What is Anoma?
A distributed OS for intent-centric apps.
Web3 needs a unified OS
Today’s blockchain landscape is highly fragmented, with users, apps, state, and liquidity split between chains. This creates headaches for developers and unnecessary complexity for users. Users need to interact directly with blockchains, often with multiple steps and transactions to sign.
The missing link between chains & and users
Windows unified the PC environment, introducing a new layer of abstraction between users and hardware. Developers could write apps that worked seamlessly on any PC, and users didn’t need to understand the underlying code or hardware. This changed the way we interact with computers.
The great unifier
Anoma unifies blockchains into an integrated OS where builders and users don’t need to worry about the complexities of which chain or VM they’re interacting with. It changes the way we interact with blockchains and enables a future of user-friendly, seamlessly integrated dapps.
Unlocking a new phase of innovation
Ethereum introduced programmable settlement, a major leap from the limited scripting capabilities of Bitcoin generation architectures. This led to an explosion of innovation in dapps, DeFi, NFTs and more, but still limits the type of apps that can be built.
The next big leap, Anoma’s intent-centric model enables any kind of application, including things that haven’t been possible yet. It unlocks a new wave of fully decentralized apps that don’t feel like Web3 experiences.
What are Intents?
The future of decentralized applications
Intents are a natural part of how we interact with the world
Each time you use an app, you have an intent for what you want to do. From swapping tokens to buying NFTs or booking a flight, intents are the outcomes you want to satisfy. With intents on Anoma, you can specify what you want without needing to understand the complexity of how to do it.
Evolving dapps from transaction-centric to intent-centric
Users interact with dapps today by submitting transactions. They need to understand blockchains well enough to know exactly which transactions to sign for what they want to do. This is overly complex and unnatural – users don’t come to an app with transactions in mind, they come with intents.
Intents aren’t magic, but Anoma apps will feel like they are
With Anoma apps, you can express your intent and let Anoma take care of the rest. Just tell the app what outcome you want, along with any preferences, and a decentralized network of intent solvers handles the complexity of navigating different protocols, chains, and transaction types.
Why Anoma?
Power to the people
Apps should be human-centric, not blockchain-centric
Anoma places user needs, preferences, and values at the center of the blockchain experience. It enables more natural interactions and empowers people to make blockchains work for them, paving the way for a more human-friendly decentralized internet.
Any intent, anywhere
Anoma introduces a standard for generalized intents. The holy grail of intent-centric design, this enables any type of intent to be expressed and solved across any connected chain, rollup, or dapp. This opens the door to a new wave of innovation in user-friendly, seamlessly interoperable dapps.
How does Anoma work?
The Intent Machine (IM)
Anoma is powered by the intent machine. Similar to how the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) processes transactions into state changes, the IM processes intents into state changes. The IM works seamlessly alongside existing VMs, enabling intents to be settled on any underlying chain.
Decentralized counterparty discovery, solving, & settlement
Anoma provides all the infrastructure necessary for intent-centric apps. A decentralized solver network works to match intents across counterparties and settle them on connected blockchains. Developers can focus on building their app instead of needing to integrate all these components.
On-demand consensus
Anoma can support many parallel instances and security models that are all interoperable with each other. Choose to solve your intents globally or locally within a specific group or geographic area for the lowest possible latency and fees. This parallelized model brings unmatched speed and scalability.
Programmable data sovereignty
The lack of data protection is a major shortcoming of blockchains. Anoma introduces programmable data sovereignty, giving developers and users full control over what data is shared with whom at different stages of the intent solving and settlement process.
What does the future look like?
Seamless, natural user interfaces
The way we interact with the internet is quickly changing. AI and natural language processing are changing the nature of UIs, making more natural human interactions possible. With Anoma, complex multi-chain tasks and even ‘real world’ interactions like buying concert tickets can be done in a similar way but using fully decentralized infrastructure.
More expressive money
Intents give us the ability to infuse our transactions with our preferences and values. This is a fundamentally new level of programmability. Every interaction becomes an opportunity to affect the world in ways that align with our values and reflect the future that we want to see.