Whether it’s tokens, data, or Autonomous Agents – everything on Obyte starts with a transaction.

But what actually happens under the hood?
We’ll walk you through how transactions work on Obyte – simple and easy to understand.

Table of Contents

• What is a transaction?
• Storage instead of fees
• What affects the size of a transaction?
• What happens under the hood?
• How long does a transaction take?
• When is a transaction final?
• Conclusion

What is a transaction?

A transaction is an action on the Obyte network. In most cases, that means you’re sending GBYTE or another token from A to B.

But posting data to the DAG, interacting with an Autonomous Agent, or casting a vote – that’s all considered a transaction too.

Storage instead of fees

As we already explained in the article “GBYTE – The Native Token on Obyte”, Obyte doesn’t charge flat transaction fees.
Instead, you only pay for the actual storage your transaction uses – measured in bytes.

💡 Obyte doesn’t charge flat network fees.

You pay exactly the number of bytes your action takes up in the DAG.

That makes transactions transparent, efficient, and easy to understand.

A simple transaction usually costs just 500–1,000 bytes.
At a price of $5 per GBYTE, that’s only $0,0000025 to $0,000005.

That’s a fraction of a cent – making microtransactions easy and ideal for IoT applications.

What affects the size of a transaction?

The number of bytes your transaction costs depends on what exactly you do.
Basic rule: The more complex it is, the bigger the transaction.

Here are the main factors:

• Number of inputs: How many individual coin units you’re using.
• Number of outputs: For example, if you’re sending to multiple addresses.
• Additional data: Such as text or oracle data.
• Special functions: Like interacting with Autonomous Agents.

In short: The more you do, the more storage you’ll need.

📌 TIP: Curious how it works in practice? Head over to the Obyte Explorer to watch transactions unfold live in the DAG.

What happens under the hood?

When you click “Send” in your wallet, the following happens:

1. A new unit is created (think of it as a data packet).
2. It includes your inputs – meaning: where the coins come from.
3. Then the outputs – where the coins should go.
4. Finally, everything is signed and optionally extended with extra data.

This unit is then added to the DAG – as a new node that references previous transactions.

How long does a transaction take?

Obyte has no “blocks” – which means there’s no waiting for the next block. Transactions are written to the DAG continuously.

Your transaction usually becomes visible within seconds, but full confirmation can currently take several minutes – around 5 to 10 minutes, depending on network activity.
The reason: At the moment, overall activity is low, so fewer new transactions are available to reference yours.

Here’s the kicker:

💡 Thanks to the DAG design, the more activity there is, the faster the network becomes – it scales with usage.

And the best part:

💡 You still only pay for what you actually use – with no block fees or congestion.

That’s what makes decentralized tech make sense:
The more active the community, the better the system performs.

When is a transaction final?

On Obyte, a transaction becomes final once it’s been referenced by enough later transactions – especially those published by so-called Order Provider.

As mentioned earlier:
The more activity on the network, the faster transactions become final as well.

⚠️ Important: Order Provider aren’t validators. They behave more like lighthouses – their own transactions help guide the network and establish order.

📌 We’ll take a closer look at the role of Order Provider in a future article.

Conclusion

Transactions on Obyte are efficient, transparent, and free from any central authority.
You only pay for the storage your action requires – fair and easy.