Blockchain Protocol & Infrastructure Engineering

Obsidian Systems provides comprehensive blockchain protocol development services for early-stage and established blockchain platforms. They help chains prepare for launch and build the essential infrastructure that enables blockchain platforms to grow their developer communities.

Core Protocol Development

Their protocol engineering expertise spans multiple consensus mechanisms including Proof of Stake (PoS), Proof of Work (PoW), Delegated PoS (DPoS), and hybrid models. Services include:

• Protocol architecture design
• Consensus mechanism implementation
• Network layer development (peer-to-peer networking)
• Cryptographic primitives implementation
• Security auditing of protocol code
• Performance optimization

They work closely with blockchain teams to build robust, secure, and scalable protocols, tackling complex blockchain engineering challenges that require deep understanding of cryptography, distributed systems, and consensus algorithms.

Major Platform Experience

Obsidian has extensive protocol-level experience working with major blockchain platforms including:

• IOHK (Cardano)
• Tezos
• Sui
• Solana
• Kadena
• Nervos
• Avalanche
• Provenance

This deep protocol-level expertise enables them to handle custom chain development using frameworks like Cosmos SDK, Substrate, and OP Stack.

Ecosystem Infrastructure Development

Beyond core protocol work, Obsidian builds essential infrastructure and developer tools that enable blockchain ecosystems to thrive. Key deliverables include:

• Block explorers
• Developer SDKs
• API services
• Indexing solutions
• Node management tools
• Validator infrastructure
• Developer documentation

Their infrastructure work makes it easier for developers to build on blockchain platforms and for validators to maintain network security.

Notable Infrastructure Project: Tezos Kiln

The Tezos Kiln exemplifies their infrastructure capabilities—a desktop GUI application providing a complete solution for block validators to run nodes and validators with hardware wallet support. This infrastructure helped Tezos build one of the largest block validator communities (400+) of any Proof of Stake blockchain.

Technical Approach

Obsidian's use of Haskell for protocol development provides strong type safety and correctness guarantees, reducing the risk of critical bugs in production blockchain networks. Their Nix-based build system ensures reproducible builds and streamlined deployment of protocol updates.

End-to-End Service

They provide complete infrastructure services including requirements gathering, architecture design, development, testing, deployment, and ongoing operations support. Their rapid development platform enables quick iteration and deployment of essential ecosystem tools, typically delivering prototypes within 10 weeks.

Infrastructure projects often require coordination with external vendors (like Ledger hardware wallets)—an area where Obsidian has proven relationships and expertise.