Censorship Resistance
The Problem
Centralized platforms can:
Delete your posts
Ban your account
Shadow-ban your content
Comply with takedown requests
Shut down entirely
Even "decentralized" services often have chokepoints.
Obsidian's Approach
1. No Central Authority
No company controls Obsidian. Validators are distributed. No one can flip a switch.
2. Dual-Lane Guarantees
Can't censor via fees: SMQ is free (just compute VDF)
Can't censor via queues: Both lanes have reserved block space
Can't censor via ordering: SMQ is strict FIFO, PMQ is bid-ordered3. Cryptographic Authorship
Every message is signed. Provable who said what. Can't be forged or attributed falsely.
4. Permanent Storage
Once included, messages can't be removed. Replicated across all nodes worldwide.
What Validators Can Do
Refuse your message
Yes, one validator can
Permanently censor you
No, other validators will include
Delete after inclusion
No, it's in the chain
Modify your message
No, signature would break
A majority of validators would need to collude—same security model as any blockchain.
Economic Guarantees
PMQ creates an economic backstop: if you really need inclusion, bid high enough and rational validators will include you for the fee.
Not Magic
Obsidian doesn't prevent:
Legal consequences of your speech
Social consequences
Apps filtering what they display
It guarantees: your signed data, stored permanently, on a neutral protocol.
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