New Dash ChainLocks feature protects the network against 51% attacks

Christina Comben
Updated

Rather like updates on iOS, Dash continues to roll out its Evolution product in versions. The latest one – V.14 – was released on May 22 and comes with a feature called ChainLocks which, according to the network, “nearly eliminates the threat of 51% mining attacks”. This is a first for Proof-of-Work (PoW) blockchains.

Dash Evolution V.14 improves security and usability

When Coin Rivet spoke with Dash COO Robert Wiecko earlier this month, he reiterated that Dash’s main goal from here on in was improving the user experience. That’s exactly what this latest upgrade is aiming to achieve.

It offers users improved speed and greater security simultaneously. The ChainLocks feature prevents 51% attacks on the network while InstantSend allows users to make real-time payments.

According to the official Dash blog post, whenever another network has managed to reduce wait times, they have done so at the expense of network security. This makes them vulnerable to attack, but ChainLocks:

“will provide users with the real-time payments they expect at an extremely high level of security through the second layer masternode network”.

The network that considers itself the leading digital currency for payments claims that V.14 will “substantially” improve the user experience.

Long Living Masternode Quorums (LLMQs) is central to it all

Increased security and speed depend on what Dash calls Long Living Masternode Quorums (LLMQs).

Long Living Masternode Quorums are (as the name suggests) masternode quorums of finite duration. Their purpose is to validate transactions and events on demand – without actually having to form the quorum.

Think of them as trusted members of the network that can act alone to save time and grant users with greater confirmation speed. They also optimise the network consensus and place less stress on individual nodes.

Through these LLMQs, the ChainLocks feature makes it almost impossible for a 51% attack on the network to occur, regardless of the number of resources available to potential attackers. LLMQs also reduce network overhead and improve the scalability of the Dash blockchain.

CEO of Dash Core Group Ryan Taylor enthused:

“This release has been a major moment on our calendars for quite some time, and I couldn’t be prouder of the work being done by the Dash developer community. Our goal for Dash Evolution has always been for it to make Dash the most user-friendly blockchain-based payment system in the world, and the release of Version 0.14.0 is a significant leap forward in that endeavour.”

Further use cases for Dash beyond payments

Taylor went on to say that network security is infinitely bolstered through ChainLocks, and that LLMQs “open up a whole new world of potential use cases for Dash beyond payments”.

The Dash network has been rolling out features of its Evolution product gradually. This is to set the stage for the eventual release of Dash Core v1.0. Once this is finally complete, Dash aims to become more widely used by developers who can build dApps easily upon Dash without having to run a full node. This is possible through decentralised hosting.

Also to be rolled out with the completion of Dash Evolution is Dashpay, which is a consumer-facing payments app that massively improves the user experience, replacing complex lengthy wallet addresses with usernames.

Bob Carroll, CTO of Dash Core Group, remarked:

“With each release, Dash gets increasingly closer to realising its potential as ‘digital cash’.”

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