Hello fellow Dashers!

In this issue, we bring you a recap of the latest developments and accomplishments within the Dash ecosystem.

Read on to learn about GroveDB, Dash's stance on our continued availability in European markets as well as the latest improvements made by our mobile, infrastructure, support and dev teams.

As always, we aim to foster wider adoption of Dash, and we provide updates on our efforts to incentivize merchants and enhance user experiences.

Enjoy reading!

GROVEDB BY DASH

Introducing GroveDB, one of the most powerful tools for constructing web3 infrastructure. GroveDB stands at the forefront as a pioneering database that enables cryptographic proofs for intricate queries.

Originally developed for Dash Platform, GroveDB seamlessly integrates with other applications that require similar functionality.

So, what can GroveDB do for you? Here are some of its standout features:

Query Proofs: GroveDB is the first-ever database to support proofs encompassing complex queries beyond simple single-key retrievals. This capability opens up new possibilities for advanced data querying.
Secondary Indexes: With GroveDB, you can effortlessly create indexes on any field, including unique and compound indexes. This flexibility allows for efficient organization and retrieval of data within the database.
Mutable and Immutable Data Storage: GroveDB comes equipped with built-in functionality that seamlessly supports both types of indexes within a single database. This integrated capability ensures a comprehensive and adaptable solution for efficient data management and retrieval.
Inclusion and Absence Proofs: GroveDB revolutionizes data verification with the introduction of Merkle proofs. This enables accurate verification of item presence or absence, enhancing data integrity and security in the database environment.
Operation Costs: Gain valuable insights into operation costs with GroveDB, allowing you to assess and estimate costs accurately before executing them. This feature empowers users to make informed decisions and optimize resource allocation within their database operations.
ACID Compliance: Experience the benefits of ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) compliance with GroveDB. This robust database ensures data integrity, reliability, and transactional consistency, providing a solid foundation for secure and dependable data management.

In summary, GroveDB offers unparalleled functionality compared to other databases, making it an exceptional choice for your web3 infrastructure needs.

Youtube

DASH REMAINS AVAILABLE IN EUROPE

In recent months, we have seen a few exchanges that list Dash try to mitigate the perceived regulatory risk of not complying with government agencies requirements for so called “Anonymity Enhanced Cryptocurrencies” (AEC) by considering a Dash delisting;

Today I want to share with you the approach we recommend these Dash partners take, and how despite the persistent labeling in the press of Dash as a “privacy coin” there is no technical basis for this label, nor such delisting actions.

We intend to share with the Dash community details, data and facts that we usually provide to the compliance areas of exchanges, about how Dash is NOT a Privacy-Centric Cryptocurrency from a technical perspective, and how they can comply with regulations and keep Dash listed on exchanges.

Usually, government agency’s efforts do not directly indicate a demand delisting of specific AECs, but a request to comply with a set of rules, and regulations; including the travel rule, KYC requirements, screenings and more; that is why it is important for us to reinforce to them that Dash is clearly not an AEC to begin with!

Being a fork of Bitcoin, all Dash transactions are completely transparent. All inputs, outputs, addresses, and amounts are recorded on every transaction and viewable - by anyone - on its public blockchain.

Dash’s Coinjoin feature is a branded implementation of non-custodial CoinJoin, and industry leading experts like Chainalysis and Perkins Coie agree.

For example; Chainalysis stated in their announced coverage for Dash, “It’s possible to perform mixing transactions that are functionally identical to Dash’s Coinjoin on other technologically similar cryptocurrencies. This means from a technical standpoint, Dash’s privacy functionality is no greater than Bitcoin’s, making the label of “privacy coin” a misnomer for Dash. In fact, independent wallet softwares provide more advanced forms of CoinJoin [e.g., Chaumian CoinJoin] that are being used with major cryptocurrencies not labeled as privacy coins such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.”

Source: https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/introducing-investigations-compliance-support-for-privacy-coins/

Also, Perkins Coie stated “since CoinJoin can be used in connection with Bitcoin transactions just as readily as Dash allows, Dash is technically no more of a “privacy coin” than Bitcoin, therefore the widespread perception that Dash is “privacy-centric” does not accurately reflect its actual functionality.”

Source: https://www.perkinscoie.com/images/content/2/3/237411/Perkins-Coie-LLP-White-Paper-AML-Regulation-of-Privacy-enablin.pdf…

In the past, there have been instances where exchanges decided to remove Dash from their platforms. However, after Dash teams informed the exchange compliance teams about the aforementioned facts and tools, all of these exchanges reversed their decision and relisted Dash.

Our commitment remains unwavering and we will continue updating and sharing this information to exchanges, banking partners, and regulators. Our goal is to ensure their deep understanding and education on the subject matter. We now know it is possible for them to recognize that exchanges possess all the necessary tools to adhere to both regional and global regulations while maintaining the listing of Dash. This is a win for exchanges, because by doing so, they can provide their users with the finest payment network in the cryptocurrency realm, as Dash is a pioneering force in the cryptocurrency industry.

Just this past week, we successfully activated V19.2 with resounding success, which means that Evo Nodes are here, also the BLS signature scheme has been upgraded!

This brings Dash Platform closer, which will make Dash capable of hosting its own applications. DashPay and blockchain-based usernames are coming soon, followed up with many highly anticipated announcements that we are eager to share.

While this year has been challenging for all in crypto, and the next months will continue to put strains on this nascent industry, all of us who are building for the long term, will see our results come to fruition with better, more efficient financial tools developed for this new world.

I am happy to know that European Dash users can continue to be served on their favorite exchanges!

This is your monthly reminder: Let’s keep building!

MOBILE

In June, both Android and iOS teams fixed some bugs surrounding the Coinbase and Uphold integrations, some crashes and added a new integration with Coin ATM Radar which adds more ATM providers and other services that allow for the buying and selling of Dash across 45 more countries. The latest release on both platforms also ensured a smooth transition through the activation of the v19.2 Core protocol.

As always, if you are a Dash-accepting merchant, anywhere in the world, please submit the details of your location here and we will have you added to the Explore Dash inventory. Any merchant who gets two customers to tweet about a Dash purchase at your location will get a shout-out in a Dash Wallet message and on our social media.

CORE TEAM UPDATES

The Core developers wrapped up v19.2 updates in June and then completed thorough hard fork activation testing with the support of the infrastructure team. Following successful testing, v19.2 was released mid-month to enable the v19 hard fork activation in early July. This release also included improved mixing support for light clients and an enhancement for ChainLocks that can be helpful if network instability is encountered.

Development on v20 continued throughout June, with preliminary builds created for internal use by the Platform team. The enhanced hard fork implementation neared the review stage, and substantial progress was made on using Guix for the build process. Additionally, the team began researching how to best integrate Sentinel functionality directly into Core.

Core developers worked on 59 pull requests in June, including bug fixes, optimizations, and general code improvements. Bitcoin backports continued as always, with completion rates now at 87% for v0.20, 52% for v0.21, 30% for v22.0, and 14% for v23.0.

DASH EVOLUTION

Catch up with the latest news on Dash Platform and Core on youtube

INFRASTRUCTURE

In June, the infra team worked on link and content maintenance on dash.org, officially released the grovedb.org site, added several new documentation pages and updated design, with a particular focus on mobile. Infrastructure was set up to support an upcoming platform contract management site. A fix was applied to try and get language selection working reliably again on dash.org, and a review of the design and content of the front page of dash.org was initiated. Regular forum maintenance and moderation work was carried out, as well as routine staff access maintenance, and following up on invoices to reduce costs. Work to update our mainnet and testnet block snapshot system was completed, ensuring it is back on the correct chain after both networks experienced forking, with documentation updated. Core was updated to 19.2.0 on ElectrumX infrastructure.

The team worked intensively with core devs to complete testing and validation of v19.2.0, and prepared PRs to BTCPayServer in support of the July activation deadline. We identified two bugs in core relating to sync speed with multiple wallets loaded, and being unable to start mixing on a wallet loaded after startup. Work was started on enabling mixing in deploy tool, and a decision reached to cease code signing for Dash Core Windows binaries for cost reasons.

On testnet, cost overruns on burstable instances were noticed and traced to high CPU usage in Tenderdash. The team worked with Tenderdash devs to trace the issue to the inclusion of deadlock detection in production binaries, and deployed and tested an update to resolve the issue. HTTP2 connections to evonodes were also tested on testnet. We similarly supported platform team with testing and validation of Platform 0.24 on testnet, successfully starting platform chain and setting up automated testing, which continues to pass with no errors. We reviewed work related to the dashmate DMT UX and ZeroSSL support, and redesigned the network deploy tool to persist ZeroSSL certificates even after platform is redeployed.

Finally, we worked closely with platform team to close multiple remaining bugs in the AWS-runner supported CI system, eventually resolving all known issues and reducing the duration to build a release from almost 1.5 hours down to 20m with cold cache, and just 2-3m warm thanks to an extremely efficient and high-speed method of populating cache on ephemeral runners. We expect this to further reduce our AWS costs and allow devs to iterate and test their code faster when this highly advanced and long-awaited update is finally merged.

DASH SUPPORT

June was an interesting month at the support desk. This month was focused on improving our personal processes and streamlining our work to respond more quickly to incoming requests. Our top contributors to Dash Explore onboarded seven brand new merchants to Dash Explore. We had some setbacks getting those online due to some back end issues, but those we resolved before the last integration cycle.

The rate of viable to discarded tickets remained steady this past month with the impression that we are receiving more business related tickets and integration requests than we have in some time. The support desk is generally the first organ to experience these subtle changes in market sentiment. We escalated the most promising of these to the Business Development team.

Finally, we are reaching a milestone. The support desk should, within the next 5 or 6 weeks at most, cross the 20,000 served tickets mark. This is an important milestone for the support desk and reflects Dash Core Group’s commitment to serving the community. We are open 24/7-365 to help both onboard users and provide both technical and non-technical support.

Dash is changing for good. Stay in the know and follow our updates!

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Dash Core Group

June DASH Newsletter