Dash: Ecosystem News. Daria Chernozub and Mikhail Pshenichnikov

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Dasha, the floor is yours. Tell us a little about yourself. Give us your elevator pitch. How did you end up in the industry and what do you do? Hello.

[00:00:07]Everyone, I'll briefly introduce myself.

[00:00:09]I'm an MSU graduate. I come from the banking sector, originally from Russian banks. I built innovation centers at Gazprombank, worked there for a long time, participated in various initiatives in Fintech. You probably all use the faster payment system and other various technologies of our banking market.

[00:00:25]Then I moved to Cyprus to live and switched from traditional finance to new finance.

[00:00:31]I immersed myself in the crypto world, really dove into it, starting with serious infrastructure projects, financial computations, and developer platforms. I worked at ICP and closely interacted with the Solana ecosystem.

[00:00:43]And about 6 months ago, maybe even a little more, purely by chance, really it was a miracle, I ended up on a random coffee call with a Master Toner.

[00:00:52]We just happened to meet in a chat, totally by accident, startup community.

[00:00:56]That's where we met and he realized that I understood the words he was saying. He was really surprised by this during the call and decided to get me involved with Dash.

[00:01:05]And I remembered that Dash was actually the first coin I ever bought in my life because my name is Dasha, so the choice was obvious.

[00:01:12]Thank you so much. Mikhail, go ahead, tell us about yourself, too. What do you do at Dash and how did you get into the industry?

[00:01:18]Well, it's similar for me. I also started out in banking for the first 2 years.

[00:01:23]I began developing commercially in 2015.

[00:01:27]But after a couple of years, the crypto era began, the boom, when Ethereum and so on appeared. I really got fired up about the whole idea of decentralized applications.

[00:01:37]Well, I've done a lot.

[00:01:41]Over the course of my experience, I've done a lot of different things.

[00:01:45]All sorts of integrations, payment processors, explorers, wallets. In 2022, I happened to come across a job opening.

[00:01:53]At that time, Dash was looking for Rust developers and I was a JavaScript developer.

[00:01:59]But during the conversation, we still managed to understand each other and realized we were a good fit. I have extensive experience with so to speak the Bitcoin protocol, which turned out to be very useful for Dash.

[00:02:12]They were just building a platform, very new, and it was also partially built on top of Bitcoin.

[00:02:18]In general, my knowledge came in handy as well, and we started working together.

[00:02:22]Super. We've had what, 6 or maybe 7 years? I remember there was a very interesting podcast featuring Dashy Dash.

[00:02:29]At that particular time, Dash digital cash was absolutely all the rage.

[00:02:33]Perhaps it still is today. And so, could you please tell us in more detail what exactly is the state of Dash today?

[00:02:41]After 12 years of existence, what kind of traction and what is the overall vision for the entire ecosystem?

[00:02:47]Dash is now focused on both payments and Web3. That is, with the launch of the platform in 2024, we have a new blockchain called Dash platform, Dash Evolution, which allows you to store user data for Web3 applications, for decentralized ones.

[00:03:05]I want to note that we are not alone in Dash.

[00:03:08]We have a large global, well, relatively large global team.

[00:03:12]They are mainly based in America.

[00:03:14]And our main dev lead, accordingly, is located in the US.

[00:03:18]And I get in a way part of the assignments from him. So, I have a directive basically about what we are aiming for. I travel a lot to conferences, especially in Asia. I started by trying to understand what exactly we need.

[00:03:30]And accordingly, we have two main focuses, just as Mikhail said. There are important tasks, a couple of assignments. The main goal is to make Dash as easy to access everywhere as possible, maybe even without KYC. Our community really values freedom from all kinds of passports.

[00:03:46]And accordingly, to spend and use it, yes, meaning it should be available everywhere. And so, that's why we partner with a bunch of different platforms. You can see how we're now working with C X D X wallets and hardware wallets.

[00:03:59]In general with various players, either they're already partners or we had integrations before and now we're actively promoting them. You can go to our Twitter, see lots of spaces, check out promotions and joint giveaways with other companies. So right now we're investing in marketing not necessarily with money, but with our time.

[00:04:15]What makes Dash interesting for developers right now? What's cool about it and what are you planning?

[00:04:21]As I mentioned earlier, we now have the Dash platform.

[00:04:25]It's an ecosystem for developers, a platform where they can build decentralized applications.

[00:04:31]In order to use and upload data from your application, you still need RPC.

[00:04:38]Everyone mainly uses Infura.

[00:04:40]So Dash is focused on eliminating that middleman.

[00:04:44]For this a separate database was created built on Graph DB and Rocks DB.

[00:04:50]It allows you to store this data and then quickly retrieve it. Plus it's also cryptographically verifiable.

[00:04:56]You can always make sure that your data hasn't been tampered with by anyone.

[00:05:02]We're putting a big focus on this platform. So you can already upload data to it.

[00:05:08]There are a large number of nodes in the network, more than 300, which allow you both to receive data and to get it back.

[00:05:15]I have an interesting question related to a recent statement.

[00:05:19]Vitalik Buterin he said that overall the Ethereum network is already doing well on its own. In general, they're not interested in layer two solutions. Their own transactions are cheap and they themselves are planning to become such a large high throughput machine because we've been in the market since 2016 and those guys who know, they're aware that Ethereum transactions used to be really expensive. For example, even just to create liquidity pools.

[00:05:46]Basically, you have a similar positioning to Dash. It combines the functions of a payment system and at the same time a Web3 platform.

[00:05:54]So, the question I'm really asking is this: Do you think these two distinct strategic directions, specifically the integrated payment system and the comprehensive web platform, actually conflict with one another in any significant way?

[00:06:07]That's the first question. Then second, how do you feel about competitors, about other blockchains?

[00:06:13]First, do they compete?

[00:06:15]I'm from the corporate world and I can say that when there are several directions, they naturally compete with each other.

[00:06:21]At the very least for attention, for budget, for the focus of employees, because those resources are not unlimited.

[00:06:28]It's important to balance our efforts here and it's really great that we have a community and a voting system because it also allows a large number of minds to think about where we should aim and how to spend our time.

[00:06:39]That's one. Second, unlike Polygon, which is only now starting to change this paradigm, we have these 12 years of experience in terms of optional privacy and payments.

[00:06:50]And that's why Dash is a popular brand and this is exactly what allows us to strengthen the direction related to the platform because you start talking to people about one topic and then it turns out that we now have this kind of add-on and that also becomes interesting. And regarding competition with other players, how do I look at this?

[00:07:06]First of all, for me personally, from a business perspective, it's very gratifying that with such a budget, not even a very large one, we're still on par with other competitors, even though their spending is actually thousands of times higher.

[00:07:20]And being able to stay close to the giants with such a much smaller budget is actually very valuable. I still call it that even now.

[00:07:27]A 12-year-old startup, but it's like a startup, the budgets aren't very big, but we're still in the race.

[00:07:34]We keep participating. We've been on the market for 12 years. We're not dying out. That's cool. So, what has already been built on the Dash platform or is being migrated there now.

[00:07:43]Let's talk a little about that. We We have a project called Yapper. It's a decentralized network built on the Dash platform.

[00:07:51]Uh though it's still in testnet for now, but I think very soon everything will go into production.

[00:07:56]You can type yap.pr in your browser.

[00:08:00]We also have a decentralized project, the torrent tracker, something like RuTracker, but it's also built on our system.

[00:08:06]We are now actively developing the ecosystem since the system is new. Uh that is uh the protocol is different uh from those that already existed on the market.

[00:08:18]Accordingly, we have to build the ecosystem from scratch.

[00:08:23]Our team is working on the SDK and wallets. Right now, we are actively building a desktop wallet.

[00:08:28]Uh we're working on an extension that allows interaction with Watry applications, an API for developers.

[00:08:37]Essentially, uh these are more client-oriented architectural projects.

[00:08:41]It would be interesting to hear how the Dash DAO governance system is organized and how decisions are made. And for example, if we as a media outlet or it doesn't matter, an outsider or a developer, what is the procedure essentially for submitting your initiative to Dash DAO and getting funding? And how does this process work?

[00:08:58]So first of all, the first thing you need to do is go into the community, either in Discord or Telegram, and understand what it's all about.

[00:09:05]That is, just coming in as a media agency and offering our services with the words, "Decide what you need, pay us money, and we'll do it." And that kind of approach doesn't work here. You need to be part of the community. In other words, if you're not in the community and you just show up, submit a proposal, but no one has seen or knows you there, there's a risk that your proposal won't go through.

[00:09:25]That's the first thing.

[00:09:27]Second, you need to talk to the main contributors. They're always visible.

[00:09:30]In the chats, you can just talk to them right there. We don't like it when people message privately. We prefer to discuss everything publicly, so we don't have to repeat ourselves three times but can answer all questions at once. Maybe someone else will read it, see it and find it useful.

[00:09:44]So accordingly talk to us, to Mikhail, to me, to Joel when you submit a proposal it's best to mention it in the appropriate section of Discord.

[00:09:52]Also keep an eye on the comments people leave under your proposal because often people read something, don't understand it and ask for clarification.

[00:10:00]That is you need to monitor this situation, respond to questions in a timely manner so that people see that you didn't just submit a proposal and forget about it but that you are actively participating in the voting process.

[00:10:12]There are Telegram groups, one in Russian, one in English and a Discord server with the appropriate section.

[00:10:18]It's better to post all this there so that people can also see this information and reflect on it. So the proposal is submitted at the end of each month and voting takes place until about the 17th. So you have a long period during which you can support your proposal in some way.

[00:10:33]That is you can write about it, provide some explanations, answer people's questions.

[00:10:38]Accordingly the funds are visible. How much budget do we have each month? It's shown on this site mnode.watch.

[00:10:44]And of course you need to take an iterative approach.

[00:10:48]Ask for more then even more. There's no need to request money for six months all at once. Our voting actually takes place every month.

[00:10:56]So there is a chance to get funding every month.

[00:10:59]And what's more, the cherry on top as I always tell everyone, is that the community really loves pro bono stories.

[00:11:05]When you contribute something, provide some benefit to Dash in some way and then you can request subsequent budgets so people can see your intention and seriousness that it's not just a one-time thing.

[00:11:15]Just for one night, like a one-night stand, but that you can also collaborate long term. We love making friends, we love staying in touch and as I mentioned we really love co-marketing. We also have a big brand so naturally we will fully support this broadcast, share the news across all our social networks that we have renewed our partnership with you and this will help support your future proposals. Let's now talk about the main directions Dash is focusing on at the moment.

[00:11:39]Which areas are you focusing on? What is the focus for the near future? In In the first place, we continue to work with the platform to work on the platform.

[00:11:49]We will soon release a new privacy update.

[00:11:52]Currently, our privacy feature is optional, and it will remain optional.

[00:11:56]Ours is a bit different from how it works in Zcash and other anonymous coins like Monero, where both the sender and the receiver are completely hidden. For us, it's something like a Bitcoin mixer, but in a self-custodial way.

[00:12:10]That is, you always have access to your funds. They never leave your wallet.

[00:12:14]In the near future, we plan to upgrade our privacy features and add support for ZK transactions at the platform level.

[00:12:22]This is a major update. It will be released soon and will allow privacy features to be used on mobile wallets.

[00:12:28]Will it be more convenient and clearer for users? We For one thing, in Europe, as always, the legislation is getting stricter.

[00:12:36]We keep getting affected by these tightening regulations. So, sometimes we shift our focus and choose locations where we can still operate legitimately.

[00:12:45]Right now, I'm looking at the Asian region with a lot of inspiration because both Southeast Asia and the CIS Asian countries are all moving toward adoption.

[00:12:56]And they're moving in that direction faster than our Western world.

[00:13:00]I don't know why that's the case or what it's connected to, but there are locations where things are really much simpler, for example, with crypto payments.

[00:13:07]In Russia, it's still completely impossible. You can't pay for goods or services with crypto at all. But, there are cities and countries where you can So, accordingly, we want to focus on them from a business perspective.

[00:13:19]And so, I believe in local hubs for global projects. That is, I believe a project becomes global and large if it pays attention to specific locations.

[00:13:27]That's why I travel so much to different countries. That's why I connect with all the local crypto communities, find the most active and progressive people there and partner with them.

[00:13:36]Even building your own hubs is expensive, but making friends with those that are already in place, those who already have awareness is much cheaper.

[00:13:44]That's the situation we're in. We have the global Dash brand. They have local presence, and we can exchange with each other. That's why the focus is on new locations.

[00:13:53]There are some changes happening in the road map, changes in direction that aren't immediately updated on the road map itself.

[00:14:01]But here, let's read. 3.1 shielded balances. Overall, it's March 2026, but probably not in March anymore. It will likely be in April.

[00:14:11]By the way, I think they've already updated it here, actually. They've updated it.

[00:14:17]This is a technical kind of road map.

[00:14:18]It's written by DCG, meaning Dash Core Group. It's their own.

[00:14:22]Well, Platform 3.1 is exactly what I mentioned. ZK privacy update on the platform.

[00:14:30]In April, iOS Dash Pay wallet.

[00:14:32]iOS, an update to the iOS wallet with platform support for uh on Android, our wallet has already been updated to work with the platform.

[00:14:40]There you can register names and so on.

[00:14:43]This is the update for iOS.

[00:14:47]The second quarter is Dash Core 24.

[00:14:50]This is the new version of Dash Core.

[00:14:52]There will be some improvements, new features.

[00:14:56]3.2 is an update for the country's platform protocol, so that it will be possible to retrieve the number of documents in a data contract.

[00:15:05]A very important thing, which I'm also really looking forward to.

[00:15:08]Right now, we really need to focus on building infrastructure, not so much for people who will interact with Dash, but rather for autonomous agents that will be able to engage and communicate directly with Dash.

[00:15:19]Because in the near and foreseeable future ahead of us, I think fewer and fewer people will actually be purchasing products and services manually themselves. I've been working with startups since university.

[00:15:31]After I graduated, I went into accelerators and innovation centers. So, this isn't really a new story for me. I don't have that wow reaction. It's something we've actually been working toward for a long time, for many years.

[00:15:43]And that's why I've always talked about robo economics.

[00:15:45]This is the term for when robots use money.

[00:15:48]We don't work. We relax. Robots perform tasks, record everything on the blockchain structured and transparent, and pay each other with tokens.

[00:15:56]Their automated vehicles pay at automated gas stations. The money is withdrawn somehow automatically. I absolutely believe that we are not far from this at all. It's going to happen very soon. So, I completely agree with you.

[00:16:08]Friends, I suggest we wrap up the first part here. I think we'll be doing this more than once again. Maybe a more extended version, perhaps with some That would be interesting. There are a lot of Dash teams. I've looked at different developers, and there are also individual guys. As a media outlet, we can invite them as well and listen to their point of view, regardless of what language they speak.