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Anoma is a framework for an ecosystem of blockchain based protocols launched in 2021 that introduces an "intent-centric architecture" for decentralized systems, defining themselves as a “**third generation protocol**” and a distributed operating system.
It provides to existing protocols a way to improve their modularity, privacy, and user centricity so that they can achieve both better efficiency and fairness, but the set of innovations that Anoma brings to the field overall is so significant to be considered a new paradigm, the next big shift in blockchain capabilities after Bitcoin and Ethereum - in this sense it’s a third generation protocol, and related in many ways to the Cosmos Ecosystem.
It’s difficult to explain to individuals without a technical understanding of the current decentralized technologies*, due to its novelty and technicality, but basically Anoma’s promise is to move the rigidities of the current applications in the background -where the matchmaking among the multitude of needs and offers is realized- so that users can communicate (via “intents”) and address their needs in a new and simpler way.
The first significant element of the Anoma ecosystem, Namada, is going to be operational soon and you can read about it here. It’s a blockchain project designed to provide a secure, privacy-enhanced network for exchanging assets across multiple chains through interoperable, zero-knowledge technology.
Anoma’s ecosystem is on CER as it’s bringing a relevant contribution to the advancement of Commons oriented infrastructures, allowing them to empower users’ agency and privacy; it allows for extremely sophisticated and efficient economic schemes that can be used to empower alternative economics, as mutual credit structures and network level optimization of value flows, which are needed to build alternatives for the Commons in those context which complexity is significant.