PEOPLE OF DASH: TroyDASH, Peacemaker & Masternode Owner
Q: How did you find out about Dash?
A: I bought bitcoin for the first time in October 2014. At the time I saw it as an investment opportunity. I was also intrigued with the technology and realized there was much more to learn about it, so after bitcoin I ended up going to coinmarketcap.com and researched each coin down the list to find out what made these projects different, how they worked, and why people deemed them valuable. By Summer 2015 I landed on Dash as the most promising project because I felt that Dash had the best plan for scaling over the long term.
Q: What’s your main contribution to Dash? Are you a masternode owner?
A: My focuses in Dash are community-building and governance. I was a moderator in the first public Dash slack channel, which was started by Buster in February 2016 in an effort to increase engagement and collaboration from Dash users outside the core team. I started realizing the potential of the real-time chat platform when we crowd-funded to hire Amanda B. Johnson to produce the popular Dash School YouTube series. However, after growing divisions between the slack owners and the rest of the Dash community came to a head in September 2016, I approached Tao of Satoshi about continuing with his brilliant “Dash Nation” idea and re-starting the new Dash Nation slack, where I am also currently with the moderator team. I share Tao’s passion for maintaining a constructive and respectful culture in our communication channels, in order to make Dash Nation a place where everyone feels welcome and can use their many talents to help one another.
As a masternode owner I am able to vote on Dash proposals, but I feel that contributing to discussions to help the community come to informed decisions on governance issues may be even more important than my actual votes. Dash’s treasury is controlled by what is something like a decentralized board of directors, and this is the first time in history that something like this has been done. Fostering effective communication among masternode owners and the other entities in the Dash DAO is going to help us grow in this uncharted territory.
Q: What’s different about Dash when compared to other coins?
A: Dash’s development has been driven by people who have incredible programming skills but who also understand economics, incentives, and the financial industry. There has been a strong emphasis on solving scaling issues *before* they become a problem. The structure of the Dash DAO gives us the benefit of being able to hire efficient, organized teams without needing to trust a central authority to raise funds and control the purse strings. The masternode owners can quickly adapt to changing circumstances and are able to quickly resolve key disputes that might otherwise fester in the community for a long time.
Q: How is Dash Nation unique in the crypto-space?
A: I think that Dash Nation is leading the way in a movement in the industry towards more professionalism. One result of this is a more diverse community, where we see things like the #WomenOfDash for example. Another manifestation of this is greater transparency and reporting for core team activities and finances, relative to other crypto projects. On social media, expect Dash postings to focus less on egos, less on trolling, and more on real solutions and opportunities.
Q: Do you have any predictions about how Dash Evolution will change the game?
A: Cryptocurrencies creating trustless stores of value, payment networks, smart contracts, or asset tokens are all great, but in order for a solution to be valuable, it needs to actually be *usable* by humans, not just machines, and not just humans who are exceptionally good at using machines. Dash Evolution will combine innovative technology with a recognition of the human factor, offering features that people want, and with an ease-of-use that is actually competitive with the established financial industry. I expect that to be a powerful formula.
Q: What are the pros and cons of Dash?
Con: Growing pains. The size of the available budget has been accelerating faster than the Dash DAO has found ways to effectively spend it.
Con: Dash is not yet easy to buy or spend directly relative to Bitcoin or fiat currencies.
Pro: Availability of instantly locked transactions and built-in optional privacy.
Pro: Virtuous cycle of increasing self-funding and increasing adoption.
Pro: @moocowmoo.
Q: Anything else you want to add?
I would encourage readers to review the recently published Dash Evolution roadmap (https://www.dash.org/2017/06/27/roadmap.html), and also to pay attention to Evan Duffield’s new series of publications (https://medium.com/@eduffield222/latest), which outlines his vision for Dash and how we can achieve it. If you are excited about what Dash is doing and want to be a part of it, now is a great time to get involved. Come join us at Dash Nation slack! Here is your invite link: https://dash-nation-invite.herokuapp.com — tell them @TroyDASH sent you :)
About the author:
Stellabelle works for the Dash DAO as an editor, writer and artist. She also is a top writer on Steemit.com. Her first book, Un-Crap Your Life is available on Amazon in ebook or paperback format.
