Dash Strategy Statement

Dash is an open-source project that delivers safe decentralized financial solutions. The Dash Project Team aims to build and maintain an innovative decentralized payment network which acts as the core of an ecosystem of engaged consumers, merchants, and service providers. This network provides users with a private, fast, and fungible digital currency to be used in both physical and online transactions. Dash will foster a robust ecosystem of modern digital products and services and will cultivate adoption of this ecosystem through education, promotion, partnerships, and engagement of potential users on the benefits of crypto-currencies and Dash. With project funding, governance, and a huge team of supporters, Dash is positioned as strongly as ever to deliver incredible progress against our strategic goals in 2016. The Dash Project Team has detailed our long-term strategy focused on five strategic objectives. Each of these five objectives are critical, as they will act as guideposts for the entire team as we formulate our roadmap for the coming year.

• Develop leading crypto-currency software that combines all features of cash and digital money
• Design and implement a marketing plan to position Dash as a leading solution in crypto-industry
• Expand the network by focusing on new adoptions and integration within the existing target markets, and attract new financial industry partners
• Maximize our impact through open and honest communication, seeking to be transparent and providing access to information and data
• Build an efficient project organization to support the Dash Project Team, Dash Users and the Dash Community

Strategic Areas of Work

Software Development

Dash was created in January 2014 with the initial goal of developing a privacy-centric coin. The privacy solution implemented called for a two-tier network to perform transaction anonymization services for end users, and represented nothing short of a paradigm shift in the potential structure of a decentralized network. It was quickly apparent that this second tier of the network could perform any number of specialized services, not just anonymization. This realization prompted the Dash Project Team to develop solutions for instant transactions (InstantX), decentralized governance, and a system to enable network-funded proposals - historic firsts in the crypto-currency landscape.

The Dash Project Team intends to continue addressing more of the challenges and disadvantages facing crypto ecosystems and technology. In terms of software development, the team is currently working on making Dash easier to use for mass-market adoption. The next major iteration of Dash - dubbed "Dash Evolution" - will make the use of Dash straightforward and simple for consumers, merchants, and service providers. Instant transactions and financial privacy will be further integrated into the core of the product and turned on by default. In addition, Dash will enable cross-platform / cross-device solutions that will deliver the look, feel, and experience provided by leading centralized services such as PayPal.

Marketing

The Dash Project Team believes that effective marketing is critical for building brand awareness and rapidly expanding our user base. The Dash Project Team will formalize the community's marketing efforts by developing a comprehensive marketing plan, with the primary objectives of building brand awareness, increasing consideration of using Dash, and ultimately capturing market share for Dash's suite of solutions. It will achieve this through a combination of traditional marketing, promotion activities (e.g., conferences, speaking engagements, sponsorship), search engine optimization, and engagement with the broader cryptocurrency community.

The team believes that marketing is most effective when it is aligned with our other strategic objectives (e.g., targeting high-potential use cases in conjunction with the necessary software capabilities and partnerships). The Dash Project Team hopes to increase its active user base by targeting large and often under-served markets such as China, Latin America, and Russia. We will also identify sizable segments of the market which are more likely to be responsive to Dash's marketing and solutions (e.g., use cases requiring privacy or instant confirmations). Lastly, we will encourage key market influencers to become supporters or promoters of the Dash project.

Business Development

Dash can only deliver utility to its users if a robust ecosystem of services are available to fulfill Dash's full potential. The Dash Project Team can foster and shape the ecosystem of services that surround Dash through a comprehensive business development strategy. Business development efforts will seek to identify potential partnerships that will deliver value to the Dash ecosystem as measured by 1) potential impact, 2) cost and effort required to support, 3) timing of potential benefit, 4) fit with strategic objectives, and 5) likelihood of success. Specific capabilities required to support a robust ecosystem for Dash users include widespread ATM adoption, integration with leading exchanges, availability of fiat exchange, price-locking services, integration with payment processors, and supported options for hardware and web wallets.

Another critical aspect of business development is merchant acceptance. While other aspects of the business development effort remain the priority in the near-term, the Dash Project Team will opportunistically seek to partner with merchants that have the potential to deliver greater utility and adoption to users and are a good fit for showcasing Dash's unique capabilities.

Communication

As an open-source project, communication and a policy of openness are extremely important. Effective communication drives development of the ecosystem by keeping the community engaged and contributing in a manner that can fully compliment and support the efforts of the core team members and Dash's business partners. It also provides assurance to our partners and merchants concerning the project direction, progress, and timing of key events, which enables them to invest in the Dash ecosystem with greater confidence and reduced risk. However, the Dash Project Team is also mindful that early release of some information is not always prudent, such as the status of nascent partnerships, in-progress negotiations, or circumstances involving in-progress trade secrets (e.g., of a new business partner service launch for example). Therefore, while it is not always practical or even possible to be fully transparent and public with the Dash community, the Dash Project Team will balance the needs for openness and confidentiality by erring on the side of openness whenever convincing evidence of the need for confidentiality is absent.

Project Organization

With such a large and rapidly-growing team, project management becomes an increasingly part of growth and development. Project managers keep development efforts organized, efficient, and value-focused. Effective project management also maximizes the rate of development and reduces errors and rework by assigning work to appropriate team members, planning the timing and sequencing of necessary development steps, prioritizing work efforts, and tracking and prioritizing issue resolution.

The Dash project managers exist primarily to support the other strategic areas and to foster internal communication between all areas. Project management also creates an effective structure which can be built upon later, and helps rapidly integrate new team members. The Dash Project Team leverages project managers to improve internal processes based on proven IT practices and maximizes efficiency by selecting and providing the right support tools.

Impact of Strategy on Market Capitalization

The Dash Project Team would like to address the topic of price and market capitalization. The team believes that the best way to drive sustainable price appreciation is through both the execution of a superior core product and development of a robust ecosystem of users, merchants, and service providers. The team also believes that price growth should be gradual and organic and that price spikes are undesirable as they do not provide long-term growth and only introduce uncertainty. While the Dash Project Team is mindful of price, we aim to prioritize long-term appreciation over short-term gains, or in other words, substance over hype. It is worth noting that an increasing price is not a strategy, nor is it even an explicit objective called out in this document. However, it is our strong belief that price appreciation is the natural outcome of a well-executed strategy.

Looking Forward

Dash is at an exciting inflection point in its short history, and we hope everyone in the Dash community is excited about the the next chapter in Dash's evolution. All the pieces are in place for the coming year to be truly transformative. We believe Dash's combination of effective governance, blockchain-based funding, end-user functionality, and business community engagement position us as the most nimble and competitive cryptocurrency in 2016. With the backing of a strong community and increasing recognition of what we've achieved already, anything is possible in the coming year.