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This cryptocurrency was created on January 18, 2014, by developer Evan Duffield, who took Litecoin / Bitcoin code as a basis. It was originally released under the name XCoin, and ten days later, on January 28, 2014, it was renamed Darkcoin (“dark coin”) to emphasize its purpose for secret payments. Finally, in March 2015, it was re-branded again and assigned the name “Dash, friendly to regulators,” an acronym for the phrase Digital cash.
Why Dash is better?
Dashcoin cryptocurrency is a lot like Bitcoin, but at the same time, it has a lot of advantages. One of the first key differences is to call the unique X11 Algo algorithm written by Duffield, which is a two-tier structure that provides high anonymity and excellent payment protection. At the time when transactions through Bitcoin can be traced using the appropriate key points and algorithms, in Dash, all links between payments and account are erased, excluding the possibility of any manipulations.
Loyal following
The first thing that made the creators of Dash – branded Bitcoin and Litecoin label “pseudo-anonymous.” Since the data on all transactions (amount, time, addresses of the sender and recipient) are stored in the public blockchain, financial transactions can be monitored and compared through special software. For example, if a person decides to purchase an air ticket for BTC, then the passport data left by him can be linked to the Bitcoin address and see his entire financial history.
Speed
If it’s not privacy that matters, but speed, then another method is available for “digital cash” transfers in Dash – InstantSend. When using it, it is not miners who check transactions that are produced, but 6–10 randomly selected masters, powerful and smoothly running servers. As a result, the transfer of crypto money from one address to another occurs almost instantly.
Flexibility
According to the developers, the Dash management model is superior to the Bitcoin model. While Bitcoin development is dependent on community input, the Dash network is funded by the transaction fees it generates.
Low cost
High-speed translation using InstantSend on the Dash network costs a few pence. It is cheaper than Western Union or PayPal. And the fee for the usual transfer, which will last about 2.5 minutes, will be scanty $ 0.001.
How to buy Dash
You have two main ways to buy Dash: exchange Bitcoin for Dash or buy it directly through fiat. The easiest way to buy Dash is if you already have Bitcoin. Bitfinex, Kraken, ShapeShift and Bittrex are several popular exchanges that allow you to trade Dash. Buying Dash through fiat is a little more difficult because there are not so many platforms. The sites that offer fiat-to-Dash are BitPanda and Kraken.
Dash wallets
Wallet Dash is based on a Bitcoin wallet for a Bitcoin currency called Bitcoin Core QT wallet and is equipped with the Darksend service for the fastest and most anonymous transactions. Also, the wallet is equipped with special functionality – PrivateSend, and InstantSend.
The wallet program can be downloaded from the official Dash website. After installation, it will take some time to synchronize, but after going through all the necessary procedures, you get a much faster and safer product than a competitor.
Should you invest in Dash?
Currently, Dash has strong support from well-known venture capital companies, namely Venture 51 and Core Innovation Capital. In general, the prospects for Dash in 2018 seem to be very bright. In addition, Dash is now working with TenX and issuing its own debit cards. As a result, there are even more options for using Dash currency in the real economy. In this regard, the growth of Dash in the near future is even more likely.
Can Ethereum Scale?
The Ethereum platform was launched in 2015 in order to simplify the creation of decentralized online services, as well as to facilitate the process of implementing the blockchain technology. Unlike the Bitcoin network, Ethereum provides for the use of smart contracts – self-executing algorithms designed to enter into and maintain commercial contracts in the blockchain technology. In this connection, the Ethereum network in the shortest possible time has become the second most popular platform on the cryptographic market not only among startups wishing to conduct an ICO, but also the largest software developers such as Microsoft, IBM, and Acronis.
But, as in the case of the Bitcoin network, with the growing popularity of Ethereum, problems of its scalability became obvious. Recall that at the end of 2017, because of the launch of the CryptoKitties game, the Ethereum blockchain encountered significant difficulties due to network congestion and the inability to process transactions. Therefore, Ethereum developers proposed several solutions.
Raiden Network
In December 2017, Ethereum developers launched the Raiden Network project in their network — an off-line technology that, like the Lightning Network solution for the Bitcoin network, allows instant transactions on the Ethereum network with minimal fees. Thus, the main idea of the technology is to scale the blockchain through the use of payment channels that allow you to safely conduct transactions outside the network. With the help of the Raiden Network, according to the developers, the throughput of Ethereum and the derivatives of it tokens can grow from 25 to 1 million operations per second.
Sharding
Sharding is another of the proposed solutions to the Ethereum scalability problem, the development of which has become one of the top priorities in the funding program launched in January of this year. The idea is based on the traditional scaling technique – “database sharding”, in which the database is divided into parts, and each of them is stored on a separate server.
The purpose of sharding on the blockchain is to eliminate full nodes due to load sharing between nodes. Instead of saving each transaction and the current state of the entire network, the node stores a subset – only a part – of this data and confirms only those transactions for which it is responsible. If the node wants to get information about transactions or blocks that it does not store, it can refer to other nodes. Although the sharding technology is still under development, members of the Ethereum community are already proposing changes at the protocol level that will be possible due to sharding.
Payment channels State Channels
On April 10, a team of researchers at the University of Warsaw published a white paper titled “Fundamentals of the State Channel Networks”, describing Perun, a protocol that operates on the “state channels” principle, that essentially transfers the Lightning idea implemented in the second-level protocol for the Bitcoin network to smart Ethereum contracts, but providing enhanced safety features.
Card Review: Centra Bitcoin Debit
The debit card for Bitcoin is the trend of the last few years. Such means for storing cryptocurrencies are not very popular, but some users, nevertheless, prefer to keep their digital coins on their usual piece of plastic. In this article, we will talk about one exact bitcoin debit card that we think is worthy.
The bitcoin debit card issued by the Centra exchange currently supports most popular cryptocurrencies and among them Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, ERC20, Ripple, and Dash. The Centra card allows users to spend their money in real time with a 0% exchange. Centra Tech has individual licenses in 38 states: Alabama, Mississippi, Nevada, Nebraska, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and other states.
Wallet of card
Of course, the debit card comes with its own crypto wallet called Centra Smart Wallet. Wallet allows not only to store whatever cryptocurrency user may have but also allows its users to register for Centra debit cards.
You can also use the application to perform normal banking functions – for example, turn on and off your card, for this you do not even have to spend your precious time going to the bank. Or you can use the app to send money in more than 5 currencies in more than 100 countries without any fees. There are no fluctuations in interbank exchange rates or excessive fees. All funds stored in your Centra wallet are safe, protected and protected against theft, hackers and scammers.
Transaction fees
As many other cards on the market Centera card has some fee that company charges for different reasons. The cost of card activation is $ 20. The annual fee for each card varies from $50 in the CTR for the Blue version to $500 in the CTR for the Black version. Also, a fee of $2.50 is charged when withdrawing USD from ATMs and $1.00% + $3.00 for withdrawing other currencies. Commissions for making purchases and exchange operations for all three cards are 0%.
Mobile app
In bundle with the wallet Centra’s ecosystem contains a mobile where users can find many useful information and functions. First and the main function is checking the balance online and sending and receiving funds. Also, it has some security features for example in case of loss of card itself users can disable the card from the mobile app.
Types of cards
Unlike other cards, the company decided to issue one regular (blue cards) and two premium cards (gold and black). You do not need anything special for getting blue, but premium cards are available only to the company’s investors. If you are a holder of a Centra Black or Gold card, then these restrictions increase.
Centra Black has a spending limit of $ 100,000 per day, for example, a cash withdrawal limit of $ 5,000 and a 2% reward for a token for each purchase.
The gold card has a spending limit of $ 50,000, a cash withdrawal limit of $ 2,000, and 1.25% remuneration for each purchase.
First of all, you need to register a wallet where you will store Bitcoins. After registration, you need to set up a security system for your wallet, linking mail and a phone number to it. In this case, even if someone steals your password, he most likely will not be able to get into the wallet: to enter, he will need to follow the link in the email and/or enter the code received via SMS. Wallets are of different types, here are some:
- Bitcoin mobile wallet app
- Bitcoin desktop wallet
- Hardware Bitcoin wallet
- Cryptocurrency exchange account
- Bitcoin debit card company
You can purchase Bitcoin immediately
Now we have a Bitcoin wallet, and we also have a certain amount of money to buy cryptocurrency. The logical question is: where to get bitcoins? Our readers may consider the following ways to buy bitcoin:
- Exchange online services;
- Cryptocurrency exchanges;
- Terminals and ATMs;
- Exchange with other people for Fiat gift vouchers.
You can purchase Bitcoin on an exchange
So we moved to the second method of buying BTC – through cryptocurrency exchanges. Exchange – a platform for trade. That is, the course on them is “pure”, formed by the market supply. The most famous service for tracking cryptocurrency trading exchanges is Coinmarketcap. It contains information about the volume of trading on each site, as well as the current rate. When buying a better focus on the exchange with the lowest rate. After all, we can get BTC at the best price. Among the most popular exchanges include:
- Binance
- CEX.io
- BitMart
- Livecoin
You can purchase Bitcoin with PayPal
On the Internet, there are niche services that facilitate the exchange of money for cryptocurrency online. The exchange service is notable for supporting a large number of payment systems for depositing and withdrawing funds, as well as popular Internet banking services. There are over a hundred exchangers, and they bring great profits to those who own them.
Here are the most popular ones:
- Virvox
- LocalBitcoins
- eToro
You can purchase Bitcoin with cash
In big cities, you can buy bitcoins through ground exchange points for cash. Also, there are special ATMs and terminals, using which you can easily get hold of digital coins. And let these ground points to buy cryptocurrency is not so much, but their number is constantly growing. A few of the most popular P2P exchanges are:
Bitcoin ATMs
ATMs and terminals with the possibility of buying Bitcoin – are not yet very common. In the big cities, there are only a few of them, but the situation is changing quite quickly: there is a list of ATMs on the CoinATMRadar website. Such devices are easy to use – quite a few operations with the card and the ATM itself and the cryptocurrency will be credited to your wallet. Terminals work with bills.
You can purchase Bitcoin anonymously
In countries such as Austria, South Korea, Mexico, and several other countries, there is an interesting option for buying BTC – through gift cards. You just need to replenish them at par and then enter the code on a specialized website. The “sellers” of such cards profit from commissions reaching 3-8%. However, the method is still in demand because of its simplicity and anonymity.
The best place to buy Bitcoin
Another lesson in cryptocurrency literacy has come to an end. Now you know how and where to buy Bitcoin for Fiat. The main thing to remember is that there is no ideal and universal place to buy Bitcoin. For each person the best place and unique. There is nothing difficult in this – there would be a desire and means to buy. Whether you should do this is up to you.