A lot of people forget the reason Bitcoin and cryptocurrency were invented - to threaten the monopolies and oligopolies of central banks around the world which abuse their power. Like it or not, Bitcoin is threatening to banks. That's why a system of independent funding like the Dash treasury is so important, an autonomous system of funding which reduces the chance of moneymen moving in to take over an operation and direct it in a way which serves their interest, rather than ours.

In this video, I explain the problem of commercial banks and central banks constantly looking for ways to take down cryptocurrency, and how the Dash treasury provides some shield against that onslaught. Thank you for sharing this video and thanks for being cool! Scroll down to watch and listen to the episode.

What is wrong with most crypto funding?

Bitcoin poses a risk to commercial banks, central banks, tax authorities, and even the idea of a state. When you have a monopoly or oligopoly, the idea is to shut out the competition, prevent it from even arising. With crypto popping up from the primordial soup of the Internet, it's not so easy. The ledger is distributed, the power is decentralised. No individual miner or node controls the network. So if you want to take a system like that down, where do you go? You don't attack it at a software level, a protocol level. The system is too well designed for that. You go for the weakest link - you go for the people.

You see that the project has a lack of money, you move in and offer them something. Then down the line you ask them to make certain changes in the code. Eventually you end up with either a failed project, or a watered-down one which no longer has the disruptive potential of the original, and no longer has the potency. That would be relatively easy for a project like Bitcoin, which has no funding of its own.

With ICOs, they raise money at the beginning, and use those funds to build the project... But what do they do if the money runs out? ICOs attract scammers, because the money can come in a lump sum, all at once, so there's no ongoing accountability. Many ICOs will just take the money and run.

Let's talk about how the Dash treasury addresses those problems.

What is the Dash treasury?

The solution is to create a system of ongoing funding, not provided by an external source, but one that actually comes from within the system.

With many coins, the newly minted coins go to either the miners or the stakers, who maintain the integrity of the network. With Dash, 45% goes to miners, 45% goes to MN, and 10% goes to the treasury. The MN do a few things for the network, but one important job is, the MN holders vote on where the treasury money goes.

Every month they vote, and the money is distributed. Proposals are made on DashCentral.org and published on the blockchain - making the system resistant to censorship.

Originally it was intended to fund the dev team, which it does and more. This does also mean that if the dev team ever got out of line, or wasn't providing the results that the MN holders expected, or even gets corrupted, they could potentially defund the dev team. I hope they'll never have to do that, but the potential of losing ongoing funding does give them an incentive to keep delivering good results.

Now, the treasury funds a lot of projects, including a few media teams such as Dash Force News, and sponsoring planes and MMA fighters such as Rory MacDonald.

The treasury also funds important outreach projects that go beyond marketing. For example, in Caracas, Venezuela every month they hold a Dash conference to educate people about cryptocurrency. They also fund a Dash call centre, so people from Venezuela can call and get someone to guide them through the process of setting up a wallet. That means crypto is no longer the domain of nerds.

A lot of these projects in the crypto market go up in crazy bull runs... then they come back down, and they often have nothing to show for it. With Dash, every time the coin gets pumped, that means more projects can be funded. When the market peaks out and starts tumbling down, they still have a lot of the advertising, conferences, media sponsorships and public awareness.

Withstand the pressure

One important ideal behind Bitcoin was to create a system which provides an alternative to the traditional banking system, arguably the most powerful industry on the face of the earth today. The system that replaces it has to withstand the pressure of banks leaning on it, and that's why the Dash treasury is such an important innovation, removing one easy route to domination.

Thank you

Thanks for listening, thanks for sharing this with your friends. Every time you share a Cryptonomics video with your friends, an ICO gets its wings. Thank you, stay grateful!

Check out the work of talented graffiti artists in the video: Tuister_1 on Instagram and Delgan_ on Instagram.

The Episode

You can listen to the episode on Anchor and other podcasting services here: Cryptonomics - Banksters vs Dash Treasury. Or watch on YouTube below:

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