What is Dashcoin?

Dash (DASH) is an open source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that offers instant transactions (InstantSend), private transactions (PrivateSend) and token fungibility. It was rebranded from "Darkcoin" to "Dash" on March 25, 2015, a portmanteau of "Digital Cash". Dash operates a decentralized governance and budgeting system, making it the first decentralized autonomous organization. Dash uses a chained hashing algorithm called X11 for the proof-of-work. Instead of using the SHA-256 or scrypt it uses 11 rounds of different hashing functions.

The currency was launched in January 2014 as "Xcoin" by Evan Duffield, as a fork of the Bitcoin protocol. It is an altcoin and in its early days it was subject to pump and dump speculation. It was rebranded as Darkcoin, which received press from the media as being used in dark net markets. In March 2015, it rebranded again with the name Dash as a portmanteau of "digital cash". As of August 2016, Dash is no longer used in any major dark net markets worth noting.

The Dash DAO uses the 10% it receives from mining to invest as the DAO chooses, using a decentralised voting system. This has allowed the creation of many funded organizations, including Dash Core Group, Inc. (DCG), which supports continued development, integrations, and other activities of Dash.

Source: en.wikipedia.org