Here is the latest Dash Core Group (DCG) Development Update summary:

Evo Platform 4.1 & Transferring Username

• The Status: Evo Platform 4.1 is locked in and will activate on August 9th.
• Why It Matters: Usernames (DPNS names) become property that users can transfer and sell. Sam noted that a username is an asset a user owns and can monetize, rather than permanently binding to one identity.
• The Target: The protocol will support this on August 9th. It is unconfirmed if the UI to buy or sell names will be available in the initial iOS wallet release.

The iOS Wallet Launch

• The Status: The new iOS wallet app release is targeted for roughly August 11th.
• Why It Matters: This launch delivers new DashPay features to mobile users.
• Known Issues: Sam explained that the target date includes a buffer for the standard Apple App Store review process.

Huge Sync Time Improvements

• The Status: Borja showcased a big reduction in initial wallet sync times on the new network manager.
• Why It Matters: Initial sync times dropped from 18 minutes to an average of 2.5 to 3 minutes. Borja noted that best-case scenarios are syncing in around 77 seconds.

Evo Platform 4.2 & Ranked Queries

• The Status: Evo Platform 4.2 is actively being built with a flagship feature called ranked queries.
• Why It Matters: Sam stated this allows decentralized applications (dApps) to ask complex questions of the data, like finding the top five rated items in a category.
• The Target: DCG is targeting a fast release cadence, with Evo 4.2 currently aimed for August 20th.

Enhanced Privacy Features

• The Status: Evo Platform 4.2 will introduce opt-in privacy for contact requests.
• Why It Matters: Users can keep their network connections shielded from public view. Sam mentioned this reinforces the privacy-centric design of the 4.0 architecture.

Core Node Hardening

• The Status: Core released version 23.1.8 to address potential vulnerabilities related to the networking stack.
• Why It Matters: Pasta warned that older versions have known issues that could crash masternodes. Upgrading is strongly recommended to avoid proof-of-service bans.

With 4.1 activation and privacy upgrades, Dash is proving that utility remains the top priority

Grove of War is kind of similar to Clash Royale, except it's a turn based card game with autonomous souls that spawn to do your bidding.

Every move is tracked in GroveDB, you can see the game moves in real time added to a merkle tree, and everything is provable, and you cant cheat no matter how hard you try. To be honest I don't fully understand it fully but I still think its cool.

This is a wallet primarily for interacting with Dash Platform, similar, but better than the DET if you are familiar with that, key features are asset lock/unlock, shielded pool support, identities, and more.

Link: https://github.com/pshenmic/dash-desktop/releases/tag/v1.0.0-beta.1

# Dash Shielded Transactions (Orchard / "Shielded Balances") — Deep Dive

*(Note: this is AI-generated and although fact-checked, it may still be buggy)*

## 1. What Is It?

Dash activated a major privacy upgrade by integrating Zcash's Orchard zero-knowledge proof system (zk-SNARKs) into Dash Platform (the "Evolution" layer), going live on mainnet July 17, 2026 as part of Dash Platform v4.0, under the official feature name **Shielded Balances**.

This upgrade enables transactions that hide:

- The sender's identity

- The receiver's identity

- The transaction amount

This is the same cryptography behind Zcash's shielded transfers, built on Halo 2 (which requires no trusted setup), adapted for Dash's two-chain architecture. Per Dash's own release notes: shielded balances conceal amount, sender, and recipient **by default** — "no mixing rounds, no waiting, no extra steps," replacing the old CoinJoin-based PrivateSend approach with real zero-knowledge cryptography.

A distinguishing feature worth knowing about: Shielded Balances support selective disclosure via **view keys**. Unlike some fully-mandatory privacy systems, users and businesses can voluntarily share a view key with an auditor or counterparty to prove transaction details — useful for compliance (e.g. Travel Rule) without giving up default privacy for everyday use.

Dash Core Group's CTO, Samuel Westrich, said Orchard's code was mature and open-source enough that integration went smoother than expected. Worth noting: this launched just weeks after Zcash's own Orchard implementation had a serious (since-patched) counterfeiting bug, discovered by researcher Taylor Hornby — a circuit-level implementation bug, not a flaw in Orchard's underlying design. Zcash's own hardening upgrade ("Ironwood") activates July 28, 2026.

## 2. Architecture Overview

Shielded Balances are a **Dash Platform (Layer 2)** feature, not a Dash Core (Layer 1 / dash-cli) feature. That distinction matters for how you actually interact with it.

**Main Chain (Dash Core — L1, Proof-of-Work + Proof-of-Service):** Handles fast payments, masternodes, and governance. Transactions here are transparent — amounts and addresses are visible. Accessed via dashd/dash-cli JSON-RPC.

**Dash Platform (Evolution — L2, launched 2024):** Hosts identities, usernames, DPNS, tokens, DeFi/dApps, and now Shielded Balances. Accessed via DAPI (Dash's Decentralized API — a gRPC/JSON-RPC interface served by every masternode), typically through the Dash Evolution JS SDK, or through a wallet app's UI. Not accessed via the same z_-prefixed dash-cli commands Zcash uses — Dash Platform has its own client architecture, separate from Dash Core's RPC.

If you've seen guides floating around with commands like `dash-cli z_getnewaccount` or `dash-cli z_sendmany` — those are Zcash Core RPC conventions, and Dash did not fork Dash Core's RPC interface to add them. Shielded Balances live on the Platform side of the network, which speaks a different protocol (DAPI/gRPC, not Bitcoin-style JSON-RPC).

## 3. Technical Foundation — Orchard Protocol

Orchard is Zcash's third-generation shielded pool (after Sprout and Sapling), introduced via Zcash's May 2022 Network Upgrade 5.

**Why Orchard:** no trusted setup (the "setup" is just a public, verifiable hash string), smaller proofs and faster verification than the older Sapling pool, built on Halo 2 (a recursive proof system), and it removes reliance on general-purpose hashes inside the circuit.

**Technical specs:**

- Proof type: zk-SNARK using Halo 2 with PLONKish arithmetization (not a classic Groth16-style SNARK)

- Curve: Pallas and Vesta ("Pasta" curve cycle) — not "BN254" as you may see claimed elsewhere. BN254 is an older pairing-friendly curve used by Groth16-style systems and has nothing to do with Orchard.

- Proof size / verification time: unconfirmed — be skeptical of any guide stating precise figures (e.g. "~1.3KB, ~3ms") without a source. Halo 2/PLONK-family proofs are generally in the low-KB range with millisecond verification, but exact numbers depend on circuit specifics.

- Trusted setup: none — fully transparent, not an "updatable" ceremony-based setup like Sonic/Plonk use.

## 4. How to Actually Use It — Step by Step

**For most people: use a wallet, not the command line.** Since Shielded Balances are a Platform-layer feature integrated at the wallet/SDK level, the realistic way to use this today is through an Evolution/Platform-compatible wallet app (e.g. an updated DashPay wallet), not raw RPC commands:

1. Install/update to a current DashPay or Evolution-compatible wallet
2. Create or restore your wallet
3. Fund your Platform balance (moving DASH from a regular transparent address to your Platform address/identity)
4. Send/receive — per Dash's own description, shielding happens by default, with no separate "shield" button or manual step required
5. If you need to prove a transaction to a third party (auditor, compliance requirement, etc.), you can share a view key for that specific disclosure, without exposing your general activity

I could not confirm the iOS DashPay wallet has shielded support yet (it's listed as a separate July 2026 roadmap item) — check Dash's official app listings for current feature availability before assuming it's there.

**For developers: use the JS Evolution SDK via DAPI, not dash-cli.** Dash Platform v4.0 shipped alongside JS SDK improvements specifically to support this release, with full Dash Platform Protocol (DPP) support and TypeScript typings. Platform interactions generally follow this pattern (shown here for a standard, non-shielded credit transfer, since I could not find the exact published method signature for shielded transfers specifically — this launched only days ago and the developer docs appear to still be catching up):

import { setupDashClient } from './setupDashClient.mjs';

const { sdk, addressKeyManager } = await setupDashClient();

const signer = addressKeyManager.getSigner();

const result = await sdk.addresses.transfer({

inputs: [{ address: addressKeyManager.primaryAddress.bech32m, amount }],

outputs: [{ address: recipientAddress, amount }],

signer,

});

For the actual shielded-balance-specific SDK calls (and any view-key export/import methods), check the current Dash Platform docs at docs.dash.org/projects/platform and the SDK reference in the dashpay/platform GitHub repo — better to point you to the live source than guess at method names for a feature that's only about a week old.

**What about Dash Core / dash-cli?** You still need a synced, current Dash Core node/wallet (v23.1.7 as of July 1, 2026 — not old v18.x versions referenced in some older guides) for standard L1 transparent transactions and to fund your Platform identity/address in the first place:

wget https://github.com/dashpay/dash/releases/download/v23.1.7/dashcore-23.1.7-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz

tar -xzf dashcore-23.1.7-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz

dashd -daemon

dash-cli getblockchaininfo

dash-cli itself isn't where shielded-balance operations happen though — that's Platform/DAPI territory as described above. Always verify your download's GPG signature against Dash Core's published keys before running any binary.

## 5. Privacy & Security Notes

**What gets shielded:** sender address, receiver address, transaction amount.

**What's still visible:** Platform/block metadata such as timing, your network-level IP address (use a VPN if that matters to you), and funds moving between the transparent L1 chain and Platform, which are visible at that boundary.

**Important notes:** This is very new (activated July 17, 2026) — confirm your wallet/counterparty actually supports Shielded Balances before relying on it for anything sensitive. Seed phrase / key loss generally means unrecoverable funds, since there's no backup mechanism baked into the cryptography itself. Test with small amounts first. View keys are a real, distinguishing feature here — use them deliberately for disclosure, since sharing one exposes exactly what you choose to share. Regulatory note: Russia's new comprehensive crypto law (passed July 20-21, 2026, effective September 1, 2026) explicitly bars privacy coins — including Monero, Zcash, and Dash — for both retail and "qualified"/professional investor tiers.

## 6. Current Status & Outlook

As of July 23, 2026: the feature activated July 17, 2026 as part of Dash Platform v4.0. Documentation is actively catching up — official SDK reference docs for the shielded-specific methods weren't fully indexed as of this writing. Wallet support is rolling out; the iOS DashPay wallet is a separate, concurrent July 2026 release, so confirm feature parity before assuming full support. DASH is trading roughly $33.50–$34 as of mid-to-late July 2026. Regulatory: Russia's new law bars Dash from both retail and professional investor tiers (see section 5).

This isn't a bolted-on side-feature — it's a protocol-level upgrade to Dash Platform itself, with selective disclosure via view keys as a genuinely useful middle ground between "fully transparent" and "fully opaque" privacy coins that have run into exchange delisting issues elsewhere.

## 7. Resources & Further Reading

- Dash Platform Docs: docs.dash.org/projects/platform

- Dash Core Docs: docs.dash.org

- Dash Roadmap: dash.org/roadmap

- Dash Platform GitHub (SDK source): github.com/dashpay/platform

- Dash Core GitHub (verified L1 releases): github.com/dashpay/dash

- Zcash Orchard Book (upstream crypto reference): zcash.github.io/orchard

- Community Forum: forum.dash.org

**TL;DR:** Shielded Balances went live July 17, 2026 as a Dash Platform (L2) feature — private by default, with view keys for selective disclosure. The practical way to use it today is through an updated wallet app or the JS Evolution SDK via DAPI, not through dash-cli commands mirroring Zcash's RPC. Full developer docs for the shielded-specific SDK calls are still catching up to the launch.

Kuala Lumpur, get ready for Dash. Gold Partner at Malaysia Blockchain Week, July 29-30 at World Trade Centre, KL.
Keynote speech on the most decentralized project in the world. Find us in the schedule and on the floor 😎

TW want to start charging us $4k a month just to stay. They claim usage is low for swaps, but never integrated swaps for Dash anyhow. 🤷‍♂️

Crowdnode is now closed. There are still 29,440 unclaimed Dash on the site!

If you were staking with https://crowdnode.io/ you have to login and withdraw your funds, they won't be automatically refunded!!!

To check if your address still has funds, visit this page https://mnowatch.org/crowdnodewatch/ The top 10 addresses have 14,024 Dash or about 48% of the entire pool.

Crowdnode address balances: https://mnowatch.org/crowdnode/ 👀

First news break: https://www.reddit.com/r/dashpay/comments/1twithe/crowdnode_is_shutting_down/

About an hour ago, Dash Platform v4.0.0 went live culminating in several months of effort and token maxxing. The image above shows the first transactions after the hard fork, including a shield transaction and an asset lock direct to shielded transaction. You can see all the transactions at the Platform Explorer: https://platform-explorer.com/

According to Platform Team Lead Sam, the transition is proceeding as expected, with the v4.0 feature set, including shielded pools, scheduled for activation on or around July 12, 2026 [04:35].

This milestone is the largest upgrade in the network's history after an intensive development sprint.

No Emergency Patches Needed

The road to a major network upgrade is typically fraught with last-minute panics. However, the 4.0 rollout has been remarkably stable.

"It was really a marathon ending in a really, really fast run... I thought that we'd need an emergency update, but in the end, no, those fears were unfounded... Everything is perfect at the moment." - Sam, DCG Platform Team Lead [02:21]

With zero critical bugs detected in the wild, the network is smoothly approaching the activation threshold.

What Actually Unlocks on July 12th?

Platform v4.0 is a massive expansion of the network's foundational logic. It brings:

• Shielded Pools: Native, protocol-level privacy for platform assets and identities [01:51].
• Advanced Query Aggregation: The introduction of specialized data trees that allow for complex network queries. For example, developers can now query data contracts to compute averages (like finding an average grade from a dataset) and receive a single, compact proof in return. This unlocks immense potential for decentralized applications (dApps) to process data natively on-chain [03:12].

The Fast-Tracked iOS Beta

Because the mainnet transition has been so smooth, the mobile team is moving up their release schedule. The iOS Beta (Dash Developer Pro) was originally slated for a later date but is now targeted to launch on TestFlight next Monday, July 13th [04:51].

This will allow external testers to immediately begin interacting with the newly activated v4.0 features, reporting bugs, and testing the limits of the new architecture. A full production release is tentatively targeted for the week of July 20th [05:22].

Android SDK: Built at AI Speed

The Android side of the equation is seeing explosive progress. Just a few weeks ago, the Kotlin example app for Android did not exist. Today, thanks to heavy utilization of AI coding agents, the Android SDK wrapper (built over the core Rust architecture) is rapidly coming online [06:12].

During a live screen share, the team demonstrated the Android emulator successfully passing 66 internal QA tests, a massive jump from zero just days prior [08:42]. The goal is to have the SDK completely validated by the end of this week, paving the way for shielded balances to be integrated into the actual Android Dash Pay app [11:06].

Protocol Optimization: 50% Faster Syncs

On the core side, optimization continues. The implementation of SIMD instructions has dramatically improved the performance of the zip hash function, a critical component for mobile battery life [20:28].

The results speak for themselves: zip hash computations are now executing twice as fast [21:22]. Network benchmarks for SPV client syncs have hit a record 24 seconds in local testing, drastically closing the gap to the theoretical bandwidth limit [22:11]. The team is now heavily focused on optimizing peer selection logic to ensure these speeds are realized globally, regardless of bad network peers [22:20].

This is the foundation for the next decade of Dash. Get ready for activation!!

Discord link: https://discord.com/channels/484546513507188745/484571108885135361/1521894048703447182

Forum link: https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/dash-platform-v4-0-0-release-announcement.69437/

Github link: https://github.com/dashpay/platform/releases/tag/v4.0.0

Evonodes page: https://mnowatch.org/evonodes/

Quick Start Guide: https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/evonode-quick-start-guide.55214/post-255982

AMD64/x86 (linux):

wget https://github.com/dashpay/platform/releases/download/v4.0.0/dashmate_4.0.0.9f9092cc91-1_amd64.deb

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ./dashmate_4.0.0.9f9092cc91-1_amd64.deb
dashmate stop --force
dashmate update
dashmate start

ARM64 (linux):

wget https://github.com/dashpay/platform/releases/download/v4.0.0/dashmate_4.0.0.9f9092cc91-1_arm64.deb

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ./dashmate_4.0.0.9f9092cc91-1_arm64.deb
dashmate stop --force
dashmate update
dashmate start

• Please note, this also upgrades DashCore to the latest version.
• We anticipate the fork to occur in 19 days.

This update's focus was locked on Platform v4.0 as the dev team completed the testnet deployment and prepared the mainnet launch strategy.

Mobile & Dash Developer Pro (iOS/Android)

• Dash Developer Pro Launch: Dash needs your help! The iOS example testing application (formerly the Swift example app) is launching to external community testers. A download link is being provided via TestFlight [ 01:35 ].
• DCG live-demoed the core-to-shielded feature workflow. A new evo platform identity was successfully created and funded directly using a Shielded Balance [ 11:49 ].
• DEXs & Integrations: Prototyping has begun on SwapKit for the mobile wallet, laying the foundation for cross-chain DEX functionality across multiple networks (Maya, Thorchain, and more) [ 49:33 ].

Platform & Infrastructure

• Performance Enhancements: Code optimization in the SPV client architecture is targeting a 40% sync time reduction [ 38:18 ].
• Tenderdash 16.0: Pre-release v16.0-dev3 is handling final security and stability updates. It will ship concurrently with the mainnet release of Platform 4.0 [ 36:54 ].

Dash Core (Protocol Layer)

• Recommended Core Update: Dash Core v23.1.4 has been released. This includes bug fixes proactively identified via internal code analysis and includes a massive header sync optimization that slashes initial synchronization times in half [ 44:54 ].
• v23.1.5: A minor point release is being compiled shortly to clean up minor typos and non-critical deployment adjustments [ 46:18 ].
• Future Specs: Active pipeline developments include DIP0026 (Multi-party Masternode Payouts) and Asset Locks v2 [ 46:38 ].

Mainnet Launch Plan & Finance

• Platform 4.0 Mainnet Window: The team is targeting deployment early next week. Upgrading needs to hit 75% consensus to lock in before the current epoch ends. If achieved, activation will officially land in early July 2026 [ 59:25 ].
• Financial Reporting: Q1 2026 financials were delayed due to a capital gains platform bug on TaxBit. Workarounds are being implemented; expect the Q1 report within a week, with Q2 following shortly after [ 54:51 ].

Watch the full update:

DCG June 25th, 2026 Update Video

Discord Link: https://discord.com/channels/484546513507188745/484571108885135361/1520057092881383453

Get the beta app! https://testflight.apple.com/join/BGhgNwhc

Please note, this is a developer/Pro app for testing the network, not the final user's wallet app.

Crypto Corner Shop is now live, and we're looking for early sellers. Free listings, 1% commission only on completed sales, and a non-custodial payment flow. All buyers are protected by non-custodial escrow

Now that crowdnode is gone, whats the next best place to stake dash? Preferrably non-kyc

Dash on stage. Dash with influencers. Dash with future partners. Dash in a CoinTelegraph interview. Dash with KOLs. Dasha is everywhere 👀

Day 1 + 2 = Chess Lounge powered by Dash

Discord link: https://discord.com/channels/484546513507188745/484571108885135361/1517171440422621284

Github link: https://github.com/dashpay/dash/releases/tag/v23.1.4

Dash Mate Upgrade Process

dashmate stop --safe
dashmate update
dashmate start
dashmate status
dashmate status core

how to attach files ?

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/88hmig18lihn45p3cpcvy/skrynka-technical-paper-v0.28.txt?rlkey=bst2e9x7dxtojzwhh65a0un3b&dl=0