Ethereum’s EVM revolutionized blockchain programmability, introducing the world to smart contracts and setting the standard for decentralized applications. But it also came with limitations.&nbsp;Virtual machine based apps since the EVM can only process transactions as step-by-step instructions to be settled onchain sequentially. This makes perfect sense from the perspective of blockchains and how they update state via global consensus, but it doesn’t make sense from the perspective of users.&nbsp;VM-based apps come with a steep learning curve, requiring more technical knowledge and patience, forcing users to understand the steps necessary to accomplish their goals. It’s like going to a restaurant and needing to give the chef a step-by-step recipe for the meal you want instead of just ordering from a menu.Beyond this, conventional blockchain VMs have come with a number of other limitations:<ul><li>No privacy: public transactions and data sharing are the default, limiting widespread adoption of apps that process sensitive data.</li><li>No multichain support: apps are tied to specific chains with no native support for cross-chain composability, fragmenting liquidity and UX. To go multichain, developers have to manage multiple deployments across different chains, a logistical nightmare. </li><li>Inefficient state management: globally-shared state and reliance on onchain data and computation limits throughput, increases costs, and makes data sovereignty impossible.</li><li>Limited apps/no multiparty support: apps cannot support decentralized counterparty matching for multiparty applications like bartering, onchain coordination, or fully onchain DEXs. Dapps cannot match the functionality of their centralized Web2 counterparts.</li></ul>These constraints make it hard for developers to build and maintain truly user-friendly, future-proof applications with the flexibility needed to meet a constantly evolving landscape of user requirements and shifting market trends.&nbsp;Since the launch of the EVM, innovation in virtual machines has brought incremental benefits like higher performance, zero-knowledge (ZK) functionality, or enabling new programming languages.&nbsp;The engine at the core of Anoma’s Distributed Operating System, the ARM doesn’t iterate or build on top of previous blockchain VM technology; it’s designed and engineered from the ground up based on novel research. With the deployment of the ARM to protocol adapters in the Ethereum ecosystem, Anoma introduces the most significant upgrade to the dapp development stack since the EVM. The ARM brings a massive upgrade to existing blockchains and ecosystems by providing a private, intent-centric execution environment that works seamlessly with existing infrastructure – kicking off a new era of user-friendly, privacy-preserving apps primed for real-world adoption. Developers can now build fully-private, intent-centric applications that can run natively on any chain Anoma is deployed to.&nbsp;<h2 id="what-is-the-anoma-resource-machine-arm">What is the Anoma Resource Machine (ARM)?</h2>The ARM is a new type of virtual machine. While conventional virtual machines work by processing step-by-step transactions, the ARM is designed from the ground-up to process intents: user-defined outcomes and constraints. By enabling users to directly state their desired outcome, the ARM enables more intuitive and user-friendly applications.&nbsp;With intents, users can submit their desired end state without needing to worry about the steps necessary to achieve it. They can say, for example, ‘I want to borrow USDC against ETH at the best possible rate,” and Anoma handles the complexity for them, executing the order seamlessly across underlying infrastructure. While conventional VMs are designed around the needs of blockchains, the ARM is designed around the needs of users, including developers.&nbsp;Building apps on conventional blockchain VMs means building with smart contracts that are rigid and difficult to upgrade. When managing multichain deployments, developers are faced with complicated dependencies that make upgrading time consuming and expensive.&nbsp;With Anoma, a single app can be built, run, and upgraded natively across several chains at once. For users, this provides the most seamless multichain experience possible. For developers, it eliminates the risk of choosing the wrong deployment chain, speeds up go-to-market, slashes maintenance overhead, reduces production costs, and helps future proof their app.&nbsp;<h2 id="introducing-the-resource-model">Introducing the Resource Model</h2>To make this possible, Anoma introduces a completely new state model: the <a href="https://docs.anoma.net/learn/anomas-state-model?ref=blog.anoma.net">Resource Model</a>. Inspired by the commitment/nullifier system originally pioneered by Zcash, the resource model combines the best of UTXO and account-based models.Rather than using step-by-step transactions to update state, Anoma’s state model is organized around atomic units of state called resources. Resources are the key to writing intent-centric applications, and can represent anything from tokens to messages and arbitrary data.Compared to conventional VM transactions that can only access state (including assets) on a single blockchain, resource data can live anywhere: on any blockchain, any user device, any network node, etc. This model gives developers much more control and flexibility over their applications, which can now exist dynamically across several chains and access data and state anywhere.&nbsp;This model also provides the most advanced privacy features ever seen in Web3.&nbsp;Privacy isn’t about hiding or obscuring information, it’s about the appropriate flow of information. For example, it’s appropriate to share your medical records with your doctor, but not with the whole world. Since resources can live anywhere, user data can live on user devices by default, and only be shared with specific parties in the broader network as necessary.&nbsp;The ARM solves the blockchain privacy problem, enabling fine-tuned control over data sharing on any public blockchain, today and in the future. For example, you can write a payments app with compliant privacy features where data must be disclosed to a specific party for payments exceeding a certain threshold. Users can also share specific data with specific parties for auditing purposes. This is more than just a ‘nice-to-have’, it’s required to achieve real world relevance for apps that process sensitive user data.<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/2025/11/Anoma-Resource-machine-02.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1920" height="1080" srcset="https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/size/w600/2025/11/Anoma-Resource-machine-02.jpg 600w, https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/size/w1000/2025/11/Anoma-Resource-machine-02.jpg 1000w, https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/size/w1600/2025/11/Anoma-Resource-machine-02.jpg 1600w, https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/2025/11/Anoma-Resource-machine-02.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px"><figcaption>The basic anatomy of an ARM transaction</figcaption></figure>In an ARM transaction, resources are coupled with resource logics, which encode the rules for how resources can be used. To get from user intent to satisfied outcome, resources can be created (e.g. asset minting) and consumed (e.g. asset burning), while the ARM enforces the rules for valid state updates in line with the user’s stated preferences and conditions.&nbsp;<h2 id="the-arm-and-protocol-adapters">The ARM and Protocol Adapters</h2>The ARM comes to life on existing blockchains by being deployed on Protocol Adapters (PAs). PAs are smart contract implementations of the ARM that provide interoperability between the ARM and existing virtual machines.<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/2025/11/image1.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1999" height="1125" srcset="https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/size/w600/2025/11/image1.jpg 600w, https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/size/w1000/2025/11/image1.jpg 1000w, https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/size/w1600/2025/11/image1.jpg 1600w, https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/2025/11/image1.jpg 1999w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px"><figcaption>The ARM can be deployed on any number of blockchains via protocol adapters</figcaption></figure><a href="https://x.com/anoma/status/1990798499563385222?s=20&ref=blog.anoma.net">With the ARM now deployed to the Ethereum PA</a>, developers can build privacy-preserving applications with native intents for Ethereum. The ARM provides full interoperability with the EVM, so developers can leverage existing assets, smart contracts, and data on Ethereum.Thanks to the ARM’s unmatched data protection capabilities, developers can incorporate industry-leading privacy guarantees into existing DeFi and payments applications, enable private voting for DAOs, build private auctions, leverage private oracle data, and more.By building natively on the ARM, developers can not only unlock Anoma’s native intents and privacy features, they can be ready to deploy their app on any and every chain that gets a PA in the future. Applications can select different providers for different services (e.g. ordering from Ethereum, storage from Arweave, and solving from Chorus One).The ARM also enables native gas fee abstraction, so apps can offer superior UX by eliminating the need for their users to hold specific tokens to pay fees.&nbsp;<h2 id="what%E2%80%99s-next">What’s next</h2>With the Ethereum PA deployed, developers can now build privacy-preserving, intent-centric apps for Ethereum, and apps like <a href="http://x.com/anomapay?ref=blog.anoma.net">AnomaPay</a> can come to life. But Anoma on Ethereum is just the first step. From here, PAs will be launched on key L2 rollups to bring the benefits of Anoma to the most widely used chains across the Ethereum ecosystem. With the launch of each new PA, Anoma apps like AnomaPay can automatically work on those chains.The ARM marks the start of a new era for decentralized app development. Dapps are no longer rigid, constrained by their deployment chains, and incapable of protecting user data. They’re freeform, flexible, and can provide user-friendly privacy options for the first time in Web3. The ARM is the missing link that enables crypto applications to finally compete with the functionality and experience of Web2, so Web3 can become just ‘the web’.Dive deeper into the ARM's technical specifications <a href="https://zenodo.org/records/10689620?ref=blog.anoma.net" rel="noreferrer">here</a>.

Introducing the ARM: The Next-Generation of Virtual Machines Begins

Blockchain infrastructure has come a long way since the early days of crypto. From Bitcoin to Ethereum, the rise of L2s, stablecoins, modularity, and the ZK revolution, blockchains have become faster, cheaper, more scalable, interoperable, efficient and programmable.It seems like every day there’s a new L1 or L2 launching, bringing improvements to some corner of the Web3 stack. But when is enough enough with innovation at the infrastructure level? When will we arrive at the promised land of applications that people care about beyond the crypto bubble? When will Web3 finally take its rightful place and just be ‘the web’?More and more protocol teams are realizing that, without apps people care about, innovating at the infrastructure layer is a game of diminishing returns. So they’re building their own apps to dogfood their tech and show the world what it’s capable of.&nbsp;It’s a good step in the right direction, but without a unified layer of abstraction on top of existing and future infrastructure, we’re still caught in the trap of fragmentation, broken composability, bad UX, and developer friction. We’re stuck in an immature, awkward teenager phase where innovation outpaces ease of adoption, where increasing complexity keeps the next wave of builders and users at bay.Web3 today is like the world of personal computers before operating systems like Windows and Mac streamlined the developer and user experience. When computers had a steep learning curve, requiring more technical knowledge, patience, manual configuration, and hands-on interaction with things like command-line interfaces. The blockchain landscape today is like a complex maze of computer hardware without an OS to make development and user interaction simple enough for mainstream adoption.<h2 id="aiming-upward">Aiming upward</h2>Anoma is not another chain. It’s a higher level of abstraction that shifts innovation upward from infrastructure to the application layer.&nbsp;By unifying the landscape of existing and future infrastructure under a single application layer, Anoma makes it possible for builders and users to stop worrying about the constantly evolving world of L1s and L2s. Builders can focus on building apps that people love, and users can get a simple, unified experience across every underlying chain.<figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/2025/09/Anoma-Upward-2.jpg" class="kg-image" alt="" loading="lazy" width="1920" height="1080" srcset="https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/size/w600/2025/09/Anoma-Upward-2.jpg 600w, https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/size/w1000/2025/09/Anoma-Upward-2.jpg 1000w, https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/size/w1600/2025/09/Anoma-Upward-2.jpg 1600w, https://blog.anoma.net/content/images/2025/09/Anoma-Upward-2.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 720px) 720px"><figcaption>Anoma unifies infrastructure under a single application layer</figcaption></figure>Anoma frees users and developers from the complexity of underlying infrastructure so blockchain can evolve into a more mature phase. The thesis is simple: we need to move the space upward to the application layer or Web3 has no chance of breaking through to the mainstream.&nbsp;Crypto innovation has hit a ceiling. It’s time to move past the same old chain games. It’s time to aim higher. Upward.This is not about discounting or minimizing the need for continued development at the base layers. Since Anoma can work with any blockchain, today and tomorrow, infrastructure can continue to evolve and improve while users and developers get an uninterrupted experience at the OS level. The space can continue to move forward across the entire stack, and builders can be ready for whatever the future holds.But we need to recognize that we won’t win by making marginal improvements to infrastructure for the next 10 years. We win by giving the world apps and experiences that people love. We win by providing a real alternative to the traditional status quo. We need to be more ambitious. We need moonshots. It’s time to aim higher. Upward.

Upward: Shifting Innovation to the Application Layer

After years of research and development, today the first phase of Anoma’s <a href="https://anoma.net/roadmap?ref=blog.anoma.net">roadmap to mainnet</a> begins with the launch of Anoma’s first devnet. Anoma is open for the very first builders of intent-centric applications.&nbsp;During this initial phase, a curated cohort of builder teams will begin pioneering applications on a private devnet. This will enable the first intent-centric applications to take shape, and will help Anoma iterate towards a more stable public testnet phase thanks to feedback from these early pioneers.&nbsp;As the first tangible iteration of Anoma’s distributed intent-centric operating system, this milestone marks a key turning point for decentralized applications. Anoma’s intent machine represents a significant step change from today’s transaction-centric virtual machine paradigm for dapp development. It sets a new standard for developer and user experience, and will help end the fragmentation that currently holds back Web3 applications.This intent-centric model is a significant generational shift that involves some key conceptual differences, including Anoma’s novel <a href="https://anoma.net/research/intents-rm?ref=blog.anoma.net">resource model</a>, that builders will need to familiarize themselves with. Beware: here be dragons! The devnet is an early version of the Anoma codebase that will be iterated upon with the help of early builders to arrive at a more stable version.<h2 id="get-started-with-anoma%E2%80%99s-developer-docs">Get started with Anoma’s developer docs</h2>With the launch of the devnet, Anoma’s initial developer documentation has also been published. The docs provide an overview of key concepts for building applications on Anoma, introduce Juvix, Anoma’s programming language for intent-centric apps, and help developers get started building basic apps. This is an initial version of the docs that will co-evolve with the overall Anoma software and Juvix language to provide a comprehensive resource for builders, including application development tutorials. <a href="https://docs.anoma.net/?ref=blog.anoma.net">Have a look</a> and <a href="https://github.com/anoma/developer-docs/issues/new/choose?ref=blog.anoma.net">provide feedback</a> on GitHub.<h2 id="introducing-the-first-cohort-of-intents-builders">Introducing the first cohort of intents builders</h2>The first cohort of Anoma application builders are currently working on the devnet across use cases for intent-centric DeFi, AI, messaging, and privacy.&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/mycelmycel?ref=blog.anoma.net">Mycel</a> Mycel is building the first privacy-preserving order book DEX that enables truly seamless cross-chain trading through revolutionary Account Transfer Protocol, powered by Anoma's intent-centric architecture.<a href="https://x.com/HeyElsaAI?ref=blog.anoma.net">HeyElsa</a> A composable layer for DeFAI agents. Managing crypto assets can be daunting. AI agents simplify web3 trading, but lack the SDKs, APIs, and infrastructure to be useful. Elsa AI transforms the modern web3 trading experience with a freeform, natural-language, AI Agent Hub, designed to simplify crypto transactions and asset management. HeyElsa is exploring the delegation of solver tasks to Anoma’s infrastructure for intent-based problem-solving, ensuring the most efficient execution of user requests, as well as providing private execution for sensitive transactions, aligning with Elsa’s user-centric and security-focused goals.<a href="https://x.com/Flutonio?ref=blog.anoma.net">Fluton</a> Fluton is the intent-centric, fast and low-cost gateway enabling instant swaps and bridges across EVM and AltVM networks. Fluton is exploring the use of Anoma’s intents and P2P network to enhance liquidity depth. Anoma’s generalized intents and programmable data sovereignty can enable Fluton to expand its scope to enable more complex intent creation, such as cross-chain NFT swaps, cross-chain hooks, and other advanced use cases.<a href="https://x.com/repponetwork?ref=blog.anoma.net">Reppo</a> Reppo is building a resource coordination layer that allows AI devs and agents to permissionlessly raise capital, and to access niche datasets and infra on demand by simply expressing intents. Anoma is a critical component for Reppo as it provides an out of box solution to relay and settle intents between AI builders and data owners/providers, capital allocators, and infra owners. Reppo also pairs intents with IP co-ownership incentives to facilitate price discovery for resources needed to build AI.<a href="https://x.com/Poetic_Tech?ref=blog.anoma.net">Poetic Technologies</a> Poetic Technologies is a fantastic collective enterprise whose mission is to liberate the technical imagination from bureaucratic technologies. Poetic Technologies' core offerings include secure software and hardware for next generation TEEs, research and development in zero knowledge cryptography and monetary innovation. They are exploring the use of Anoma's resource machine to power up their TEE builders for a variety of different applications.<a href="https://x.com/spicenetio?ref=blog.anoma.net">Spicenet</a> Spicenet is the unified and composable liquidity layer for trading applications. Spicenet enshrines key trading infrastructure and liquidity at the network-level, making it easy for trading applications to access trading primitives like money markets, spot and futures instruments, as well as liquidity for their use-case. The Spicenet Execution Network consumes orders in the form of intents and finds optimal liquidity routes to fulfil them, leveraging liquidity orchestration. Anoma is a key component, enabling direct, native submission of intents to Anoma’s distributed, intent-centric network for fulfilment. <a href="https://www.swissdao.space/?ref=blog.anoma.net">SwissDAO</a> SwissDAO is developing a generalized framework for autonomous intent-based matchmaking, building on the concept of intent machines like Anoma. SwissDAO focuses on connecting intents across diverse domains such as job markets, dating, shared economies, and gaming, to name just a few. SwissDAO’s approach is grounded in agentic systems. These systems empower autonomous agents to act as facilitators, representing users or organizations in negotiating, automating, and improving matchmaking processes as they evolve. SwissDAO is exploring Anoma's intent machine model to make intent matching more efficient and transparent.<a href="https://x.com/anylabs?ref=blog.anoma.net">Any</a> Any is a post cloud communication network for independent minds. It features independent communication channels where every change is cryptographically signed and encrypted. Ownership logic and identities are stored on-chain, while social interactions rely on gas-less transactions with local consensus through CRDTs. Anoma’s intent layer will enable parties that don’t know each other to establish a connection and make deals while preserving the privacy of those connections.<h2 id="what%E2%80%99s-next">What’s next?</h2>These early pioneers will be a crucial part of Anoma’s mainnet rollout process, providing early feedback to be incorporated into Anoma’s design. In the next phase of Anoma’s roadmap to mainnet, the Anoma Builders Program will open the devnet to a broader developer audience through public applications.&nbsp;Check out the <a href="https://anoma.net/roadmap?ref=blog.anoma.net">full roadmap to mainnet</a>, the new <a href="http://docs.anoma.net/?ref=blog.anoma.net">Anoma docs</a>, and watch the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRjLWH-LCUA&ref=blog.anoma.net">Introduction to Anoma for App Developers workshop</a> to get an overview of building intent-centric applications.Interested in joining the Builders Program? <a href="https://forms.gle/xX2yfuZbLcWsD9LH6?ref=blog.anoma.net">Sign up</a> to be informed when applications go live.

Anoma Blog

Posts by Zach Cavanaugh

Introducing the ARM: The Next-Generation of Virtual Machines Begins

Upward: Shifting Innovation to the Application Layer

HelloWorld: Anoma's First Devnet is Live!

TL;DW: Intents Discussions' Most Intents Takeaways