoin’s problems, such as the speed of the transaction times, either looking to increase the block size cap or SegWit.
When the devs solve these problems, there’s no stopping them if they want to improve upon Dash’s design.
If you enjoyed the article, be sure to follow me @kava for more crypto talk!
This post was inspired by @fabio. I hope you liked it.
Be sure to upvote and comment about what you want me to write about next!
Thanks!
I disagree with your premise and it is a mistake to rely on your only source is a bitter former team member.
Bitcoin cannot do what Dash is doing because it is an ungovernable mess. They cannot even make a decision to save their coin.
Sorry, I think Dash's Evolution project is going to come to fruition and make it a useable currency for the masses.
I follow the project since April 2014 and have spoken to many many Dash team members and am myself active in the community. Maybe it's my Asset Mgt background, but I love the professionalism and team spirit. The constant hate and flaming. abput the "Instamine, the alleged omnipotent Evan always close to dumping thousands of Masternodes, Privatesend being inferior, rage-quiting Devs...that has forget a strong core of enthusiastic supporters, because you know those accusations are false, if you care to look and ask. All I can say is that DASH has a very determined, very focussed and very professional team and a fast growing community. The self-funding mechanism and unparalleled governance efficiency, along with its best-in-class risk-reward profile due to long term holding Masternodes, makes it imho the best UASF hedge there is. Especially since it is still so un-popular among the tribal majority of current or old crypto investors. New investors appreciate what DASH has achieved so far and what it aims to deliver with Evolution. I'm pretty bullish on DASH for the long run.
I can see how you can't rely on my source for information, he does seem like someone who was just another rage quitter, but at the same time I feel like there is some level of truth, after all, he was on the inside. But I totally see where you're coming from, I'll try to find better sources for next time. As for the bitcoin indecisiveness, there is progress due for the end of the summer, but it is very slow. And I would really want to see Dash pull through in the long run. Like I said in the post, I'm rooting for which ever coin offers the most practical use in a changing economy. upvoted and followed @kabrink.
kava, to add to my earlier comment, the guy you quote claims Duffield controls Dash. As the founding developer and still involved I am sure he has a lot of influence - which is true of every coin out there. But, Dash governance requires votes from the masternodes. There are 4100 of them all around the world, according to the site linked below. Now, perhaps you can call it biased as it is the Dash site, but what is to gain by lying about how many masternodes exist. So, I find it hard to believe Duffield controls 4100 masternodes all over the world and forces them to vote a certain way.
https://www.dash.org/masternodes2/
I watched DASH from $14 didn't buy any #stillSAD
Why you tag it bitcoin while it is not Bitcoin related? Please remove that tag im tired with flood of altcoin contents on bitcoin tag. It's hard to find good bitcoin related stuff.
Sorry @halfik, I tagged bitcoin because of its relevance as a competitor to Dash. I'll be sure to write more relevant articles pertaining to Bitcoin in the future. thanks for your input. followed @halfik.
Please remove the tag, he has a point and it would be a pitty to take a flag for that.
Edit: nevermind, I guess he I won't do much harm with his flag power 14.
in your honest opinion @fabio, was I wrong to tag bitcoin as well? It wasn't even the first one, and I talked about it in the article... I will change the way I tag in the future if it's the right thing to do, I'm super new on steemit and I'm just testing the waters. Thanks for the heads up, and yeah lol 14 flag power.
To be honest, I'm undecided and that's why I thought it's not worth a flag, because your article might disappear. I had only noticed your power and not his ;-)
Sorry but there are 1000+ other cryptos that are related to bitcoin. I can't find interesting news about bitcoin becouse everyone are tagging their nonbitcoin related content with bitcoin tag. Im flagging this content becouse of bitcoin tag.
I'm sorry you feel that way. I will do my best in the future to tag my posts with things that are more relevant to the post. In a world where Dash is only 6 spots away from Bitcoin in market cap, I'm sorry about my recklessness. I'll be sure to keep my head on straight for my next post.
Just take a look on bitcoin tag and count how many of posts there are not about bitcoin. Its a mess. I would like to use steemit to read about bitcoin but at this point its impossible becase people are random taggins just to get some tokens.