Join us online and in your community! Dash users discuss ideas, share their skills, and work together to fix payments for everyone.
Dash is both a currency and a peer to peer payment network to facilitate its use. The Dash network is operated by its community of users, and anyone can participate by downloading and running the open-source Dash software. Some users can even earn Dash performing services for the network, such as validating and securing transactions.
Dash is a highly secure payment system thanks to the compute-intensive cryptography that underpins the network. Anyone can contribute processing power to help secure the Dash network and be compensated for their contributions.
Because of the competitive nature of this process (called “mining”), we only recommend doing it with specialty hardware named ASICs, that use chips specially designed to efficiently perform the calculations that secure Dash.
The key to Dash’s speed, security, and enhanced capabilities is an innovation called masternodes. Dash masternodes are operated by our community of users. They constitute the backbone of the Dash network, relaying user transactions and confirming them globally within seconds. Masternode operators are paid to provide these services to the network, and act as stewards of the network by voting on budget proposals.