Launched on Dec 25, 2016, Obyte is a distributed ledger based on directed acyclic graph (DAG).
It's a post-blockchain technology that achieves true decentralization by getting rid of big power centers and middlemen, such as miners. The team claims that due to the absence of blocks and miners, access to Obyte ledger is decentralized, disintermediated, free (as in freedom), equal, and open.
Obyte claims to be the first DAG-based cryptocurrency platform to support dApps. Due to the absence of miners and blocks, the team claims that there is no risk of front-running and other miner manipulation, and dApps are safer and easier to develop than blockchain-based dApps. DApps are developed in Oscript - a new language that avoids many unsafe programming patterns common in earlier dApp platforms.
Obyte is connected with other popular networks, such as Ethereum, through Counterstake -- a truly decentralized cross-chain bridge developed by the Obyte team in 2021.
The team believes that Obyte is especially well suited for DeFi apps. Some notable DeFi apps that exist only on Obyte are:
- Bonded stablecoins: stablecoins based on bonding curves, since 2020.
- Oswap DEX: an AMM DEX with increased APYs for liquidity providers and leveraged trading without liquidations for traders. Since 2020.
- OSWAP Token: a governance token for Oswap DEX based on a bonding curve specifically designed for this purpose. Since 2023.
- Kivach cascading donations: a cascading donations platform for helping fund open-source projects on GitHub. Since 2022.
- Prophet prediction markets: a prediction markets platform based on bonding curves for trading bets on future events, such as sports and cryptocurrency prices. Since 2022.
Other features include:
- self-sovereign identity,
- private untraceable currencies,
- sending crypto to email using textcoins,
- and extremely small-footprint libraries suitable for small IoT devices.