Even If It Fails: Why Dash Could Have a Lasting Impact on Crypto Adoption

His startup, Kuvacash, was seeded with a grant for roughly $550,000 worth of the cryptocurrency from the Dash Treasury DAO, a pool of mining rewards that allows dash fans worldwide to submit proposals and vote on which ideas get funding.

The Dash Treasury DAO alone has granted over $33 million worth of dash since 2015, $2.3 million of which went to projects in developing countries such as Zimbabwe, Ghana and Kenya.

The Dash Core startup, which stewards the dash network, learned people in the developing world can drive adoption on their own when given free capital and technical support.

"In the same way that you have a credit card that might say JPMorgan Chase on it, and its powered by Visa, it's their own brand of services and its powered by dash," Dash Core Group CEO Ryan Taylor told CoinDesk.

According to Taylor, dash is seeing the fastest adoption rates in places with high inflation and easy access to mobile phones.

Dash Core Group employees often give away small amounts of crypto to users in places like Venezuela.

Take, for example, Venezuela, where according to the Dash Core Group, hundreds of merchants are now transacting with dash thanks to local advocacy programs.

One such merchant in Caracas, food truck entrepreneur Alejandro Valderrama, told CoinDesk he hasn't learned about any other blockchain technologies or engaged with the dash community beyond his own customers and dash ambassadors.

"If people convert their dash into something that has a higher probability of lasting for a longer time, that's great. But if they don't, they will be scammed or lose all their value and hate all crypto going forward."

Since there's no substitute for giving people tools to help themselves, dash adoption may deliver the most impact in places where entrepreneurs run their own experiments with support from technical experts.