Dash, the seventh-ranked cryptocurrency by market value at over $78 million, announced a partnership with Shake this week to let Dash holders spend their coins through Visa networks. Using Shake Debit
Dash, the seventh-ranked cryptocurrency by market value at over $78 million, announced a partnership with Shake this week to let Dash holders spend their coins through Visa networks. Using Shake Debit Cards, Dash owners can convert their holdings into EUR or USD and shop at merchants that accept those currencies.
Shake, a Canadian payments company that opened its service to beta testers last week, lets users fund both virtual and physical debit cards with bitcoin or Dash. A plastic card costs $15 or €15 to issue, with 1% charged when you load funds and a $1 or €1 monthly maintenance fee. The virtual card, which works on smartphone, carries no cost.
Jean Amiouny, Shake's CEO and co-founder, said the Dash partnership "heightens Shake's user experience." He pointed to Dash's InstantSend feature, which enables near-instant fund transfers. That speed means Dash holders can topup their Shake cards in seconds, which Amiouny said makes cryptocurrencies "usable in everyday transactions."
Daniel Diaz, VP of business development at Dash, called the deal "a very exciting financial option for the Dash community." He noted that Dash holders can "keep their money in Dash and use their Shake Debit Card for common day to day expenses, regardless of the merchant accepting virtual currency or not." Diaz said this partnership marks "one of the first commercial applications to take advantage of Dash InstantSend technology."
Shake's app on Android includes a tap-and-pay feature that works at store terminals through NFC technology.
Dash also announced a separate partnership with Coinfirm, a blockchain compliance platform, to build AML/KYC compliance tools for the cryptocurrency. Under the deal, Coinfirm helps Dash integrate with regulated financial institutions and commercial services. The system preserves Dash's privacy-centric design, giving users the choice to access the coin through regulated channels without sacrificing the privacy features that drew them to it.
Dash launched in 2014 under founders Evan Duffield and Kyle Hagan. The project started as Darkcoin, then briefly became XCoin before settling on Dash as its name. The open-source cryptocurrency offers three core features: InstantSend for quick transactions, PrivateSend for confidential sends, and token fungibility. It also runs a decentralized governance system where the network collectively decides how to spend protocol funds.
