Anoma, a New Operating System for Web3... A Blueprint for dApps Designed with 'Intent' Written by @Parknow_BM @anoma Numerous dApps have emerged to improve cumbersome on-chain activities, but it remains difficult for users to navigate them without a foundational knowledge of blockchain. To achieve a desired outcome, a user must personally figure out and execute the entire process: which DeFi protocols to use, which bridge to move assets through, and which DEX to finalize the trade on. This process is an unavoidable entry barrier for new users who have just created their digital asset wallets. It's why UI/UX is cited as one of the biggest obstacles hindering the 'mass adoption' that Web3 dreams of. Here, a project has declared a fundamental paradigm shift to "end this era of inconvenience." That project is Anoma. Anoma describes itself as "a blockchain operating system (OS) like Windows," aiming for a full-stack, decentralized, and integrated design for dApps. The future Anoma envisions is very simple: to make users experience the complex backend (blockchain) and the visible frontend not as separate components, but as a single, connected 'app'. Anoma: Changing the Fundamentals of Blockchain Interaction At the core of Anoma's design is its 'intent-centric' architecture. This is a deep-rooted innovation that changes the way users interact with the blockchain from 'imperative' to 'declarative'. Until now, blockchains have relied on specific commands issued by users, known as 'transactions.' For example, "Swap 100 C tokens for D tokens through pool B on exchange A." This process also has a security blind spot: it is difficult for users to fully understand the potential risks embedded in the transactions they sign. Anoma's 'intents' turn all of this on its head. Instead of a complex execution path, users simply declare their desired final outcome and constraints. They express an intent like, "I want to exchange 100 of token C for at least 50 of token D." This liberates the user from being an 'expert who needs to know everything' to a 'subject who only needs to know what they want.' The Journey of an Intent to Reality To process a user's desired intent, the Anoma system goes through the following steps. Step 1: Creation and Propagation of Intent Everything begins with the user creating an 'intent' that contains their goal. The requested intent is submitted to the solver network, which can be seen as Anoma's mempool, and is processed by solvers according to the intent. Step 2: The Emergence of 'Solvers' to Find the Optimal Solution Requests submitted to the solver network are processed by Solvers, who operate based on economic incentives. Solvers combine and analyze the intents on Anoma's solver network to find the optimal combination of trades that satisfies multiple users' intents simultaneously. In essence, they find cheap and fast trade combinations. Step 3: The Cryptographic Stack for Privacy and Fairness Anoma ensures strong privacy and fairness in the process after a solver finds a solution. Taiga: The solution first passes through Taiga, a privacy framework. The details of the trade (asset type, amount, address, etc.) are encrypted with zero-knowledge proofs to ensure anonymity. Ferveo: The encrypted transaction is then sealed once more with a threshold cryptography technology called Ferveo. This makes the mempool itself opaque, preventing anyone from snooping on the transaction details before they are included in a block. This fundamentally blocks the MEV that exists in traditional blockchain mempools. Step 4: The 'Typhon' Engine for Final Execution and Consensus Once all preparations are complete, the encrypted transaction is finally passed to the high-performance consensus engine, Typhon. Typhon determines the order of these transactions, securely records them in a block, and finally executes them, turning the user's intent into reality. If a requested intent requires a complex process across multiple chains, Typhon's consensus mechanism ensures that all steps either succeed atomically together or fail together. In this way, a user's declared intent goes through Anoma's complex and sophisticated system and returns as an optimized result. Maximizing Efficiency Through Ring Trades Anoma's design also enables 'N-to-N coordination,' which reconciles the mutual interests of multiple participants at once. For example, consider a scenario with three users, each holding a different asset and wanting a different asset. A has ETH and wants USDC; B has USDC and wants ATOM; and C has ATOM and wants ETH. In the current dApp ecosystem, all three users must conduct their swaps individually, incurring significant fees and bearing the risks of slippage and MEV. This is because they must act independently, unaware of each other's existence. However, in Anoma, a solver can detect their declared 'intents' in real-time and combine them into a single 'Ring Trade' structure. If A states, "I want to give 1 ETH and receive at least 3000 USDC," the solver simultaneously combines this with B's intent, "I want to give 3000 USDC and receive at least 250 ATOM," and C's intent, "I want to give 250 ATOM and receive at least 1 ETH," creating a single atomic transaction. As a result, the three users exchange their desired assets in a single transaction, and the trade will not execute unless all conditions are met. This is a prime example of the practical value of the 'intent-centric' ecosystem that Anoma is aiming for, as it bundles fragmented liquidity to maximize trading efficiency and creates a structure that benefits all participants. Anoma's vision can be seen as a process of redesigning the very foundation on which applications run from first principles to fully realize the potential of blockchain. It squarely targets Web3's chronic problems of fragmentation, development complexity, and poor user experience. Anoma dreams of an OS for mass adoption where users can naturally enjoy the benefits of blockchain technology without ever feeling its complexity.