Dash Discussion Thread

[qwizzie]

Masternodes by Geographic Location and Organisation
Link : https://chainz.cryptoid.info/dash/masternodes.dws



Looks like Netherlands have taken a firm second place ranking, behind the USA. For more information check above link (i had to cut the overview a bit).
-qwiz

[qwizzie]

Karen Hsu: Cryptocurrency Regulation, Dash vs. Bitcoin Privacy, Crypto Taxes & Blockchain Analysis



I had the distinct pleasure of chatting with Karen Hsu of BlockchainIntel, a company conducting blockchain analysis for the purposes of risk scoring transactions, detecting fraud, and avoiding theft.
BlockchainIntel recently partnered with Dash to assist in analyzing the blockchain for exchanges to be able to accurately assess the risk of accepting certain transactions, potentially opening the door
to new integrations from services previously wary of Dash and its advanced privacy features.

We talked about Bitcoin vs. Dash privacy, and how Bitcoin actually has a higher percentage of usage in darknet markets and whose transactions are more often mixed. We also covered what blockchain
analysis can and can’t do, and the difference between personally identifying individuals and their financial activity and simply watching for movements that can be associated with illicit activity.
Finally, we touched on cryptocurrency tax reporting, and what old-school users can do if they acquired most of their coins prior to having any kind of a reasonable paper trail to prove where they came from.

Watch now: https://dashnews.org/karen-hsu-cryptocurrency-regulation-dash-vs-bitcoin-privacy-crypto-taxes-blockchain-analysis/

Credits : NibiruHybrid
Source : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.msg52029292#msg52029292

For those that think Karen Hsu looks familiar, she was previously Chief Revenue Officer with BlockCypher, which Dash also has a partnership with. This is an older article (1st of august) that i overlooked.
-qwiz


Private Bitcoin Transactions Over Double All Privacy-Focused Cryptocurrencies Combined



According to Karen Hsu of BlockchainIntel, Bitcoin remains the most-used cryptocurrency for private transactions, outpacing all major privacy-focused cryptocurrencies combined.

To achieve greater privacy, traditionally relatively transparent Bitcoin transactions are run through mixers/tumblers, such as Wasabi Wallet, an additional third party service not on the Bitcoin blockchain.
According to Hsu, mixed transactions account for around 4% of total Bitcoin transactions:

Read more - https://dashnews.org/private-bitcoin-transactions-over-double-all-privacy-focused-cryptocurrencies-combined/

Credits : NibiruHybrid
Source : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.msg52149969#msg52149969

See also this interesting article (which is related to above article) : https://blockonomi.com/ciphertrace-crypto-money-laundering-ending/
-qwiz

Bitcoin’s privacy is considerably inferior to the privacy protections Monero and Zcash make possible, but BTC is still the money of choice in these dark markets. Why? It appears to be because bitcoin
is simply easier to use in these contexts, CipherTrace explained:

“[Our] results show that privacy coins are barely used in dark markets and at dark vendor sites (e.g. only 4% of instances involve Monero (XMR) […]What this suggests is that while privacy coins may seem
like a boon to criminals, drug gangs and terrorists, the barriers to entry for buying and selling Monero and other anonymous tokens makes them impractical for most dark market purchases and ransomware
payments. They are most useful as a payment rail and to obfuscate chain hopping to more liquid tokens.”

Of course, bitcoin mixers can provide users with privacy, but one can safely assume that not everyone on the dark web is resorting to mixers. In that sense, more and more dark web activities are having
their transactions permanently open-sourced on the Bitcoin blockchain.

[qwizzie]

Dash fork altcoin PIVX in trouble ?


Source picture : article itself

Read more here : https://cointelegraph.com/news/pivx-possibly-other-pos-chains-vulnerable-to-bug-attackers-profit

Note : Dash is a proof of work (PoW) model cryptocurrency, PIVX though is a fork of Dash (forked from Dash v0.12.0.x), which use a custom proof of stake (PoS) model.
Both PIVX and possibly over 200 other PoS blockchains appear to be vulnerable to disproportionately high staking rewards.

Bitgreen (a PoS altcoin running on PIVX) stated it will start planning a migration from PIVX to Dash.

As a final solution, the BitGreen project plans to migrate from the still-vulnerable PIVX network to DASH on its next update

Link : https://beincrypto.com/pivx-response-to-network-vulnerability-casts-doubt-on-project/
    

Update :

https://pivx.org/a-response-to-the-article-pivx-and-200-pos-chains-currently-vulnerable-chains-already-under-attack/

[dungp3132]

Masternodes by Geographic Location and Organisation
Link : https://chainz.cryptoid.info/dash/masternodes.dws



Looks like Netherlands have taken a firm second place ranking, behind the USA. For more information check above link (i had to cut the overview a bit).
-qwiz

Surprise to see that Latin America continent has no nation in the top list. Latin America have some biggest communities of DASH, especially in Venezuela, Colombia. I remember that early this year or in late 2018, I saw a video from DASH channel that Venezuela and Colombia are among nations that have biggest communities for DASH, just behind USA and Canada. The list above shows top three includes USA, Netherlands and Germany.

[qwizzie]

Masternodes by Geographic Location and Organisation
Link : https://chainz.cryptoid.info/dash/masternodes.dws



Looks like Netherlands have taken a firm second place ranking, behind the USA. For more information check above link (i had to cut the overview a bit).
-qwiz

Surprise to see that Latin America continent has no nation in the top list. Latin America have some biggest communities of DASH, especially in Venezuela, Colombia. I remember that early this year or in late 2018, I saw a video from DASH channel that Venezuela and Colombia are among nations that have biggest communities for DASH, just behind USA and Canada. The list above shows top three includes USA, Netherlands and Germany.

I think there are a number of reasons why masternodes are not located in Latin America :

* cost factor : 1 masternode needs 1000 Dash --> total cost currently to setup a masternode : $101,000 (total cost was much higher during bull market by the way)
* infrastructure factor : hosting providers provide a select few server locations to choose from, Latin America could simply be missing in those locations due to underdeveloped and/or weak internet structure
* freedom to choose location : Latin America masternode owners (or any masternode owner for that matter) could easily choose a location that provide better uptime for their masternode. That location does not necessarily
   need to be the location where that masternode owner lives. For example Latin America masternode owners could choose to use server location USA or Netherlands or Germany.

[qwizzie]

Dash Added for Parking Payments at Venezuelan Shopping Mall, Surpasses Fiat Payments



A shopping mall in Venezuela has added Dash as a payment method for its parking garage, surpassing traditional payments for parking and generating hundreds of new users and transactions.

Read more - https://dashnews.org/dash-added-for-parking-payments-at-venezuelan-shopping-mall-surpasses-fiat-payments/

Credits : NibiruHybrid
Source : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.msg52153801#msg52153801

[adekogbe]

DASH is most likely the best coin in this viewpoint , yet you Should recall that there is a negative effect on Dash security using fixed, known locations which ought to be kept away from by clients toward the beginning of the blending procedure, as it essentially counteracts the blending procedure.
In the event that somebody picks the most minimal conceivable number of rounds to blend, they ought to clearly know that they are yielding security quality for speed.

[qwizzie]

DASH is most likely the best coin in this viewpoint , yet you Should recall that there is a negative effect on Dash security using fixed, known locations which ought to be kept away from by clients toward the beginning of the blending procedure, as it essentially counteracts the blending procedure.
In the event that somebody picks the most minimal conceivable number of rounds to blend, they ought to clearly know that they are yielding security quality for speed.

You are correct in stating that Privatesend has limitations and that users should know about these limitations.

To Dash users planning to use Dash PrivateSend

Be aware when using the lowest number of rounds to mix (2 rounds), you will be using the lowest form of privacy on your PrivateSend transaction.
Try to at least use 8 rounds of mixing to get some strong privacy on your transactions or accept that by lowering the number of rounds, that you will be having less privacy on your transaction.
Also make sure you dont include fixed known Dash addresses (like exchange addresses) at the start of your mixing process and that your PrivateSend transaction amount does not exactly match
the amount you had before you started to mix. At last, be informed that the CoinJoin mixing (which lays at the heart of Dash PrivateSend) can have a very low anonymity set, specially on smaller networks.

Dash PrivateSend Rounds to Mix Info

Default is 4 Rounds of mixing = Good Privacy
Increasing to 8 Rounds of mixing = Strong Privacy
Decreasing to 2 Rounds of mixing = Weak Privacy

With Dash PrivateSend you can set the number of rounds from 2 rounds to 16 rounds

[qwizzie]

Uphold Integrated Into Dash iOS Wallet Following Withdrawal Fee Removal



Uphold, the popular cryptocurrency exchange that has facilitated over $5 billion USD of transactions, has now been added to Dash’s official iOS wallet, following the removal of the Dash withdrawal fee from the platform.

Read more - https://dashnews.org/uphold-integrated-into-dash-ios-wallet-following-withdrawal-fee-removal/

Credits : NibiruHybrid
Source : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.msg52159629#msg52159629

[qwizzie]

Dash News Video Recap - Dash Core Q2 2019, SwapSpace, Bitoffer, Cubobit, Bitnovo, Cobo Wallet & More!



So many integrations and developments for Dash this past week! Don't miss Heidi's weekly video recap! This is a repost of the Dash News Recap video with presenter Heidi Chakos from our YouTube channel. This show is dedicated to keeping you up to date with recent Dash news highlights.

Watch now - https://dashnews.org/dash-news-video-recap-dash-core-q2-2019-swapspace-bitoffer-cubobit-bitnovo-cobo-wallet-more/

Credits : NibiruHybrid
Source : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.msg52160573#msg52160573

[qwizzie]

DashNEXT announces Dash partnership with CryptoRefills


Source picture : from article itself

CryptoRefills now allows users from any country in the world to pay with Dash for mobile top ups, music and video streaming services,
games and apps from the leading app stores as well as hotel stays and flights

Read more here : https://www.dash.org/2019/08/14/dashnext-announces/

[qwizzie]

Dash Text Expands SMS Wallet to Spain, Telegram Integration to All Americas



Dash Text has expanded SMS wallet service to Spain and its Telegram integration to almost all of North and South America as the service eyes global connectivity.

Read more - https://dashnews.org/dash-text-expands-sms-wallet-to-spain-telegram-integration-to-all-americas/

Credits : NibiruHybrid
Source : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.msg52171085#msg52171085

[qwizzie]

Overview of Mainnet Stress Test and Dash Core v0.14.0.3 Release
(Upgrade is strongly recommended for all Masternodes)



Last week there was an abnormally high network load on the Dash network consisting of around a million 1 input 1 output transactions with a fee just higher than 1 duff per byte.
After contacting all likely community members who could have executed this and finding that none of them were involved, it appears that the artificial load on the Dash network was
either a stress test by someone outside of the Dash developer community or was an attempted attack.

Over the course of 2 days, there were two large spikes in transactions:

Wed, 2019–08–07 0000–0830 (8.5 hrs) — ~650k txs
Wed/Thu, 2019–08–07/08 2300–0230 (3.5 hrs) — ~300k txs

The Dash mempool spiked to 46 MB around 11:30AM on the 7th of August before being cleared in about 3 hours. Before that, at around 3AM on the 7th of August, the mempool spiked to
around 17 MB and was sustained for around 4 hours. After analyzing the Dash blockchain as well as MN logs and their PoSe score, there have been multiple interesting discoveries.

1. Some pools are capped at 1MB blocks

This is likely due to custom implementations. Mining pools will change this naturally once usage approaches 1MB in an effort to capture more fees and be more profitable.

2. Some pools seems not to be emptying the mempool and are producing near empty blocks

We are in active communication with these pools in order to figure out what we can do such that the pools include transactions while not including what appears to be spam
(1 input, 1 output, very low fee).

3. Some Masternodes crashed due to not having enough storage space

This was a result of having to store the IS Lock for every transaction. This resulted in nodes running on minimal storage (around 15–20 GB) not having enough space to store
all of the IS Locks. Previously, locks were removed after around 7 days. After 0.14.0.3 (PR#3048), IS Locks will be removed as soon as they are confirmed via a ChainLock.
This should reduce the size of the `llmq` directory significantly over time.

4. Some Masternodes banned other Masternodes under high load when on the brink of a new quorum becoming active

In order to fix this, we need to detect this situation and then re-verify failed sigs with the previous active set. This is being implemented by PR#3052 and will also be released in
0.14.0.3. This issue resulted in some blocks not receiving a ChainLock and some transactions not receiving IS Locks.

5. Some user transactions did not get included in a block rapidly since they used the default fee

The fee selection algorithm and UI in the Dash Core wallet is being updated in 0.14.1 thanks to the backporting of Bitcoin 0.15. The fee selection algorithms in the mobile wallets
are being reviewed as well. We are exploring ways that we can try to minimize the load that spam and an attacker can have on the network. There are many potential ideas, however,
each of these ideas have their benefits and problems and we are still investigating what we can do in order to ensure that users can send funds at a sub cent fee while also preventing
spam and attacks on the Dash network.

In response to the discoveries outlined above, 0.14.0.3 is being released. The release includes various bug fixes and improvements. The upgrade is strongly recommended for all
Masternodes and is also recommended for all users, exchanges, partners and full node operators.

Notable Changes in Dash Core v0.14.0.3

* Database space usage improvements
* As described above in point 3
* DKG and LLMQ signing failures fixed
* As described above in point 4
* Signed binaries for Windows
* MacOS: disable AppNap during sync and mixing
* New RPC command: quorum memberof <proTxHash>
* More information about number of InstantSend locks

Please see the full changelog for more details.

Read more here : https://blog.dash.org/overview-of-mainnet-stress-test-and-dash-core-v0-14-0-3-release-db6b978da42c

Credits : Tungi17 & Pasta
Source :

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.msg52172714#msg52172714
https://blog.dash.org/overview-of-mainnet-stress-test-and-dash-core-v0-14-0-3-release-db6b978da42c

Downloads are available on Dash official download site : https://www.dash.org/downloads/
-qwiz

[qwizzie]

Dash has been supported on a new web-app of ADAMANT – anonymous messenger built on blockchain – for storage and instant in-chat transfers.



Try at https://msg.adamant.im/. Zero identification required (iOS App Dash integration coming soon)

Credits : Tungi17
Source : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.msg52174153#msg52174153

[qwizzie]

DASH Core Calls Out Coindesk for Bias Reporting; DASH Accepted for Hundreds of Gift Cards




Read and watch here (there are a lot more twitter responses from Ryan Taylor, then just these two) : https://www.reddit.com/r/dashpay/comments/cr73ba/dash_core_calls_out_coindesk_for_bias_reporting/

Credits : cryptoviser
Source : Above reddit link

Fun fact :

Coindesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (“DCG”). DCG invests in cryptocurrencies and has ownership stakes
in a number of blockchain startups, listed here : https://dcg.co/portfolio/

(Not to be confused with Dash Core Group, also DCG)

If you wonder why positive Dash news is ignored by the coindesk new site, yet negative news is published look to Digital Currency Group.
Coindesk claim to act independently of their owner, Digital Currency Group. Believe that if you may.

Credits : afbitcoins
Source : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.msg52176482#msg52176482
 

[qwizzie]

Dash registers growth amid bearish trend, even as the virtual asset outperforms major coins


Source of picture : from the article itself. (I just wish writer used this car : https://twitter.com/dashpay/status/1041214845822164992  )

Read more here : https://eng.ambcrypto.com/dash-registers-growth-amid-bearish-trend-even-as-the-virtual-asset-outperforms-major-coins/

[qwizzie]

Please update to v0.14.0.3, this upgrade is strongly recommended for all Masternodes !!

Masternodes Distribution per Reported Version


Link : https://blog.dash.org/overview-of-mainnet-stress-test-and-dash-core-v0-14-0-3-release-db6b978da42c

In response to the discoveries outlined above, 0.14.0.3 is being released. The release includes various bug fixes and improvements.
The upgrade is strongly recommended for all Masternodes and is also recommended for all users, exchanges, partners and full node operators.

Download : Please download from official source

[qwizzie]

NowNodes Integrates Dash, Expanding Network Development Opportunities



NowNodes "provides simple, fast, and secure access to IP and RPC nodes" by running fee-free public nodes and recently added a Dash node.

Read more - https://dashnews.org/nownodes-integrates-dash-expanding-network-development-opportunities/

Credits : NibiruHybrid
Source : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.msg52205859#msg52205859

[qwizzie]

Salamantex: A1 Telekom (biggest Austrian Telecommunication Provider) Payment Service now accepts Crypto payments (incl Dash) in 7 Austrian outlets



Read more here : https://twitter.com/salamantex/status/1163435472758218753?s=20

Credits : Tungi17
Source : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=421615.msg52212546#msg52212546

[qwizzie]

P2P BITCOIN AND DASH TRANSACTIONS SOAR IN VENEZUELA


Source : from article itself, and yes .. there should have been a Dash logo as well

Read more here : https://bitcoinist.com/p2p-bitcoin-and-dash-transactions-soar-in-venezuela/

Note : despite the mentioning of Dash there is not much (or any) data provided about Dash transactions. This article is more focussed
on Bitcoin data.

To be objective, Dash does not have any solid data about Dash transactions per location, just information about total number of transactions.
Dash does have some (partial) information about number of active wallet addresses in Venezuela, through its partnership with Krypto Mobile
(which consists of 10.000 active Android wallets). Also Dash has data on number of merchants accepting Dash in Venezuela (1400).

Source :

https://dashnews.org/dash-claims-10000-active-android-wallets-in-latin-america-thanks-to-krip-mobile-adoption-initiatives/
https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/dash-transactions.html
https://discoverdash.com/stats/