Obyte, the decentralized cryptocurrency network built on a directed acyclic graph (DAG), is celebrating its ninth anniversary with a series of major upgrades and ecosystem expansions. The project marked the milestone on December 25, 2025, nine years after launching in 2016 under its original name, Byteball, according to its official blog.
Over the past year, Obyte has focused on strengthening community involvement while rolling out new decentralized finance (DeFi) tools and social applications. One of the biggest changes came with the introduction of full on-chain governance, a feature that now allows GBYTE token holders to directly vote on network decisions.
Governance moves on-chain
In late 2024, Obyte completed a key network upgrade that brought governance fully on-chain. Through a dedicated governance website, GBYTE holders can vote on protocol upgrades and help choose Order Providers — specialized public nodes that help keep the DAG synchronized by sending regular transactions.
Unlike traditional validators or miners, Order Providers do not approve, reject, or censor transactions. Their role is limited to maintaining network order and synchronization, preserving Obyte’s fully decentralized design.
In March 2025, the community used this governance system to elect its first Order Provider. CariPower, a Caribbean-based renewable energy company, won the vote with more than 31,000 GBYTE tokens supporting its candidacy. The company has said it plans to explore distributed ledger technology for peer-to-peer energy markets and infrastructure projects.
Expanding DeFi and core tools
Alongside governance improvements, Obyte continues to expand its suite of decentralized tools. The network already supports services such as ODEX for token trading, Oswap.io for liquidity provision, and the Counterstake Bridge for transferring assets across different networks. Users can also access Obyte-related trading on centralized platforms like NonKYC.io and Biconomy.
At the protocol level, Obyte offers features including Autonomous Agents (its version of smart contracts), attestations, private tokens, and custom token creation. Additional applications include Prophet for prediction markets, Kivach for donating to open-source projects, and Pythagorean Perpetual Futures for more advanced trading strategies.
Enter Obyte City
One of the more creative launches in 2025 was Obyte City, introduced in June. The virtual environment lets users buy plots on a digital grid using CITY tokens, which can be traded on Oswap.io. When a user purchases a plot, it is assigned random coordinates. If two neighboring plot owners connect through Discord or Telegram and neither plot has been built on, both users receive a house and two additional plots.
Obyte City runs entirely through Autonomous Agents on the DAG, with certain settings governed on-chain by plot owners, reinforcing the project’s focus on decentralization.
What’s next for Obyte
Looking ahead, the team plans to launch Obyte Friends, a social engagement platform designed to reward users for daily interactions and promoting the network. Further DeFi tools, social applications, and new sidechains are also planned for 2026, signaling that Obyte aims to grow beyond its original role as a payments and token platform.
As Obyte enters its tenth year, the project appears focused on blending governance, DeFi, and community-driven experiments into a single, fully decentralized ecosystem.
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