What might the future hold for the price of Dash?
Launched in 2014, Dash (DASH) is an altcoin with a focus on privacy and fast transactions. As one of the 20 biggest cryptocurrencies by market cap at the time of writing, Dash has attracted plenty of interest from crypto enthusiasts around the world.
However, in a highly competitive market known for its volatility, you’ll need to assess whether Dash is well placed to rise in value before deciding whether you should buy any coins. To do that, we need to take a closer look at how Dash works, and the challenges and opportunities it will encounter in the months and years ahead.
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Quick facts
| Coin name | Dash |
| Symbol | DASH |
| Algorithm type | X11 |
| Mineable | Yes |
| Launch date | January 18, 2014 (as XCoin) Rebranded to Darkcoin on 1/18/14 and then to Dash on 3/25/15 |
Dash price prediction
Predicting the future price of any cryptocurrency is difficult. Not only are cryptocurrencies complicated and highly volatile, but their prices can be impacted both positively and negatively by a wide range of variables.
The table below outlines some of the key factors you’ll need to assess when calculating what the future holds for Dash:
What could drive Dash’s growth?
- Supply. The maximum supply of Dash is capped at 18,900,000. According to CoinMarketCap, the circulating supply of the coin at the time of writing (3/7/18) was 7,930,891 DASH. This limited supply could potentially result in increased demand in the future.
- Demand. The popularity of privacy coins shows that there is demand among the crypto community for currencies that offer security and anonymity. Fast and affordable transactions are also sought after, and these are all areas that Dash aims to tackle.
- PrivateSend and InstantSend. Dash’s InstantSend feature allows payments to be confirmed in under a second, while PrivateSend mixes your transaction inputs with those of other users to obscure the origins of your funds and protect your privacy.
- Advantages over bitcoin. Dash is able to offer faster and cheaper transactions than bitcoin, the world’s biggest and most visible cryptocurrency. This could increase its legitimacy in the eyes of the general public.
- Accessibility. Dash is listed on an extensive range of cryptocurrency exchanges and can also be purchased directly with several fiat currencies. This makes it easily accessible to cryptocurrency newcomers and also helps improve public perceptions of its credibility.
- Voting system. The Dash network features an autonomous governance system that allows anyone to submit a proposal to the community, and that proposal is then voted on by Dash’s network of more than 4,000 masternodes. 10% of the block reward is set aside to fund these development projects.
- Merchant acceptance. Dash is already accepted as a form of payment by a number of merchants – you can check out the full list on the Dash website. If more companies start accepting Dash, this could potentially drive up demand.
- Active community. Dash is also backed by an active community of users that engage with the project. To take a look at what’s going on, check out the currency’s Reddit.
What could hold Dash back?
- Lack of widespread adoption. A key barrier to the success of any cryptocurrency is its ability (or otherwise) to achieve widespread adoption. While many cryptocurrencies aim to offer a viable alternative to fiat currency, a world in which the wider community sees them as such is still a ways off.
- Competition. One key factor that could impact demand for Dash is competition from other peer-to-peer cryptocurrencies designed to offer privacy and/or fast and affordable transactions. Expect Dash to face competition from bitcoin, Monero, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin, among others.
- Bitcoin improvements. While we’re on the topic of Dash’s competitors, the bitcoin community is looking at several proposals and developments (Lightning Network, for example) designed to help overcome its scalability problems. If successful, these could impact the price of Dash.
- Bitcoin price drops. Dash is most commonly listed in currency pairings with bitcoin (BTC) on cryptocurrency exchanges. As a result, like many other cryptocurrencies, its price is closely linked to the performance of bitcoin.
- Association with criminal activities. Every coin that aims to offer private transactions unavoidably develops associations with illicit activities. For example, in February 2018 a Europol spokesperson listed Dash as one of the most popular cryptocurrencies among criminals.
Where to buy Dash (DASH)
Read our step-by-step guide to find out more about buying Dash
What’s coming up in Dash’s roadmap
To find out how a coin’s price is going to move in the future, take a look at the technological upgrades and releases scheduled in its roadmap. Dash’s roadmap reveals that the key development in the coming months will be the launch of Dash Evolution.
Evolution is an API and mobile app designed to be a user-friendly and scalable digital currency platform suitable for mass adoption. It will allow any user to set up an account on the blockchain, add contacts and pay them by name, as well as make one-click purchases through websites or mobile apps.
Evolution is set to be launched in three stages, with the alpha stage scheduled for June 2018.
Dash’s competition
The performance of Dash’s competitors may influence the future price of this coin, either positively or negatively. When forecasting future Dash price changes, remember to consider how Dash compares to its key competitors, including:
- Bitcoin (BTC). The world’s biggest cryptocurrency has a big influence over the performance of the digital currency market in general. It also faces some key challenges in the months and years ahead as it battles to solve problems with scalability.
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Created in 2017, this hard fork of bitcoin aims to offer faster transaction speeds and lower fees than its older brother.
- Monero (XMR). Designed to be secure, anonymous and untraceable, Monero is a privacy coin that uses several methods to anonymize transactions.
- Litecoin (LTC). Designed to be faster and cheaper than bitcoin, Litecoin was launched in 2011 and is one of the world’s top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization at the time of writing.
- Nano (XRB). Originally known as RaiBlocks, Nano aims to offer zero fees, instant transactions and infinite scalability.
- PIVX (PIVX). A hard fork of Dash, PIVX was developed with the aim of providing anonymous, fast and low-fee transactions.
- Zcash (ZEC). Another cryptocurrency focused on privacy and protecting user identities, Zcash is built on top of bitcoin’s core code.
Beyond 2018: What does the future hold for Dash?
Cryptocurrency price predictions are highly speculative, so it’s impossible to say with any amount of certainty what level of growth we can expect from Dash in the next 12 to 18 months.
However, what we do know is that the release of Dash Evolution will be a crucial milestone. Evolution is an important stepping stone on the road to providing an easy-to-use and instant cryptocurrency payments platform, so the success of the platform could have a big impact on Dash’s price.
Evolution will be a huge factor in Dash’s efforts to break into the mainstream and achieve widespread adoption. However, the Dash project will face stiff competition from a long list of other digital currencies, including everything from privacy coins to others focused on fast and cheap transactions, and this competition is a major obstacle that will need to be overcome.
Dash is well placed to continue its steady growth and work toward its goal of becoming the most user-friendly and scalable payments-focused cryptocurrency in the world. Of course, whether or not it can achieve that goal remains to be seen.
Bottom line
The most important thing to remember if you’re thinking about buying Dash is to do your research first. While Dash’s accessibility, transaction speed, privacy features and governance system are all big advantages, the challenge to fight off the competition and become the No. 1 digital cash system is a big one.
Monitor news and announcements of the Evolution project closely, and remember to carefully assess all the factors affecting the price of Dash before deciding whether this coin is worth buying.
Images: Shutterstock
At the time of writing, the author holds IOTA and XLM.
