This Week In Dash: September 23rd

This week continues to be a fantastic week in Dash with new developments, integrations, and general news. Continue reading to get a summary of the week.

Dash Network Research of the Week:

• Analysis Shows Average Dash InstantSend Transaction Settled in Under Two Seconds: Reddit user Antti-Kaikkonen, surveyed 1,000 Dash transactions and compared the times that each transaction took to receive an InstantSend lock and found that the average time among all transactions was 1.85 seconds. Further, the median time was 1.83 seconds with the minimum time to lock a transaction taking 1.45 seconds and the maximum time taking 4.59 seconds. Add to that the fact that Dash confirms blocks every 2.5 minutes compared to Bitcoin’s 10 minutes makes Dash much faster and more secure with ChainLocks over a shorter period of time. More exchanges are recognizing InstantSend and Dash’s faster security, including Coinbase.

Dash Integrations of the Week:

• Swiss Cryptocurrency Exchange SMART VALOR Integrates Dash With Exclusive 10% Cash-Back Bonus: The Swiss cryptocurrency exchange and security token platform will be integrating Dash with trading pairs consisting of its own coin and fiat pairs. Additionally, until October 2nd, the platform will offer 10% cash back for users. the integration helps reinforce the popularity of Dash as some exchanges have announced intentions to delist Dash for its privacy features.
• CYBAVO Enterprise-Level Cryptocurrency Wallet Integrates Dash: Dash is being integrated into the enterprise-focused cryptocurrency storage and wallet management system’s vault service, which allows for custody and management of digital assets with a similar experience to that of a corporate bank account. Dash will now be available to larger institutions that require services such as transaction and spending limits, role assignments, scheduled withdrawals, balance-triggered payments, and detailed logs. This will better enable future integrations by organizations that require a higher level of service than what open-source projects can deliver.

Dash Core Group Project Updates of the Week:

Here’s an update from Brian Foster, Front End Product Owner, on what’s going on at Dash Core Group this week.

In addition to the below development highlights at Dash Core Group this week, several team members have been in development workshops discussing key technical design topics for the upcoming phases of the Evolution Platform.

• ???? Continued back-porting, fixes for Linux build & fee calculations on Core
• ???? UI redesign updates for Show QR code and transaction details on DashWallet iOS

General News of the Week:

• Bitcoin Hashrate Flash-Crashes 40% Highlighting Pure Proof-of-Work Vulnerability: Earlier this week, the Bitcoin hashrate dropped from around 107 exahashes to a little over 59 exahashes making the network more vulnerable to attacks and calling into question the security of a pure PoW system. The exact cause is unknown, but some point to research that says over 75% of Bitcoin’s total mining power may be located within Chinese borders or that over 50% of Bitcoin’s mining come from just a few mining pools. The issue brings attention to Dash’s ChainLocks for offering greater security by combining the power of its masternode network with its miners.
• BitcoinABC Developer Discusses Development Funding Issues, Calls for “Tithe”: Bitcoin ABC developer Shammah Chancellor recently talked about development funding issues with the protocol because of a “market failure” and suggests that users consider making monthly donations in order to support the project. So far, the project has had to mostly rely on volunteer donations during fundraising campaigns, such as the most recent one that raised over 800 BCH and is now working towards 1600 BCH. The funding issues highlights the importance of Dash’s DAO Treasury system in enabling the network to fund projects without becoming beholden to large outside donors.
• Bisq Anonymous P2P Cryptocurrency Exchange Grows After LocalBitcoins KYC Crackdown: Consumers have begun shifting to anonymous, peer-to-peer, decentralized exchanges such as Bisq after popular peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange LocalBitcoins recently implemented basic KYC/AML verification. Coin.Dance showed that Bisq’s volume spiked from $3.233 million dollars four weeks before LocalBitcoins implemented their KYC to a peak of $10.746 million dollars the week of LocalBitcoins’ KYC implementation. The event comes as some exchanges are talking about delisting coins and shows that consumers now have more decentralized solutions to circumvent different forms of centralized controls.
• Bitcoin Mining is Ancient Tech Says Cornell Professor Emin Gün Sirer: Emin has said that Bitcoin mining as a security model is “ancient and badly parameterized” after a flash crash of the network’s hashrate earlier this week and questioned the reliability of a pure proof-of-work system. He specifically called into question Bitcoin’s very long block intervals of 10 minutes and its subsequent finalization time of 6 blocks or around 1 hour. He suggested that exchanges should extend the block confirmation requirements for Bitcoin and monitor confirmations more closely to ensure no attacks are occurring. Conversely, Coinbase has already recognized the enhanced security of Dash and its ChainLocks innovation by lowering the confirmation requirement to only 2 blocks.
• OKex Korea Delists Privacy Coins Citing Financial Action Task Force Rules: OKex has announced that it is delisting Dash, along with Monero, Zcash, Horizon, and Super Bitcoin on October 10th citing that they do not comply with Financial Action Task Force rules. Their announcement specifically cites the “travel rule” that the FATF “recommends that exchanges be able to collect relevant information such as the name and address of the sender and recipient of the virtual asset”. This joins a growing list of exchanges that are delisting so-called privacy coins out of fear that they will attract additional government attention.
• BTI Report Calls Coinbase and Kraken Among Cleanest Exchanges: The Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI) has showed in a new report that Dash-supporting exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, and the U.S. and Japan in general are among the industry’s “cleanest”. The report specifically looked for signs of wash trading and also found that OKEx and Bibox, along with South Korea overall, leads exchanges with the highest percentage of wash trading, in excess of 75%. However, after removing the wash trading, they still were in the top 20 exchange list. Overall, Dash is listed on mostly “clean” exchanges found in the BTI report, helping to validate Dash’s compliance.

Dash Media of the Week:

Additionally, this weekend and early next week is Dash Convention – Europe, which will host a lot of interesting talks and presentations so make sure to tune in and follow Dash News on social media to get summaries of the event and learn about new things happening in the Dash Community.