Dash Shielded. Now you can spend it.

Shield artwork from the Dash community.

Dash's shielded pool went live on mainnet earlier this year. It does what it promises: payments inside it hide who paid, who was paid and how much. The missing piece has been somewhere to spend it.

On 5 November 2026, CardsRelay began accepting native Dash Shielded transfers at checkout. You can pay for an Amazon, Steam or Airbnb gift card straight from your shielded balance, without moving the funds into the open first. Regular Dash Core payments, released on the InstantSend lock, work exactly as before. Browse the gift card catalogue to see what you can buy.

Why this matters for Dash

Privacy becomes useful when it follows your money all the way to the checkout.

A shielded balance protects what it holds. But if every purchase starts with unshielding, the privacy stops at the edge of the pool. The amount that comes out is visible, and a patient observer can try to match it with what went in. Paying a merchant with a shielded transfer keeps the whole payment inside the pool, from your wallet to the shop.

That is why merchant acceptance matters as much as the cryptography. Each place that takes shielded payments gives holders a reason to keep their funds shielded. Every shielded payment adds to the crowd the next one hides in, so the pool gets more useful the more it is used.

Speed matters too. Dash Platform settles a shielded transfer in about one second, and the result is final. Private payments that took minutes to confirm would be awkward at a checkout. Private payments that settle in a second behave like cash.

Gift cards are the practical bridge. Most shops do not accept crypto at all, let alone shielded payments. A gift card turns Shielded DASH into credit you can use for shopping, games, food delivery or travel today. The card then works like any other: the store where you redeem it sees your account there, as it would with a card bought for cash.

Dash Shielded explained: what it is

Dash runs on two chains. Dash Core is the payment chain most people mean when they say Dash. Dash Platform, also known as Evolution, runs alongside it, and that is where the shielded pool lives.

Inside the pool, payments are checked by a zero-knowledge proof instead of being shown in public. Anyone can confirm that a payment is valid. Nobody watching the chain can see who sent it, who received it or how much moved.

The design comes from Zcash. Dash uses Orchard, Zcash's shielded protocol, which relies on the Halo 2 proving system, so there was no trusted setup ceremony and no secret parameters anyone has to trust were destroyed. Dash's version also leaves out an inflation bug found in Zcash's earlier Orchard code, fixed before it reached mainnet.

Dash Core vs Dash Shielded

CardsRelay accepts both, and they are not two names for the same thing. They are different payment options on different Dash chains, with different privacy and different settlement.

Dash Core

• Chain: the Dash payment chain, used by most Dash wallets.
• What is public: addresses and amounts, as with most coins. CoinJoin mixes coins, but amounts stay on the chain.
• Settlement: an InstantSend lock within seconds, then ChainLocks secure the block.
• At CardsRelay: pick Dash Core. The order is released on the InstantSend lock, and the code usually arrives in 3 to 6 seconds.

Dash Shielded

• Chain: Dash Platform, inside the shielded pool.
• What is public: not the sender, the receiver or the amount. A proof shows the payment is valid.
• Settlement: final on Dash Platform in about one second.
• At CardsRelay: pick Dash Shielded and send a shielded transfer to the address shown. The code usually arrives within seconds.

Dash Core suits everyday payments from any Dash wallet. Dash Shielded suits payments you want kept out of public view. For more on the Core side, see how Dash InstantSend works on CardsRelay.

How Dash Shielded actually works

The simple version: the pool is a ledger nobody can read, guarded by maths everybody can check. The longer version follows.

Getting in. On Dash Platform, value is held as credits: 1,000 credits to one duff, the smallest unit of DASH. DASH crosses from Dash Core in an asset lock transaction, which locks the coins on Core and issues the same value in credits on Platform. Those credits can go to a Platform address first or straight into the shielded pool.

Notes, not balances. The pool does not store balances against addresses. It stores notes. A note is a private record that says "this much value belongs to whoever holds this key", and only its owner can read it.

Paying. When you send a shielded transfer, three things happen in one transaction:

1. A note is spent. Your wallet proves it owns a note in the pool without saying which one.
2. A nullifier is published. This tag is derived from the spent note. The network keeps a list of them, so the same note can never be spent twice, but an observer cannot tell which note a tag came from.
3. A new note is created for the person you pay. It is stored encrypted, so only its owner can read the amount.

The zero-knowledge proof ties it together. It shows the network that the spent note existed, that you own it, and that value in equals value out, without revealing any of it.

Every move the pool supports:

• Shield: move credits from a Platform address into the pool.
• Shield from asset lock: lock DASH on Dash Core and put the credits straight into the pool.
• Shielded transfer: pay someone inside the pool. Nothing about it is visible beyond the proof itself.
• Unshield: move credits out of the pool to a Platform address.
• Shielded withdrawal: move value out of the pool and back to DASH on Dash Core.

A shielded wallet syncs from scratch in about 20 seconds, where shielded wallets on other chains can take hours.

Your Shielded DASH. Thousands of gift cards.

CardsRelay lists 4,500+ gift cards and mobile top-ups from 1,900+ brands, from Amazon and Steam to Airbnb, Uber and DoorDash. Every one of them can be paid for with Dash Shielded.

1. Browse the catalogue. Open the gift card catalogue and find your brand.
2. Choose a card and amount. Pick the card for the country your account is in.
3. Enter your email. That is the only detail we ask for. Your code goes there.
4. Select Dash Shielded. Checkout shows a shielded address and the exact amount to pay.
5. Send a shielded transfer. Pay the exact amount from your shielded balance, before the checkout timer runs out.
6. Get your code. Once the payment is confirmed, the code is emailed to you. Redeem it on the brand's site or app.

Settlement and delivery are separate steps. Dash Platform settles your transfer in about a second. CardsRelay then confirms the payment and releases your code by email, which usually takes seconds in all. Your mail provider can add a little more, so check spam if it is not there.

Browse 4,500+ gift cards and choose Dash Shielded at checkout.

What Dash Shielded does and does not protect

A shielded transfer protects your payment from public view. It does not make everything about a purchase private, and it helps to know where the edges are.

• Inside the pool: the sender, the receiver and the amount are hidden from anyone watching the chain.
• Going in and coming out: shielding and unshielding show their amounts on the transparent side. If you shield a distinctive amount and unshield the same amount a minute later, someone watching can guess they are linked. Shield ahead of time, and pay with shielded transfers.
• CardsRelay itself: as the receiver, CardsRelay sees the payment it receives and its amount, which it needs to release your order, and the email address you give. Payment privacy is about public observers, not the shop you pay.
• Your email: your code travels by email, so your email provider handles it like any other message.
• Redeeming the card: the store where you redeem a card sees your account there. Some stores ask for ID when a card is spent in person.
• Wallets: support is still rolling out. Check that your wallet can send a shielded transfer to someone else's shielded address before you pay.
• Tokens: for now the pool holds Platform credits. Shielded tokens are planned, each with its own pool, but they are not live.

FAQ

What is Dash Shielded?

Dash Shielded is Dash's shielded payment pool on Dash Platform, also called Evolution. It uses Zcash's Orchard design, so a shielded transfer hides the sender, the receiver and the amount from public view.

Can I buy gift cards with Dash Shielded?

Yes. Since 5 November 2026, CardsRelay accepts native Dash Shielded transfers. Choose Dash Shielded at checkout and send a shielded transfer to the address shown.

How fast are Dash Shielded payments?

Dash Platform settles a shielded transfer in about one second. CardsRelay then confirms the payment and emails your code, which usually takes seconds.

Is Dash Shielded different from regular Dash?

Yes. Regular Dash runs on Dash Core, where addresses and amounts are public. Dash Shielded runs inside a pool on Dash Platform, where they are hidden. They are different payment options, and CardsRelay accepts both.

What is the difference between Dash Shielded and CoinJoin?

CoinJoin mixes coins on Dash Core, but addresses and amounts stay visible on the chain. Dash Shielded keeps payments inside a pool where a zero-knowledge proof checks each one without showing who paid whom or how much.

How do I get Shielded DASH?

You shield it. A wallet that supports Dash Platform locks DASH on Dash Core and moves the same value into the shielded pool as Platform credits.

Which wallets support Dash Shielded payments?

Support is still rolling out across Dash wallets. Before you pay, check that your wallet can hold Shielded DASH and send a shielded transfer to another person's shielded address.

Does CardsRelay accept Dash Core too?

Yes. Choose Dash Core at checkout and the order is released on the InstantSend lock, usually within seconds.

What do I need to buy a gift card?

An email address and a wallet that holds DASH or Shielded DASH. CardsRelay asks only for an email address, which is where your code is sent.

Does Dash Shielded hide everything?

No. It hides the sender, the receiver and the amount from public view inside the pool. Amounts moving in or out of the pool are visible, CardsRelay sees the payment it receives and the email you give, and the store where you redeem a card sees your account there.

Dash Shielded is ready to spend

Private digital cash deserves somewhere to be spent. Browse thousands of gift cards, choose Dash Shielded at checkout, and put your DASH to work.

Browse gift cards, or explore every payment method CardsRelay accepts.