NO CENTRAL AUTHORITY
Centralized platforms have complete control over your content. They can—and do—exercise that control in ways that affect billions of users.
Obsidian's architecture makes censorship economically irrational and technically difficult through reserved lane capacity.
Standard Messages (SM) are feeless. Just compute a small VDF proof. No one can price you out of sending messages.
Both lanes have reserved block space. PM messages can't crowd out SM, and vice versa. Guaranteed capacity for everyone.
SM is strict FIFO. PM is bid-ordered. Both are deterministic. No subjective message filtering.
Can't censor via fees: SM is feeless (just compute VDF) Can't crowd out: Both lanes have reserved block space Can't censor via ordering: SM is strict FIFO, PM is bid-ordered
Even validators have limited power over your messages. The blockchain's decentralized nature provides strong anti-censorship guarantees.
| Action | Possible? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Refuse your message | Yes, one validator can | Individual validators can skip messages |
| Permanently censor you | No | Other validators will include it next block |
| Delete after inclusion | No | It remains part of finalized chain history |
| Modify your message | No | Signature would break, consensus rejects |
A majority of validators would need to collude to censor messages—the same security model as any proof-of-stake blockchain.
PM creates an economic guarantee: if you really need your message included, bid high enough and rational validators will include it for the fee.
This creates a market-based backstop against censorship. Even if some validators don't like your message, others will include it because it's profitable.
SM ensures feeless access for everyone. Compute a VDF proof (proof-of-time), and your message gets included in FIFO order.
Reserved block space means priority messages can never crowd out feeless messages. Everyone gets fair access to the network.
Your signed data, finalized on-chain and retrievable through archives, on a neutral protocol.
The data layer is neutral. The protocol doesn't judge. It just stores and serves what you signed.
Join a messaging network that no single entity controls.
