Fee Structure

Two Lanes, Two Models

Obsidian's dual-lane system means two different fee approaches:

Lane	Cost	Who Pays	What For
Standard (SMQ)	Free	No one	Compute VDF proof instead
Priority (PMQ)	Bid-based	Sender	Faster, guaranteed inclusion

Standard Messages: Free

Standard messages cost nothing in tokens. Instead, you "pay" with computation:

Cost = VDF computation time (~1-2 seconds)
Benefit = Message included in next available SMQ slot

This model:

• ✅ Accessible to everyone

• ✅ No token barrier to entry

• ✅ Prevents spam via proof-of-time

• ✅ Works in any browser

Priority Messages: Bid-Based

Priority messages require a bid of at least 0.001 OBS:

Minimum bid: 0.001 OBS
Ordering: Highest bid wins (then earliest timestamp)
Inclusion: Next message block (if space available)

Bidding Dynamics

Unlike Ethereum gas (which is burned), Obsidian bids are distributed:

Your bid of 1 OBS:
├── 30% → Block Proposer (0.3 OBS)
└── 70% → Archive Node Pool (0.7 OBS)

Competitive Bidding

Check current queue state before bidding:

const status = await provider.send("eth_getMessageQueueSize", []);
// status.topBid = current highest bid in wei

// To guarantee top position:
const myBid = BigInt(status.topBid) + ethers.parseEther("0.001");

When Higher Bids Matter

Scenario	Recommended Bid
Empty PMQ, not urgent	Minimum (0.001 OBS)
Some competition	Just above top bid
Critical, time-sensitive	2-3x top bid
Block space is scarce	Market determines

Fee Distribution

Every priority message fee is split:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Priority Message Fee                      │
│                         (e.g., 1 OBS)                        │
├─────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────┤
│      Block Proposer         │       Archive Node Pool       │
│           30%               │            70%                │
│         0.3 OBS             │          0.7 OBS              │
├─────────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│  Incentivizes validators    │  Incentivizes data storage    │
│  to include high-bid msgs   │  and historical availability  │
└─────────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────┘

Why 30/70 Split?

Recipient	%	Rationale
Proposer	30%	Validators need incentive to build message blocks and include high-value messages
Archive Pool	70%	Message data is the whole point — preserving it forever is critical

The heavy weighting toward archives reflects Obsidian's core mission: permanent data.

No Gas for Messages

Important distinction from Ethereum:

Ethereum	Obsidian Messages
Every operation costs gas	Messages bypass EVM
Gas = compute + storage	No per-byte gas
Burns ETH (EIP-1559)	Distributes to operators
Unpredictable costs	Fixed minimum or free

Message blocks don't execute EVM code, so there's no gas calculation. You either:

• Pay nothing (SMQ + VDF)

• Pay your bid (PMQ)

Transaction Fees (Separate)

Regular Ethereum transactions on Obsidian still use standard gas:

Transaction blocks: Normal EIP-1559 gas fees
Message blocks: PMQ bid or free (SMQ)

If you're deploying contracts or transferring tokens, expect normal Ethereum-style fees.

Summary

Message Type	Cost	Speed	Use Case
Standard (SMQ)	Free + VDF	Next available slot	Regular content
Priority (PMQ)	≥0.001 OBS bid	Next block (high bid)	Time-sensitive

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Next: Archive Node Incentives — How the 70% archive pool works