by A. Horrigan
10-Mar-2018
These are show notes from a live interview on WPKN radio with Amanda B. Johnson, hosted by Jim Motavalli and Alice Horrigan and aired January 30, 2018. Here's the full replay.
Amanda B. Johnson is convinced dash, a cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $4.1 billion, will bring cryptofinance to the masses. It will “feel like PayPal, and you’ll get to be your own bank,” she says.
It’s rare to find someone who can explain blockchain technology and dash as well as Johnson does. She articulates clearly in a measured tempo, with a slightly comic delivery. She created the Dash School and Dash Detailed video series and just launched a new series called Just Around the Block with co-host Diamond-Michael Scott.
Like bitcoin, dash is a cryptocurrency, but the team has coded a different back end to offer “money as a service” like a bank, says Johnson.
For everyday items like a cup of coffee, payments must be instant. Bitcoin and other predecessors are slow, notes Johnson, while the dash blockchain processes a transaction in as little as a second: “That’s what really sets us apart from the entirety of the cryptocurrency space.”
Similar to credit cards and cash, dash offers both public and private transactions. This is another difference from bitcoin. While bitcoin transactions can be traced back to individuals, the Dash PrivateSend feature makes it so transactions can’t be tracked, just like the anonymity of cash.
Merchants will accept dash as payment because the fees undercut credit cards, says Johnson. (Currently, about 700 merchants accept it.)
Dash is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), an entirely new business model that people are creating with open blockchains. No particular person is in charge.
Anyone can download a copy of the Dash blockchain and use it. But to be a voting member, like a shareholder, one must own a substantial amount of dash. In this way, a voting member (called a “masternode”) naturally wants to do what’s best for network users.
This staking system is another difference from bitcoin. While bitcoin miners make 100% of mining fees and don’t have a mechanism for voting on network decisions, dash miners split their fees with masternodes and the Dash Treasury—the latter which pays service providers to the network such as coders and marketers. Masternodes then vote to allocate dash from the Treasury.
This is how Johnson gets paid to work for the Dash team. The Vote Tracker shows all the proposed projects and there’s a Dash forum on the proposal process.
Dash—like all cryptocurrencies—isn’t yet as easy to use as PayPal. As Jim Motavalli notes in our interview, cryptocurrencies are like the first cars, which weren’t much better than horses. Johnson will be creating a step-by-step video, and a new version of dash is coming out this year that will be easier to use.
“The entire process—from the buying to the sending to the wallet back-up—is being very seriously re-worked right now” to make it more user friendly, says Johnson.
Until that happens, here are starter steps provided by Johnson in the interview:
Buy some dash at Uphold.com. This is a California-based company that Johnson likes to use for exchanging dollars and other fiat currencies with cryptocurrencies and sending funds across 186 countries. Follow steps to create an account, complete the member verification process, follow directions for connecting a bank account (you can also use a credit card but there’s a 3.99% fee) and for buying dash.
Move your dash to a digital wallet: Whenever you own cryptocurrency such as dash or bitcoin, you should move it into a digital wallet and use that wallet to send and receive the cryptocurrecy. Don’t leave your cryptocurrency on Uphold or any other exchange. Johnson likes to use the Jaxx cryptocurrency wallet. Download it onto your phone or desktop and choose dash as a cryptocurrency you would like to use. Follow directions for backing up your master “seed”—a string of words—so you’ll be able to restore the wallet if you lose the device it’s on.
To exchange dash for dollars or other fiat currency, you must first send it to Uphold and transfer it into your bank account from there.
Dash Resources
- Amanda B. Johnson on Twitter
- Just Around the Block
- Dash
- Dash School
- WPKN interview with Amanda B. Johnson
About the Show
Jim Motavalli is a widely known freelance journalist, speaker, book author, radio personality and expert on all things environmental. He blogs weekly for The New York Times, Mother Nature Network, BNET and The Daily Green, is a regular contributor to The New York Times’ "Automobiles" section, and has a weekly syndicated "Wheels" column. Alice Horrigan is a writer and creative content manager specializing in blockchain technology, with a background in journalism, business and IT communications, and a master's degree in cultural sociology. She recently started blogging about blockchain and cryptocurrency on Steemit.
WPKN is a 10,000-watt non-commercial, listener-supported radio station in the United States, founded in 1963. The station serves a potential listenership of 1.5 million in Connecticut, Long Island, and parts of New York and Massachusetts. Programs include music and alternative information, in an eclectic mix of free-form programming that seeks to serve those whose needs are not met by mainstream media in a unique and vibrant way.
Listen to the full radio interview with Amanda B. Johnson.
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