Cryptocurrency networks are mainly used to send financial transactions. The capacity at which such transfers can occur helps shape the future of individual projects. For Dash, its recent “stress test” proved to be quite successful. Over 3 million transactions were recorded with relatively minor issues reported. A very big milestone for the altcoin network.
The Latest Dash Stress Test
In the cryptocurrency world, stress tests are an important aspect. Although these periods heavily inflate the number of transactions, they also test the network’s resolve. Processing more transactions is an ongoing development for all major cryptocurrencies. Most projects beat Bitcoin in this department with relative ease. The latest to do so is Dash, an altcoin popular among privacy-oriented users.
The stress test was conducted earlier this month, during which over three million transactions were completed in a 24-hour period. A different stress test in July of 2018 saw barely 464,000 transfers achieve a level of completion. This further confirms a lot of progress has been made by the developers in recent months. This news comes at a most opportune time for the altcoin.
#Dash community we did it! 🏆💪🚀 The stress-test is now over. It was a huge success & we managed over 3 million @Dashpay transactions in ⏰ 24 hours! That's a new ATH record for a #Bitcoin based #Blockchain! A special thank you to @BennyNitschke for your efforts today 👏🙂 pic.twitter.com/uMLC4PWkRu
— Mark Mason | markmason.btc (@MarkMoneyMason) November 12, 2018
Bitcoin Cash, prior to forking a few days ago, conducted a big stress test in September. That venture saw 2.1 million transfers complete in a 24-hour period. Dash’s latest numbers improve upon this number by nearly 50%. It is a major milestone for this altcoin, though there is still room for future improvements. Because of these results, Dash is – in an ideal world – one of the most competitive cryptocurrency networks.
Other Key Results of Note
Every cryptocurrency stress test is about more than just the number of transactions. In the case of Dash, negative network impact was minimal during this period. Network nodes did not see any major changes in terms of resources. At the same time, some masternodes were unable to cope with the demand. This is primarily due to memory and space requirements not being met. Masternodes are run by individual users and require decent hardware to survive this mass throughput.
This further confirms that masternode owners need to beef up their hardware. A fair few nodes are hosted on a VPS coupled with a “cheaper” hardware plan. Setting up a masternode on a computer under one’s control is usually the better option. Especially if Dash’s transaction throughput continues to grow over the coming years.
Several days after the stress test, another scaling improvement was presented. InstantSend, a feature native to Dash, can scale in a significant manner. The potential “limit” of this feature depends on the number of active masternodes. For now, the theoretical maximum of InstantSend transactions cannot be fit into all network blocks. This further confirms a bright future lies ahead for Dash. Scaling remains an ongoing struggle for all cryptocurrencies.
What do you think of the results of Dash’s latest stress test? How does it compare to the recent Bitcoin Cash stress test? Let us know in the comments below.
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