By Joël Valenzuela - Apr 28, 2018
(DFN) Dash merchant listing site DiscoverDash has passed 1,000 listings around the world, with heaviest adoption concentration in Venezuela.
Initially announced in May of last year, DiscoverDash is a merchant listing site for Dash that aims to comprehensively list accepting businesses around the world, as well as provide usability functions and new user guides. Major adoption clusters appear in New Hampshire in the United States, Venezuela, Ukraine, and Australia, due to local communities pushing merchant adoption for Dash.
A clean directory with a live chat makes Dash more accessible and useful to consumers
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What sets Dash apart from competing currencies is its success in reaching wide merchant adoption despite not having the significant network effect lead of Bitcoin. Having a single spot to list all the major Dash-accepting businesses possible not only makes it easier to quantify adoption, but also makes said adoption much easier to realize. A powerful site that makes spending Dash easy can help boost actual use. According to Dash Force Director of International Outreach and PR Mark Mason, several important projects and individuals came together to make this achievement:
“The new and improved DiscoverDash business directory website relaunched on March 30th with 792 worldwide listings including ATM’s. Within just 4 weeks of the website refresh we’re now over 1000 listings all thanks to international grassroots outreach projects driving Dash adoption forward, particularly in Ukraine and Venezuela. I’d also like to thank Discover Dash Support and Contest Manager Albert Arellanes who has been instrumental in the successful running of the site. Everyday new businesses that accept Dash Digital Cash for payment are being added to the directory and I don’t see this trend stopping anytime soon.”
Last month, DiscoverDash was re-released with an updated theme, giving a much smoother user experience similar to services like Yelp. Additionally, the new version of the site supports a live chat function, which allows users from around the world to directly ask questions, whether for support on the site itself, or on Dash in general, removing an additional barrier to wide use.
Venezuela and New Hampshire are proving to be testing grounds for Dash’s usefulness as a currency
The area with the most significant Dash acceptance is Venezuela, a country which has experienced a currency crisis and has reason to explore forms of sound money such as cryptocurrency. At present Venezuela has 116 Dash-accepting merchants listed on DiscoverDash, with 60 in the Caracas area. According to Business development head for Dash Merchant Venezuela Alejandro Echeverría, Dash is exploding in the region because it serves as a perfect solution to the problems facing the country right now:
“Dash is the perfect currency for Venezuela right now: instant, cheap and one of the most important this is that it represents a Store of Value. Right now we are living in hyperinflation, our currency devalues each day more and more, so we need a strong currency where we can protect our work, our earnings, our savings. Besides, our payments methods are collapsing right now, there is not cash in the streets and the POS network is not working, so you can be 15-20 minutes doing a simple purchase waiting for the confirmation. Dash is instant and this wont be a problem anymore.
Also, Dash is perfect for remittances, we are helping a LOT of people living overseas to send money to their family here in Venezuela. So Dash is actually one of the best options right now that Venezuela has to overcome our crisis.
With Dash Help Venezuela we aim to support and help people with problems and questions. With Dash Merchant Venezuela we aim to boost the adoption of Dash from merchants and businesses, 3000 merchants in 3 months. Dash Caracas is doing its amazing job with conferences. So, everyday I am more convinced that Venezuela will become the very first Dash Nation in the world, not just because we want, but because we need it.”
New Hampshire is another notable Dash hotspot, with 34 listings in the semi-rural state of roughly 1.3 million inhabitants, 23 and counting in the town of Portsmouth alone, amounting to more than one Dash-accepting business per thousand people in that town. Portsmouth’s concentration of Dash businesses was famously featured in a CNN news segment about living off of cryptocurrency.