Anoma is Open-source
By: Awa Sun Yin
Tags: Wasm, Zero Knowledge Proofs, Rust, Anoma, Blockchain

TL;DR: Check the Anoma repository or documentation out.

Shortly after Anoma’s announcement at the end of March, the core developers of Anoma released the whitepaper, which provides a comprehensive overview of the design and features of the protocol. Following the ethos of the project and its core developers, the current implementation of the protocol has been open-sourced — paving the way for a more accessible research and developer journey of Anoma.

In the Anoma codebase

From the beginning of the year, the core developers of Anoma have been working continuously on the Anoma ledger, its intent gossip system, and the matchmaker system. The ledger is characterized by its integration with Tendermint BFT consensus and WASM, in addition to basic capabilities such as key-value store, transactions, and a command-line interface. Over the last moon cycle, the support for validity predicates on WASM, gas metering, and storage improvements among other changes were added to the ledger; the intent gossip system is able to broadcast and support simple token barter intents; and the matchmaker is integrated with a WASM matching algorithm, allowing the system to match simple token barter intents. For a more in-depth view of the architecture of Anoma, take a look at the documentation.

Learning by playing with Anoma

As the design of the Anoma protocol is distinct in several ways, some features might appear unfamiliar, especially if you’re accustomed to protocols designed to be cryptocurrencies or platforms for arbitrary computation. Besides learning about Anoma via the growing base of resources, a swifter way for the playful minds would be by trying Anoma out.

If you’re interested in setting up your own local testnet of Anoma, you can find the guidelines for installing, building, operating an Anoma node here. You can also find the Rust docs for the Anoma crates here. Some of the most notable interactions involve validity predicates, creating and submitting intents, and operating the intent gossip and matchmaker systems.

Contributing to Anoma

Nothing would delight the core developers of Anoma more than feedback on the design, code, or documentation from the community at any scale — from typos to reviews on the design. Find the contribution guidelines here and a list of open issues here.

If you feel aligned with the vision of Anoma and would be interested in getting more involved with the project, know that the current team is growing and looking for more team members driven by the purpose of making privacy-preserving and self-sovereignty tools accessible. Take a look at this list of open positions, including but not limited to distributed systems research, zero-knowledge cryptography research and protocol engineering in Rust.

What’s next?

An upcoming development of the Anoma protocol is in the works and it combines the above with proof-of-stake and a dynamic validator selection mechanism. Later, support for Ferveo for front-running protection will be integrated, with other notable features to follow. The prototype is being refined along with the technical specifications and documentation in preparation for the very first experimental public testnet of Anoma. To stay tuned with the progress and updates, find us on Twitter, join the community on Discord, or receive updates.