This Week In Dash: August 19th – August 24th

This week has been another very productive week for Dash with plenty of integrations, developments, and other news. Continuing reading to get a summary of the week.

Dash Network Developments of the Week:

• Dash Community Organizes Convention in Europe Showcasing Global Ecosystem: The Dash Convention Europe was created and supported with input from several community groups and will feature talks by Dash Core, Dash Embassy D-A-CH, Dash Thailand, Dash Force, Dash Nigeria, Dash Turkey, and other groups and companies important to the Dash ecosystem. The Convention will be on September 28th and 29th near Zurich, Switzerland and in Munich for Oktoberfest on September 30th. The convention will be proceeded by a few co-working days to foster Dash collaboration.

Dash Integrations of the Week:

• NowNodes Integrates Dash, Expanding Network Development Opportunities: NowNodes, which provides simple, fast, and secure access to IP and RPC nodes will be adding a Dash node to their assortment of fee-free public nodes. NowNodes is powered by ChangeNow, which integrated Dash a few months ago, and will give entrepreneurs and developers free access to build new applications that harness the power of the Dash blockchain. This adds to Blockcypher’s Dash integration which has been used by Dash Text for their innovative services and gives a taste of the development potential of the Dash blockchain that will be enabled once Dash Drive and DAPI are released to provide developers an easier way to build decentralized apps.
• Dash Accepted At Austrian Telecom Giant Thanks to Salamantex Partnership: A1 Telekom has over 5.4 million mobile lines and over 2.3 million fixed lines in Austria and will now be expanding on their previous partnership with Salamantex POS by accepting Dash and other cryptocurrencies at 7 new storefronts throughout the country. POS services like Salamantex make cryptocurrency integrations and exposure easier by seamlessly integrating with merchants’ current POS platforms and even accepting debit/credit cards so merchants do not have to have too many POS devices.
• Snode Integrates Dash Adding Masternode Hosting, Shared Masternodes: Snode has added Dash to their supported cryptocurrencies for hosting whole and trusted shared masternodes and charge both types of masternode holders a 5% maintenance fee. The integration adds to the shared Dash masternode services of Neptune Dash, CrowdNode, and CoboWallet that make up over 58 nodes and 1.18% of the total Dash masternode count.
• Telx SIM Card Wallet Adds Dash Enabling Direct In-SMS Transactions: Telx is a SIM card-based wallet that recently integrated Dash and will now enable consumers to send and receive Dash over SMS text without an internet connection. Another one of their key features is that users can send Dash within an already existing conversation and not have to send or receive Dash via a separate number. This adds to services like  Dash Text, which recently expanded to Spain in addition to services in Venezuela, Colombia, the US, and many other Latin American countries as well as Telegram integration. The Adamant messaging app also recently integrated Dash and these services all help to reduce adoption barriers and increase usage by adapting to consumers habits rather than making consumers adapt to cryptocurrency.

General News of the Week:

• Fidelity Receives Over $100 Million USD In Cryptocurrency Donations for Charity: Fidelity Charitable, the charity arm of Fidelity received over $100 Million USD in cryptocurrency donations since it began accepting cryptocurrency in 2015. However, 2018 was actually a down year for donations, only receiving $30 million vs. $69 million being given up through 2017, but this was somewhat expected by their leaders since they understand individuals donate during cryptocurrency appreciating periods to minimize capital gain taxes. The news brings attention to the traceability and cost savings that cryptocurrency can offering charities resulting in more efficient and effective donations, which is already being pursued by Dash Text with 100 school children in Venezuela.
• Vitalik Buterin – Ethereum Blockchain “Almost Full”, Cryptocurrency Needs Usability, Privacy: Vitalik, Ethereum’s founder, has said that the chain is “almost full” while usability, privacy, and security are required for mass adoption in addition to scaling. Ethereum is currently processing around 700,000 transactions daily, with an average fee of about 12.6 cents and processed 1.35 million transactions at its peak with fees that spiked to an average of $5.53. While Ethereum is looking for ways to scale and increase privacy, Dash has already conducted a stress test of three million transactions within 24 hours with little change in fees and transaction times, along with the development of ChainLocks and PrivateSend enhancements to offer better security to users.
• US Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Endorses Blockchain Voting and Governance: The United States Presidential candidate discussed his openness towards using blockchain technology in voting during the U.S. electoral processes. Yang recognized that blockchain technology is still in its infancy and would require a paper backup, but believes in the potential of the evolutionary technology. The Dash DAO has been an example of this potential with its network-wide voting, including the election of the Dash Irrevocable Trust Protectors and the Dash investment Foundation Supervisors to provide more checks and balances to the network.

Dash Media of the Week:

• Dash News Video Recap – CryptoRefills Gift Cards, Send Dash on Telegram, Venezuela Car Park Accepts Dash & More!: If you missed last week’s eventful Dash news then make sure to get caught up with Heidi’s latest Dash News video recap!
• Steve Capone of Voyager Trading App on Bitcoin Trading, Cryptocurrency Mass Adoption: Joel sits down with Steve Capone, Chief Market Officer for the Voyager investment app, to talk about key differences between exchanges and brokerage services and how Voyager aims to simplify the cryptocurrency trading management process. Then they talk about the dynamic between old-school crypto fans wanting feature-advanced platforms while new users want simplicity. Finally, they chat about Dash Evolution and Voyager’s upcoming “proof-of-keys” trading solution.
• Andreas Antonopoulos Calls Dash ChainLocks “a Smart Way of” Preventing 51% Attacks: Andreas Antonopoulos, cryptocurrency influence and educator, has recently called Dash’s ChainLocks as “a smart way of” securing a blockchain network against 51% attacks in a recent Q&A session on his YouTube channel. He also added that it is “a novel and interesting way to do a hybrid proof-of-work/proof-of-stake system, and yes, it will make 51% attacks much harder on that particular chain”. ChainLocks technically uses Proof-of-Service (PoSe) to leverage the cost of staking a Dash Masternode to make it exponentially more costly to do a 51% attack on the Dash network since individuals have to keep buying more Dash and thus bidding up the price. Ryan Taylor, CEO of Dash Core, has also said that ChainLocks makes Dash more secure than Bitcoin.
• Dash Podcast 118 – Feat. Maciej Krasowski Founder & MD For Dash Taxi: This week, Joel and Mark sit down with Maciej who is the founder of Dash Taxi, a recently funded DAO proposal to talk about the origin of the project, the motivation behind the application, and its execution. He highlighted that the goal is not to beat other rideshare services like Uber and Lyft, but to simply create a platform and use cases where consumers can transact in Dash for real life services. Additionally, they want to eventually build the platform on top of the Dash Platform with usernames and all, but until then it will act as a custodial/trusted solution. They also walk through a demo of the app and talk about the need for real world applications that use Dash as a form of payment to increase velocity of Dash as digital cash.

Dash continues to power ahead with integrations and developments that help contribute towards making Dash become digital cash. Be sure to follow Dash News to see the future integrations and developments that are coming soon.