With the price increase we have seen in Dash this year, month, week certainly Dash works as a store of value.  We all like to think of Dash as Digital Cash but what strides have been made toward that goal this year?  In this time of crazy price appreciation and multi-million dollar monthly Dash treasury budgets it is good to look at what makes Dash “worth it.”

Irrational Exuberance

I am trying to counteract my own case of irrational exuberance with the recent price run-up and many large projects being voted on in the Dash treasury I have to keep myself anchored in realty.  When talking with relatives this holiday season how do you explain Dash?  A recent conversation I had went something like this:

me: Yes I have a new part-time job writing articles for a website called Dash Force News.

What is that?

me: Have you ever heard of Bitcoin?

No

me: OK Bitcoin and Dash are “internet money” not controlled by any government.

Oh yeah Bitcoin is that stock that is going up really fast I saw something about it recently.

me: Sort of. Dash is a competitor of Bitcoin it is newer and has more cool features.  It is a “digital currency.”

Where can you spend it?  How is better than my VISA card?

me: You can buy Amazon gift cards at a discount.  There is a site that shows about 500 places that take Dash.  You don’t have to worry about the gov’t messing with your Dash like banks can (his daughter works at a bank so that fell flat).  Oh yeah and the price is up from about $12 at the beginning of this year to over $500 now.

Is this a good time to get in? Do you think I should buy some? Will it keep going up?

It always seems like all they hear is price appreciation.  I am giving out several paper wallets for Christmas this year to people that were in that conversation – and now the price of Dash is up over 40% since then.  It is easy to sell the “store of value” part of Dash but I am not comfortable pushing that to friends and family.  What happens if there is a 25% or even 50% price drop?  I am still ahead but they won’t be happy.

Dash as Digital Cash

If you think about it as a middle class consumer with access to banks and credit / debit cards without discounts there is little reason to use digital currency (see this DFN article.)  We don’t pay any fees directly. You can spend “paper” cash for free.  The merchant pays the fee on your credit / debit card.  Services like paypal, venmo, square cash all offer free transactions (mostly) from the consumer side.

Square the POS company has the “cash app” where you can send money (and now buy and sell Bitcoin) easily.

 

Venmo which is a PayPal company makes it easy to send money for free.

Look at the list of Payment Methods supported by Braintree (another PayPal company.)

Conclusion

I am very optimistic about Dash and it’s efforts to be used as digital cash. I know it won’t happen overnight but the strategy of supporting “niche markets” where there is a solid use case for crypto seems to be a good plan.  Legal cannabis, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, overseas remittances and Irish pubs are just a few of the niches currently being supported by the Dash treasury that can benefit greatly from the use of Dash Digital Cash.