Ryan Taylor, the CEO of Dash Core Group, has recently claimed that a new update adding ChainLocks and other improvements to Dash, make its transactions “instantly respendable.”
During an interview with Bloxlive.tv, Taylor initially described problem with proof-of-work-based cryptocurrencies and their vulnerability to potential 51% attacks. He added that the systems used to prevent these attacks make it so that certainty needs to be develped, which takes a few blocks to occur.
Per his words, “when you send Bitcoin or most other cryptocurrencies, you have to wait until that certainty develops.” The CEO added that for Bitcoin some services require six confirmations before accepting funds, which usually takes an hour. While this isn’t a problem for online transactions, it’s a barrier for transactions with physical merchants.
During the interview, he claimed 97% of transactions worldwide still occur at the point-of-sale, and that Dash addresses these types of payment solutions, unlike most other cryptos.
Following the release of #Chainlocks… @Dashpay CEO, Ryan Taylor talks to me about the unique usability of #DASH
📲 Click to see the full interview on @BloxliveTV: https://t.co/nQbLWqP0z0 pic.twitter.com/BZi7DVHCmb
— Layah Heilpern 📺 (@LHeilpern) July 11, 2019
Taylor added that while some cryptocurrencies added “checkpoints from a centralized server” to try and overcome these challenges, this carries its own risks. Dash’s recent update added Long-Living Masternode Quorums (LLMQs), which essentially see some of the network’s masternodes vote on a block when it’s found to determine its validity.
The CEO noted that this means the “network knows that a transaction is valid and makes it instantly respendable.”
If 60% or more of them agree that this is valid block, that means that the majority of the network did see that block first and it broadcasts a message to the rest of the network that says at this height, this is the valid block and any other blocks will be rejects. So that certainty develops in about four to six seconds.
Coupled with new InstandSend features, Taylor claimed this means users can buy Dash at an ATM and walk over to the counter of a store without having to wait for the network to confirm transactions.
It’s worth noting that analysis conducted by a Reddit user earlier this year saw that, as of January, one single entity appeared to be in control of most of Dash’s hashrate. Per the Reddit user, three of the top four Dash wallets controlling thousands of blocks mined on its blockchain belonged to the same entity.
During his interview Taylor seemingly addresses this, as he claimed that to attack the Dash network it would be necessary for the attacker to have a majority of the hashrate and control “20%, 25% of the coin supply.”