Why I am bullish on obsidian and it is my favorite coin.

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OBSIDIAN (ODN)
Crytocurrency and Platform for Secure Anonymous Communication

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About ODN

" Obsidian (ODN) is a modern Proof-of-Stake coin with more than 10% staking rewards.

" Outlined in the whitepaper for Obsidian, is the central philosophy underpinning Obsidian; unrivalled private communication through the combination of a secure messenger application with a cryptographic coin enabling a decentralised communication network.

" Such a platform will enforce resilience against attacks on its communication network through a community of decentralised nodes, hosted by anyone, participants receiving Obsidian coins in return.

" Such a communications protocol is owned and operated by no single entity, but by many individuals located globally, in the same fashion as bitcoin miners, thereby rendering host attacks ineffective.

" Moreover, such a protocol makes the collection of communications meta-data impossible from one central point; it becomes very hard to establish who is talking to whom given the distributed nature of the platform.

Obsidian Secure Anonymous Messenger

"We are in the process of creating the most private messaging app for you."

" Today, almost every messaging app claims to be secure. For Obsidian, it's the most important feature and everything else must bow to it.

" Obsidian enables the most secure digital conversations without user accounts or phone numbers that could involuntarily reveal your identity or messages now or in the future. This is increasingly important

" Obsidian advances the state-of-the art in applied cryptography to provide an edge over currently feasible and future attacks.

" In the physical world, we are used to enjoy anonymous communication in public places to freely exchange ideas and opinions with people we'll never see again. Obsidian brings anonymous communication to instant messaging.

" Obsidian is designed to be an app for daily use, whenever you desire not to 'share' but instead emphasize privacy.

" The Obsidian messaging app will receive platform integrations while sticking to its concept of a privacy sandbox.

Glass
" Glass is first major 3rd party service utilizing the Obsidian Secure Messenger
" Glass is in full fledged development.
" This one way anonymous communication network will give people access to journalists, support lines and professionals, without the need to provide any information. Shining a positive light on #anonymity

Open Platform & SDK

Obsidian is building an open-source platform and tools to enable 3rd parties to leverage the Obsidian platform and to integrate ODN in payment solutuions.

TWO PILLARS OF VALUE OF ODN:

ODN Total Value = ODN value as a Bitcoin-like cryptocurrency + ODN value created by demand for app and platform usage

1. The first foundation, like with Bitcoin, is the social contract that people agree the coin has value. This pillar is based on the properties of the Bitcoin or Obsidian brand and the values that come with it, their degree of publicity and places of acceptance and supported by the coins scarcity.

2. Furthermore, Obsidian has an additional pillar of value - its special use within the Obsidian messaging platform. When the Obsidian messaging app requires storing ODN coins inside the app to unlock certain app features, the value of the ODN token becomes a function of demand for the app. The more users the app use, the higher will be the demand for ODN tokens. Note that we are talking only about storing ODN tokens in the app - the ODN coins are not spent by app users to use its features, they are just temporarily locked, creating more scarcity of ODN on the market, influencing its price positively when the usage of the app increases:

Frequently Asked Questions:
1: How does the messenger work?
The OSM runs on a parallel "ghost" network. The messages and files only hitch a ride with the master nodes until they are delivered, so they are not sent through the chain itself. This prevents any possible clogging from network congestion and is a security measure in itself as well: Messages are not stored on the chain, so they can't be grabbed from there either.

2: Since the OSM uses blockchain technology, aren't there security risks associated with storing private data on the Blockchain?
No data is stored on the blockchain, it's merely relayed via the master nodes. The only people that hold a copy of the sent text are yourself and your contact.
3: What security practices are used to ensure that privacy is preserved when exchanging data?
The OSM is encrypted end-to-end and encrypted utilising 256-bit encryption keys and Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman.

4: Why does the messaging app even need a token?
The Obsidian currency (ODN) is technically its own coin as it has its own blockchain and isn't dependent on some other service to provide a token, as some other related crypto-messaging apps are (Status and E-Chat ). The coin exists as an incentive to keep the network running in the form of public distributed masternodes. Hosting a masternode returns a fee bonus to the host in the form of ODN coins. ODN may also be described as the "gas" the fuels transactions on the network. In summary, ODN exists to pay hosts for supporting the Obsidian network. This process is also known as proof-of-stake.
Beyond this, ODN can be sent from one contact to another through the messenger, being encrypted and hidden inside an image.
5: Can you mine ODN?
The Obsidian blockchain uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) algorithm. This contrasts with the proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm that Bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies use, which requires "mining" complex mathematical calculations to be performed by your graphics card (or in some cases CPU) in order to solve blocks of transaction data on the blockchain in exchange for Bitcoin rewards. This also functions to decentralise the network.
The Obsidian PoS algorithm requires no complex, energy-consuming calculations, but instead incentivises decentralisation of the network through hosting nodes which hold or "stake" a prerequisite sum of ODN. By keeping a node online and supporting the network, the host is intermittently rewarded a sum at an interval proportional to the ODN staking on the hosted node. In summary, no, you cannot "mine" ODN, you can only "stake" it. Currently, ALL ODN holders may stake their ODN.

Comparative Chart

Blackstone's Road Map (the lead developer) for development side:
https://obsidianproject.org/roadmap
(Quoted this part from link above)

1. Obsidian Secure Anonymous Messenger
   I've started to develop what has now become the 'OSM' within my company in 2014 and open-sourced the code base for the Obsidian project. Development is now continuing in a private repository to protect us a bit from too much copying. Current releases and issue trackingis available here. Currenly I and Daniil, who is paid by OPL are the active devs on the project. These are my development goals for OSM in the near term:
   Planning Q1 2018 (OSM)
   o Next OSM beta for Android on 19th January
   o Create a test plan and implement UAT testing (current task)
   o Approach the v1.0 features and quality till mid-February
   o First Windows 10 beta (after complete rewrite) till end of January
   o Hire a qualified C#/iOS developer who is able to reuse the current common OSM code base and concentrate on iOS UI.
   o Altogether Android, iOS and Windows 10 releases should be neat, production quality apps and available from the app stores till end Q1 2018.
   o First version of the OSM platform API
   Planning Q2 2018 (OSM)
   o Integrate the ODN C# wallet into OSM, to also allow for sending ODN in messages.
   Planning Q3/Q4 2018 (OSM)
   o Decentralization of messaging nodes.

2. Obsidian Wallets
   I have created the Obsidian-Qt wallet by forking it from the StratisX wallet and customized it for ODN (20 ODN block reward, SHA-512 hash algo). It was not my task, I did this for free to help out, so that Obsidian Platform Ltd. had the coins for their ICO. 5/6th of the coins I created went to OPL, 1/6th stayed with me - that's my (only) financial interest to work for this project, which I also love for other reasons. Planning:
   Planning Q1 2018 (wallets)
   o Update Obsidian-Qt (maintenance only)
   o Port the Stratis Breeze wallet to Obsidian in preparation of Q2
   Planning Q2 2018 (wallets)
   o Use the core of Stratis Breeze wallet/StratisBitcoinFullNode to create the OSM integrated wallet.

3. Beyond Core Development
   I am also an advisor for Obsidian Platform Ltd. who initiates and manages additional value-adding projects for Obsidian. With their help and funding I'd like to see the following happening, and I'm giving my support as good as I can:
   Planning Q1 2018 (business development)
   Presentation of the Obsidian project in its best light, to establish partnerships, and also extend this website for this purpose, first and foremost for:
   o New quality exchange listings
   o Integration in payment providers such as coinpayments.net, so that you can go shopping with your ODN.
   Planning Q1 2018 (Obsidian/ODN decentralization)
   o Work with OPL on a framework/agreement how we can make it easy, safe and profitable to build businesses and apps in the Obsidian ecosystem, e.g. by setting up guidelines to use the Obsidian name/logo in projects others build for Obsidian independently.
   o The goal is to make Obsidian a community-owned project like Bitcoin, where everyone can contribute or base a business on without asking.
   Planning Q1/Q2 2018 (research)
   o Use the upcoming Obsidian papertrading exchange for research in decentralised exchanges and learn