Dash

Dash is a decentralized currency similar to Bitcoin. Dash uses the blockchain data structure and the proof-of-work consensus protocol. Dash solves some of the major issues that are caused by Bitcoin. Here are some issues related to Bitcoin:

• Transactions take a few minutes to complete, and in today's world, we need transactions to complete instantly. This is because the mining difficulty in the Bitcoin network is adjusted in such a way that a block gets created once in an average of every 10 minutes. We will learn more about mining later on in this book.
• Although accounts don't have an identity associated with them, trading Bitcoins for real currency on an exchange or buying stuff with Bitcoins is traceable; therefore, these exchanges or merchants can reveal your identity to governments or other authorities. If you are running your own node to send/receive transactions, then your ISP can see the Bitcoin address and trace the owner using the IP address because broadcasted messages in the Bitcoin network are not encrypted.

Dash aims to solve these problems by making transactions settle almost instantly and making it impossible to identify the real person behind an account. It also prevents your ISP from tracking you.

In the Bitcoin network, there are two kinds of nodes, that is, miners and ordinary nodes. But in Dash, there are three kinds of nodes, that is, miners, masternodes, and ordinary nodes. Masternodes are what makes Dash so special.