It seems like this cryptonote thing and dash have a different approach to privacy. need to research more now...
Yes, Cryptonote has so called on-chain anonymity, and DASH has so called off-chain anonymity. They are different approaches aiming to achieve the same thing. The difference is, that the mixing of inputs and outputs (where the money is coming and where it's going) is retained in the blockchain and protected by math in on-chain anonymity, whereas in DASH's off-chain anonymity the mixing is done outside the blockchain by the masternode network and the link between inputs and outputs is not recorded into the blockchain.
I'm not sure if the coming Evolution version will change that though? Evan has hinted that all transactions will be private by default which would imply that there will be some changes to how the anonymity is achieved.
In the end we're all going after the same thing, a replacement for fiat, that can't corrupted or controlled by any single entity.
Requirements:
- Fungibility - All units of the current must be interchangeable (after sending coins they shouldn't have history attached)
- Speed - The currency must be able to compete with credit cards (1-5 second double-spend proof confirmations)
- Governance - The currency must be governed in a decentralized and decisive way
- Funding - The currency must have a permanent decentralized funding source for development, marketing, legal, etc
- Scalability - The currency must be able to scale to billions of transactions per day with 100% decentralization
- Ease Of Use - The currency must be usable by normal every day people
DASH attempts to fulfill all those requirements above and is actively working towards them, and features currently 4 (and a half as it has a basic GUI wallet I suppose) of them. Cryptonote coins seem to aim only at 1/6th of those requirements of digital cash.