This week has continued to be another fantastic week for the Dash community. Continue reading to get a summary of the week.

Dash Integrations of the Week:

  • Bitcoin.com Launches New Cryptocurrency Exchange With Dash Trading Pairs: Dash has been added to the new cryptocurrency exchange that features many top cryptocurrency pairs, including Bitcoin Cash as a base pair. This comes as the latest exchange to add Dash, which further helps expands the on-ramps to Dash and easier adoption. The marks a pivotal role in making the cryptocurrency ecosystem more robust since most fiat on-ramps require users first move between fiat to Bitcoin or USDT.
  • Dash Added to Vietnamese Bvnex Cryptocurrency Exchange with Dong Fiat Trading Pair: The Vietnamese cryptocurrency exchange Bvnex has added Dash, including a fiat trading pair with the Vietnamese Dong, as well as InstantSend support for deposits. This adds to their previous Dash/USDT pair. The integrations will not only expand Dash liquidity in the growing Southeast Asian cryptocurrency market, but will dramatically reduce the time it takes for them to move fiat on and off the platform.
  • Dash Partners with IQ CashNow Adding 1,000+ New Dash-Accepting Merchants: Cryptocurrency ATM and merchant solution provider IQ CashNow is integrating Dash to their network of 1,000+ Dash-accepting merchants and 250+ additional ATMs. Their merchants and ATMs are located across Austria, Spain, Greece, Italy, and Turkey, the US, and Ecuador and IQ CashNow plans to soon integrate traditional payments like credit cards to make their platforms more versatile and more likely to be adopted. IQ CashNow specifically cited Dash’s speed and low cost as a reason for its integration.

Dash Community Development of the Week:

  • Dash Shifts Focus to Merchant Buyback Options to Create Closed-Loop Ecosystem: EletroPay, the merchant POS solution, recently released a new video demonstrating new features including a NFC Dash card and the ability for merchants to sell Dash to consumers. This is similar to Dash Colombia’s initiative of buying back Dash from merchants that wish to sell. Not only does the ability to sell to consumers turn merchants into cryptocurrency ATMs, but it offers better adoption incentives since merchants now have a larger ability to cash out to pay other bills that currently do not accept crypto. Creating this closed-loop ecosystem helps jumpstart a cyclical economy.

General News of the Week:

  • Can Bitcoin Survive “China Mining Pool Attack” Without ChainLocks?: A 2018 research paper explored Bitcoin’s vulnerability to compromise by the Chinese government due to the significant concentration of mining pools geographically located in China. The paper discussed that “over 80% of Bitcoin mining is performed by six mining pools, and five of those six pools are managed by individuals or organizations located in China”. While Dash also has a significant mining pool concentration in China, its recent innovation of ChainLocks makes the network more robust by also requiring attackers to control a significant portion of Dash Masternodes, which are located on Servers around the world with many in Europe and North America.
  • First Blockchain-Only Birth Certificates Recorded By IBM, Raising Stakes for Security: Tech company, Growth Tech, partnered with IBM to register the first birth certificate on the blockchain. The milestone not only marks a major adoption and usage leap for the technology, but also raises the security stakes since a person’s identity is now at risk. This highlights the importance of Dash’s recent release of ChainLocks which makes the Dash network further secure against attacks.
  • Argentina Reinstitutes Capital Controls Setting Up Cryptocurrency Boom: The Argentinian peso is down more than 35% against the US dollar in August alone, their central bank’s foreign exchange reserves are now only at $58 billion, 25% below the April peak, and the IMF predict a GDP shrinkage of 1.2%. Thus, the president has reimplemented capital controls in an attempt to stabilize the economy ahead of an upcoming election. Investors typically fear capital controls for fears of getting their money stuck in a worsening economy, such as Argentina which currently has 54% inflation. Cryptocurrency can help solve this problem since it can move seamlessly between borders not being controlled by governments and also gives more power to smaller families that can be dramatically impacted by not having free choice with their money.
  • Bitcoin Lightning Network Security Vulnerabilities Exposed, Profitability Struggles: The Bitcoin Lightning Network, which was designed to scale Bitcoin, is continuing to face issues including security vulnerabilities and the shutting down of nodes due to bad economic incentives. So far, up to 25% of all the nodes operating on Lightning Network have shut down with some nodes making around $0.001 in fees. This draws attention to Dash for being able to function with support up to 3 million transactions in 24 hours in its stress test while keeping fees below a penny and transaction times near-instant.
  • Can Cryptocurrency Help Baby Boomers Relying on Social Security for Retirement?: Nearly half of all baby boomers currently plan to retire mostly on Social Security funds, however, the fund is quickly running out of money and will barley support 40% of the expected retirees required budget. Cryptocurrency offers a potential solution by insulating individuals against inflation, however, it does have volatility which harms elderly individuals more than younger individuals. Nevertheless, Dash does has diversification options such as CrowdNode, the masternode sharing platform, which allows individuals to invest for as little as 1 Dash and thus elderly individuals do not have to commit their entire savings to reap the benefits of Dash’s payouts.

 Dash Media of the Week:

Dash continues to have key integrations and developments as it powers ahead with more adoption progress. Make sure to follow Dash News for the latest news as Dash works towards becoming digital cash.