Educational Byte: New Sending Options in the Obyte Wallet | HackerNoon

In November 2024, Obyte went through a major network update to include several new interesting features, bringing improvements to decentralization, governance, and security. This update enhances spam protection, refines transaction fees, and introduces a more distributed way for the community to select Order Providers (OPs) directly with their GBYTE balance. By giving users more control over the network, Obyte ensures a transparent and decentralized system without central influence.

Additionally, the update strengthens the platform’s infrastructure, making it more efficient for sidechains and data verification. As part of this upgrade, the Obyte wallet also needed to be updated, and with it came new features! Before, besides compatible tokens, it was already possible to send raw data, texts, attestations, private profiles, oracles, polls, other types of votes, and definitions of Autonomous Agents (AA) to the DAG.

Now, users have two more sending options: temporary data and votes for the newly introduced system variables.

Temporary Data

Temporary Data (OIP #7) in Obyte allows users to post data on the DAG for short-term storage. Unlike regular transactions, which remain on the network permanently, temporary data stays available for just one day (by default). After that, nodes can delete the data itself, but a hash of it remains on the DAG forever. This ensures that the original data can still be verified off-chain without burdening the network with unnecessary storage. It also comes with a lower cost—half the usual fee—making it a more affordable option for applications that need to timestamp or verify data without storing it indefinitely.

This feature was mainly introduced to support sidechains, especially those that need a decentralized way to order transactions without relying on their own consensus mechanism. However, it can also be useful for other applications that require temporary data verification, such as document timestamping or ephemeral messages.

To send temporary data to the DAG, you’ll only need to go to the “Send” menu in the Obyte wallet. Next, in the section “What to Send,” you choose “Temporary Data.” You’ll find then a menu including a “field” and a “value,” and the option to add more fields. The “field” represents the name or type of data you’re storing, and the “value” is the actual content of that data.

For example, you can put “Document hash” as a field and said hash (“QmX3…a unique IPFS hash”) as a value. Or you can choose any simple, temporary message that will be erased from the DAG after one day. The estimated fee in GBYTE will appear below, and the transaction will be complete after the payment.

Votes for System Variables

As we’ve mentioned above, the community can now vote for Order Providers (OPs) using their GBYTE holdings (OIP #3). The OPs are formed by twelve public nodes that issue transactions continuously to guide the order of the others, and before the November upgrade those nodes used to be chosen off-chain. However, the last update ensures that the community, rather than a small group of incumbents, determines the selection of Order Providers (OPs) from now on.

Users can vote for their preferred OPs through their wallet, with voting power determined by their GBYTE balance. In addition to OP selection, it’s also possible to vote on crucial network parameters, such as transaction fees, ensuring a fairer and more transparent decision-making process. To make governance accessible, Obyte has launched a dedicated website where users can participate in voting. This integration makes it easy for GBYTE holders to actively shape the network’s future without relying on centralized decision-making.

If you want to check and vote for new parameters in the network, you can visit the website, but the option is directly implemented in the “Send” menu in the Obyte wallet. Instead of tokens or data in “What to send,” you can choose “Vote for a system variable,” or “Count votes for a system variable” if you’ve already voted or simply want to trigger a count of your and other’s votes.

In both cases, a menu with a list of the variables to vote or count on will appear. They could be OP List (where you’re expected to include the Obyte address of your selected OPs), Threshold Size (the size when the oversize fee starts applying), Base TPS Fee (calculation basis for transaction-per-second fees), TPS Interval (TPS fee growth rate), and TPS Fee Multiplier (prepayment factor). An estimated fee will be shown in the wallet before you send your vote, and the process will be finished when you pay that fee in GBYTE.

You can visit the governance website to check on the current values, the votes, the total voters’ balance, and other stats. Enjoy your new, decentralized sending options!

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