10 Reasons Why Dash is not an "Alt" Coin

[DeepBlue]

This post will explain why DASH is not an "Alt" Coin and should not be labelled as such.

The term "Alt" coin or "Alternative Coin" was first used to describe any cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. But what are the consequences of using such a term to describe DASH? And, is this term even relevant?

By labelling DASH as an "Alt" coin it automatically diminishes the perceived value of DASH implying that DASH is just an "alternative" to what Bitcoin can offer. But is this label of an "Alt coin" even true?

The world "Alternative" implies an option that is a justifiable replacement for something else. So, let us see if Bitcoin is a justifiable replacement for DASH.

1. DASH has fully confirmed transactions in 1 second making it instantly spendable and therefore making it a viable Digital Cash. Bitcoin can take between 10 minutes to 1 hour to have a transaction confirmed. So, if you want to buy your coffee, be prepared to wait around for anything between 10 minutes to 1 hour before you can walk away with it when paying with Bitcoin. Paying with DASH however you can leave right away with transactions confirmed, locked and re-spendable in 1 second.

2. DASH offers a decentralised governance decision-making structure that enables consensus to be reached in a single voting cycle that takes approximately 30 days. Bitcoin communities can have feuds that last years. Bitcoin eventually splinters into numerous other projects such as BCH, BSV, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Diamond etc etc and who knows what else. Bitcoin resolves conflicts through forking - splitting the project. DASH moves forward through democratic voting system.

3. DASH offers a self-funding mechanism that consistently pays for developers and other projects to boost DASH. Bitcoin relies on donations and is therefore has an unreliable funding source.

4. DASH is 51% attack resistant through Chainlocks and the Dash Masternode network. Bitcoin is vulnerable to 51% attacks.

5. DASH offers privacy at the protocol level and this tech is built into the DASH core wallet, meaning that users do not need to worry about the security of their coins unlike with Bitcoin where you would have to use a 3rd party mixer which may, or may not, be trustworthy.

6. DASH is about to release a decentralised platform for building apps. Bitcoin does not offer such a platform.

7. DASH is about to release usernames for sending and receiving DASH. This provides greater ease of use and much greater security for users. Greater security because the user can more easily check the address they are sending their funds to compared to a long list of unintelligible characters which could be changed by a hacker if the user copies a receiving address to a clipboard.

8. DASH has the decentralised Dash investment foundation that can hold assets legally on behalf of the network. Bitcoin does not have any way to have legal contracts or agreements with any organisation.

9. DASH is scaleable due to Chainlocks and the Masternode network enabling the DASH network to reach Visa levels of transactions if we voted to increase the block sized. Bitcoin is currently not scaleable.

10. Dash Trust: The DASH trust holds the Dash Core Group assets legally and therefore ensuring that the DCG are held accountable to the network. It also ensures that the DCG cannot splinter off and do their own thing with the code or IP. Bitcoin dev team do not have any such accountability. Previously the Devs working on the Bitcoin project such as Gavin Andresen was locked out of the Bitcoin project as lead developer. This cannot happen with the DASH project due to the legal protection the trust gives the DASH network. Since the network are the benefactors of the Dash Trust the control remains with the network for the control of the development of DASH.

Since DASH offers so much more than Bitcoin is it right that a term such as "Alternative coin" be used when Bitcoin cannot even do a small fraction of what DASH can do?

The word "Alternative" used to describe thousands of other coins also automatically gives Bitcoin a perceived status of being No.1. The word "Alt" coin is of course used by Bitcoin maximalists because it has an automatic diminishing undertones for other cryptocurrencies such as DASH.

The word "Alt" may have been applicable in the early days to describe forks of Bitcoin that did not offer much in the way of additional functionality but is that word applicable now?

I feel the DASH community need to stop using the word "Alt" coin to describe DASH. Dash is not an "Alternative" coin to Bitcoin. Dash has evolved beyond Bitcoin to offer a superior Digital Cash payment system that Bitcoin cannot offer. DASH is the next generation of Bitcoin similar to how iPhone replaced Nokia analogue phone. Would you call the iPhone an "Alt" phone?

DASH, therefore, should not be labelled as an "Alt" coin. It is no longer rational to compare Bitcoin with DASH. DASH is a revolutionary new Digital Cash payment system that has way superseded Bitcoin and is the next generation payment system.

 

[GrandMasterDash]

Coin mixing is done at the protocol level but it's not entirely trust-less, not yet anyway. Dr. Tapp has previously explained how masternode(s) could, in theory, be modified to track transactions as they pass through. Indeed, the bulk of coin tracking / user tracking is done in real-time as it hits the mempool.. the on-chain part is just one aspect of privacy. More so, while the big chain analysis companies have tools they rent out to financial institutions and government agencies, the average end user has no clue / score to how well mixed the coins he's receiving. Not to mention how little used it is because it's so slow and cumbersome.

The security of usernames is not so much that it's easier to check spelling etc. It's more secure because adding contacts is a two-way process and done once. Once setup, you don't have to search or type it again, you just select the user and send.

But as you know, dash's security on mainnet is about to degrade. During Dash Platform development, Dash Core Group realized there were security risks, which prompted them to introduce the Microsoft virtual machine / JIT compiler. In effect, Dash Core palmed security off to an outside third party. The problem gets worse because now, even if Dash Core Group wants to have an independent security audit, well they can't because MNOs are voting for them not to do it.

But I agree, calling coins "alts" is demeaning.

 

[Cofresí]

But as you know, dash's security on mainnet is about to degrade. During Dash Platform development, Dash Core Group realized there were security risks, which prompted them to introduce the Microsoft virtual machine / JIT compiler. In effect, Dash Core palmed security off to an outside third party.

lolwut?

Sorry to derail this very valuable thread, but it would be really great if you could explain how on earth you come up with this? I saw this claim before when I read your proposal, and if I hadn't automatically rationalised it as being you making just an arbitrary example of possible third party tools which could potentially be used in platform I would have pointed out this misconception earlier. I now realise that you honestly think we will use a Microslush product as a dependency. Fyi I've never seen anyone in Dash Core Group particularly fond of Microslush products. Thinking about it I only know of one guy in DCG who's role isn't really that of a dev who is rumoured to occasionally touch them. Could it be that you are confusing our dependency on isolates-vm https://github.com/laverdet/isolated-vm with Microsoft virtual machine /JIT compiler? Or are you talking about the JIT compilation of javascript code using chrome's V8 engine, which is the backbone of nodejs itself. If it's isolates then to explain the reason of using them just a little: they are basically a tool that creates a sandbox for us to safely execute a potentially malicious contract without it being able to have any impact outside the sandbox. As such it enhances security instead of degrading it and makes third party contracts, meaning dApp contracts of any developer, possible in the first place. It is thus an essential security feature. Also it's meant for platform nodes to decide how to calculate the complexity of contract execution and thus decide on the exact State Transition price (future optimisation). @antouhou would be able to explain more about that. BTW, one of our more obvious security policies is to have as little dependencies as possible to third party libraries. We only introduce new deps when it is hardly avoidable.

You've shown good intuitions before GMD and I guess you and me don't mind too much if you're spending an extra 5 Dash to the network every so often when something is irritating you. It has already become something of a trademark. I do however think that there are more efficient ways to get your questions answered or doubts removed. E.g. there are special Evonet related channels in both discords where misconceptions such as this could be cleared up in minutes or days depending on our devs work load. Also this forum does get read occasionally by devs and we do our best to answer any tech related questions.

As to the external security audit you desire: it has been an essential item of our roadmap forever. As @QuantumExplorer has pointed out to you already, it would be premature to do that at this very moment and would be a waste of time and money, because Evonet is not stable enough yet. We will complete an internal security audit first before a completely independent security audit will be scheduled. Our CTO will go into security and testing related strategy on the soon to be held quarterly call.

Hope that will clear up some things. Please let me know if I misunderstood your claim of platform using a Microsoft virtual machine. I would be worried myself it that were the case.

 

[GrandMasterDash]

@Cofresí Thank you for this explanation and it's somewhat good to hear dash devs are shy of using Microsoft products / third party libraries etc with such important code.

My concerns regarding an independent audit(s) still stands though because, to my knowledge, dash has not initiated such action for many years. It's not that I don't trust dash devs but out of genuine concern given the amount of changes that have occurred. As a developer, I'm sure you'll appreciate the importance of a fresh set of eyes. All the other major projects I can think of (decred, zcash, beam, tezos, cardano etc) have all undergone independent audits and I feel it will benefit all dash stakeholders to follow suit.

Thanks

 

[DeepBlue]

But as you know, dash's security on mainnet is about to degrade. During Dash Platform development, Dash Core Group realized there were security risks, which prompted them to introduce the Microsoft virtual machine / JIT compiler. In effect, Dash Core palmed security off to an outside third party. The problem gets worse because now, even if Dash Core Group wants to have an independent security audit, well they can't because MNOs are voting for them not to do it.

This is the second time in a week that GrandMasterDash has derailed my post with his own agenda that is not directly related to my post theme. This post is not about GrandMasterDash's security poll. What GrandMasterDash is doing is to find a possible tangential link with what I've written, so that he can spin the conversation to his own pet agenda. Each time he is derailing my work.

This post is not about your poll GrandMasterDash. It is about DASH not being classed as an Altcoin. The focus needs to remain on that for this post to be of value to the community. The fact you tagged on a single sentence as follows is contemptible when you spent the majority of your post talking about your unrelated topic.

But I agree, calling coins "alts" is demeaning.

Your quote above is not a valid contribution to this post, it is a weak attempt to appease an objection being raised to derailing my post.

In your previous derailing you complained that MNOs "can't be bothered" about contributing. Well, maybe the reason is there are people like you that are deliberately killing constructive debate by derailing posts with the agenda that you want to talk about. You, you, you again. When I , and others, have provided you with constructive feedback on your topic you don't listen. So what is the point in contributing to your polls and posts when you don't want listen?

GrandMasterDash why don't you create your own post about your own topic? Could it be that you've found nobody would be interested in commenting in your posts because you don't listen to others feedback? So, to get some attention you behave like a cuckoo. You have to lay your irrelevant topic into another contributor's posts so you can get feedback on what you want to talk about.

I had another 5 posts planned on Decentralized decision making however I'm considering if the Dash Forum is the best place to post my content.

I suggest the DASH forum change how it operates. If someone takes the time to create a post at the forum they should also have the right to be the moderator of their own post. They should be able to remove derailing posts from other users and to delete messages that are irrelevant. If the user that caused the derailing wants they can always create their own post, therefore it cannot be classed as censorship. If creators of a post don't have control over their own post to keep them on topic, then how can the Dash Forum be a place to encourage focused and healthy discussion?

 

[GrandMasterDash]

This is the second time in a week that GrandMasterDash has derailed my post with his own agenda that is not directly related to my post theme. This post is not about GrandMasterDash's security poll. What GrandMasterDash is doing is to find any possible tangential link with what I've written, so that he can spin the conversation to his own pet agenda. Each time he is derailing my work into speaking about his topic which is unrelated directly to theme of my posts.

This post is not about your poll GrandMasterDash. It is about DASH not being classed as an Altcoin. The focus needs to remain on that for this post to be of value. The fact you tagged on a single sentence as follows is contemptible when you spent the majority of your post talking once again about your unrelated topic.



Your quote above is not a valid contribution to this post, it was a weak attempt to appease an objection being raised to derailing my post again.

In your previous derailing of my post you complained that MNOs "can't be bothered" about contributing. Well, maybe the reason is there are people like you that are deliberately killing constructive debate by derailing posts with the agenda that you want to talk about - you you you again. When I , and others, have provided you with constructive feedback on your topic you don't listen anyway. So what is the point in contributing to your polls and posts when you don't listen? Then you complain MNOs don't contribute! Derrr, I wonder why that is?

GrandMasterDash why don't you create your own post about your own topic? Could it be that nobody would be interested in commenting in your posts because you don't listen to others feedback like you did with my feedback? You're acting like a cuckoo, I wonder why that is? Perhaps you feel you need to lay your topic into another contributors posts so you can get feedback on what you want to talk about.

I had another 5 posts planned on Decentralized decision making however now I'm considering if it is even worth posting on the Dash Forum any more.

I think there needs to be changes to how the Dash Forum operates in order to for people such as myself who want to contribute quality content. I am beginning to feel it is not worthwhile continuing to contribute to the Dash forum when there are people such as GrandMasterDash consistently derailing my posts with their own pet agenda.

I suggest the DASH forum change how it operates. If someone takes the time to create a post at the forum they have the right to be the post owner and moderator of their own post. They should have the right to move derailing posts from other users and to opt to either create a new post with the derailing posts or to delete messages that are irrelevant to the theme of the original post. If creators of a post don't have control over our own posts then I feel it is not worth contributing to the Dash Forum going forward when there are people like GrandMasterDash consistently derailing posts for their own objectives.

Haha, now you're just being paranoid. I replied with three paragraphs. The first two paragraphs related directly to points 5 and 7 of your original post, namely coin mixing and username security / Dash Platform. How is it you can mention security but I shouldn't respond to it?

We can keep this simple:

A. You can block me, and
B. I will try not to respond to your posts unless you reference me, either directly or indirectly.