First of all, what is DASH?
Digital Cash, or, Digital Currency
Say, per instance, that your friend sends you a message on Instagram, saying that it is worth money. This could ,theoretically, be used to buy stuff, if enough people started using it.
But, there's a problem with this form of money. Remember that message you received saying it was worth money. Well, that message could be repeatedly sent to people over and over again; creating new digital money.
So? What's wrong with having an unlimited supply of money? Well, I'll tell you why.
The reason for this is something called: Inflation. Which means, that while money is rapidly multiplying, it is losing it's value. If gold were as common as dirt, how could that be valuable? Let me tell you something... It wouldn't.
If gold was that common, do you think people would buy houses with this stuff? No, no they wouldn't. If gold were that common, people would be throwing it away left and right.
But, to prevent this problem, what if you used a digital ledger? Using a ledger would be able to keep track of how much money each user had. And, with some kind of wallet software that read the ledger for you, you wouldn't have to worry about sending more money than you have.
If you sent, per say, 3 units of digital money to your friend Dave, when you only had 2, your wallet would know.
The way that your wallet keeps track of your money, is by using blockchains. Blockchain is just a chain of information blocks. Each block holds updates about what people have done with their digital cash.
Now, the reason it is safe to use this type of money, is because of SECURITY. Each user has a copy of the current block. Lets say that, Donn's copy says that you have 4 units of money, but Harry's says you have 3. This can cause major problems.
If the majority of people's copies say that you have 3; then an update is made stating that you only have 3.
Now that you have read this article, you can better understand how the basics of DASH work
