Dash has had a whirlwind year in 2018 so far, with over 23 new integrations and dozens of new partnerships.
While the cryptocurrency markets have experienced a severe correction since last winter’s exuberance, Dash has continued to claim achievements week after week, resulting in at the minimum 23 new integrations over the first quarter of the year, and many more partnerships. Notably, 20 integrations and major partnerships were achieved in January alone, kicking the year off to a strong start, with continuing momentum through until Spring.
Integrations
In the first quarter of the year, Dash has been added to dozens of different services worldwide, from exchanges to payment processors and more.
Exchanges/buying options Dash was added to at least 14 different exchanges and buying platforms in Q1 2018. Mercury Cash, Bitit, and GODEX now allow customers around the world to have easy and streamlined ways of purchasing Dash, as does recently added Payza, which due to pending legal issues is unavailable in the US currently. Coinfield also launched in Canada, adding a new CAD buying option for Dash. Latin American exchange BitINKA, Brazilian exchange NegocieCoins, and Spanish exchange Bitnovo all added Dash as well, expanding buying options to Latin American and Spanish users. Vietnamese exchange Bitcoin.vn and Malaysian exchange RocketPay similarly added Dash, expanding its reach in Asia, and Coinfinity added the ability to buy Dash at gas stations and convenience stores all across Austria. Finally, MorphToken added Dash to its instant cryptocurrency exchange platform, and WebMoney and Abra added Dash to their respective token-based exchange and investment platforms.
Services Dash was added to global online payment processor GoCoin, which enabled dozens of different integrations, including CheapAir, meaning users can now buy plane tickets in Dash. Merchant processor PayBear also added Dash, as did India-based QuikWallet, opening up Dash as a payment option for thousands of businesses around the country, including bill-paying services. Dash was also added to mobile refill services Piiko and BitRefill, as well as social media advertising company StrikeSocial, and pawn shop merchant software Bravo Pawn Systems. Finally, the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) partnered with BlockCypher to experiment with buying and selling electricity on smart meters using Dash.
Partnerships and Ecosystem
In addition to the above mentioned integrations, Dash has also secured numerous partnerships with major players around the world, below being a list of some of the more major ones.
Promotional partnerships Most notably, Dash partnered exclusively with independent journalist Ben Swann, as well as the associated Reality Check segment and the Truth in Media project, bringing Dash to millions of alternative media viewers around the world. On the MMA front, Dash was the highest sponsor of Bellator World Welterweight Champion Rory MacDonald, and partnered with fellow Bellator fighter and MMA promoter Chael Sonnen, bringing Dash awareness millions of fans through two of the most recognized figures in the sport. Dash reached a promotional deal with major fantasy sports site FanDuel, achieved through negotiations by Dash Aerosports, which was featured prominently on US sports television channel NBCSN. Finally, Dash Caracas entered into its sixth and seventh conferences in Venezuela, reaching thousands, and onboarding hundreds of merchants to accept Dash in the country facing an economic crisis.
Investment and research partnerships Investment company Neptune Dash, publicly traded across various stock exchanges worldwide, became the first to mainly focus on setting up and operating Dash masternodes for its business model. The FirstCryptoETF token followed suit, setting up a Dash masternode as a hedge. Finally, the Arizona State University Blockchain Research Lab received $350,000 in grants from Dash.
Dash ecosystem In addition to the various external partnerships and integrations acquired by Dash, several important achievements were cemented in its own ecosystem. The Dash Core Group became a legal entity owned by the Dash decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), likely the first legal setup of its kind, and hired a new CFO in order to expand on its increasing duties in the network. Micro-proposal DashBoost entered its public beta, eyeing a wide release soon, allowing smaller projects to receive funding that would not be suitable to the main treasury. Proposal accountability service Dash Watch has launched, keeping track of past contractors before the Dash network, allowing the masternodes to easily verify the status of funded projects. Finally, Dash Force-run merchant listing site DiscoverDash was relaunched, offering a much smoother experience and listing over 800 merchants at present, as well as a live chat, which soon will offer 24-hour support to Dash-related questions around the world.
