About

Omni (previously Mastercoin) is a smart contract platform that enables the issuance and exchange of digital assets and currencies which can be described as a meta-layer developed on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. The protocol creates a ledger for tokens and smart contracts on the Bitcoin ledger. In this way, the protocol avoids changing the Bitcoin blockchain and relying on an alternate blockchain while also benefiting from the high hashing power and security of the Bitcoin network.

History

Omni is an open-source protocol layer built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain with the purpose of enabling the creation and trading of digital assets and currencies without relying upon an alternate blockchain. The project aimed to tackle the stability problem of Bitcoin through introducing new assets and adding new value to the Bitcoin network. These "property tokens" created on the Omni layer enable the issuance and transfer of smart properties such as titles, deeds, bets, or stocks in a company.

Founded under the name of Mastercoin in August 2013, Omni was the first project in the history of crypto to run a crowdsale (ICO) as a means to distribute tokens. During the fundraising period, Mastercoin Foundation managed to raise 4740 BTC in return for 563,162 MSC (OMNI) with the purpose of creating a fund for the development of the software.

Mastercoin rebranded all the aspects of its ecosystem to Omni in January 2015 to support its community-driven approach and hold a unifying presence for the projects being developed on top of the protocol. Among many digital assets issued on Omni Layer, one cryptocurrency stands out the most as it is currently the highest valued stablecoin by marketcap. In 2014, Tether (USDT) was issued on Bitcoin blockchain by using Omni Layer and still remains to be an important element of the Omni ecosystem. After the inception of the project, the team delivered several major products that played crucial roles in the layer's functionality. One is the reference implementation of the protocol Omni Core which is based off the Bitcoin Core codebase. The other is a web-based wallet named Omni Wallet which enables its users to create assets, launch crowdsales, and trade on an earlier version of a decentralized exchange: OmniDex, a peer-to-peer distributed exchange to trade smart properties issued with Omni. The project is now working on a lightning network for smart assets called OmniBOLT.