In all honesty, I could never get behind Dash. I've tried to empathise with its mission on many occasions but it always falls short for me.

Okay fine, it is trying to carve a name for itself in the privacy sector. That is something to be respected. But the way Evan Duffield negotiated the situation with the instamine punctuates a character flaw that is deeply troubling.

The privacy sector is a battlezone that is fraught with serious global players. Bitcoin stands to upheave the entire economic world order, and in turn, there has to be a force to do the same for Bitcoin.

Darkcoin was a money making enterprise for Evan Duffield, no more no less, and he succeeded in pocketing over 1 million USD as a result of its inception. That is his motivation, and that's the driving force in its continuation. At every corner he has lied about whether the instamine exists, whether it is a good thing, whether it is now part of the infrastructure.

I'm pretty sure Dash will do well for itself, but the majority of its protagonists are deeply ignorant people with grubby motivations. So Erik Voorhees waves the flag for Dash - so what? Of course he does. It's all about profit for these guys.

Monero has the luxury of a bigger community and, frankly, better technology. But Dash has the luxury of 1 million USD of play money to which it can prostitute itself to gormless investors.

Which will flourish? In all honesty, both will. But as long as Dash remains the unrespected trust fund rat that it is, it will always lose its community to Monero, and other coins. That's one thing you can rely on.

One of the greatest things about Monero, is that no-one really is in charge. There isn't the same 'great leader' worship that exists with Dash. It just simply does it's thing without the bullshit.

Is it perfect? Maybe, maybe not. I'd be interested in seeing what Zerocoin can do.

There's also a darkhorse in this race that the OP hasn't mentioned: Aeon.

Technically, Aeon is very similar to Monero. But owing to the fact Aeon is so utterly cheap and disenfranchised right now, there is the very real prospect that it could suck up both the Dash community and Monero community in one fell swoop, leaving both coins by the way side. Something to be watched like a hawk.