Disrupting Ethereum! Anoma aims to build a truly "decentralized operating system" so users no longer have to worry about cross-chain issues

This interview features a hardcore Web3 infrastructure builder, Adrian, co-founder of Anoma. His background began with academic research (censorship-resistant voting), then delved into core development at Cosmos, and later founding his own validator company.

The original intention behind founding Anoma stemmed from his frustration and boredom with the current “involution” in the Web3 industry. For example, blockchains are now flooded with many L1/L2 chains that essentially just copy Ethereum’s EVM, without any real applications or users. He wanted to break this cycle of involution, which led to the creation of Anoma. Anoma’s vision is not to build a faster chain, but to create a “decentralized operating system for Web3”—a new architecture that unifies and abstracts away all the underlying chain complexities, with “Intent” at its core.

Background of Adrian, Co-founder of Anoma

Odaily: Hello Adrian! Can you first tell us about your background, and what inspired you to create Anoma, an L1 blockchain centered around “Intent”?

Adrian: I entered crypto in 2015-16, initially for my master’s thesis, which was about implementing censorship-resistant electronic voting on Ethereum. I entered this field not from a financial perspective, but from the angle of sovereign infrastructure. I am quite concerned about the possibility of a third world war, and blockchain offers a way to rebuild the financial system, making it highly resilient and sovereign.

In 2017, I joined Cosmos as the third core developer. By 2020, I noticed a very obvious problem: all the new chains were just doing the same thing—“we’re going to make a slightly different EVM.” They weren’t solving the problem of counterparty discovery, nor the problem of user data sovereignty, nor bringing anything fundamentally new. The birth of Anoma came from a desire to do something truly interesting and meaningful again.

The birth of Anoma as an intent-centric blockchain

Odaily: You believe the biggest problem in Web3 right now is “fragmentation.” How does Anoma’s shift from “virtual machine (VM)” to “intent machine (IM)” solve this problem?

Adrian: Anoma is the first decentralized operating system designed for Web3. It allows developers to focus on building the applications they love, rather than being forced to choose which chain to settle on.

The core of this shift is the realization that users don’t really have “transactions”—they have “intents.” Existing systems are all designed around the Bitcoin model, but in a purely digital world, I’m not buying milk in a physical store—my need is “I want to swap ETH for BTC with anyone in the world.” Anoma’s intent machine is designed to accurately capture this high-level abstract demand.

It solves fragmentation by allowing applications to define where their state is stored. For example, transaction states can be stored on Solana, while long-term asset storage can be on Ethereum. Users no longer need to manually perform cumbersome cross-chain operations; they just express a high-level intent, and the system executes the optimal path for them.

Odaily: Anoma’s hybrid consensus mechanism sounds unique, claiming to be “more decentralized than Bitcoin, faster than Solana.” What’s the principle behind this? What benefits does it bring to developers?

Adrian: Yes, if you run Anoma locally, you can always be faster than Solana, because the speed of local consensus is the speed of light. If you need extremely high decentralization and security, you can choose to run consensus globally, which will naturally be slower, just like Bitcoin.

The best part is, as a developer, you don’t have to make this trade-off for your users. You can develop a trading application, and then let users decide for themselves: for small payments, they might choose fast local consensus; for large real estate transactions, they’ll opt for more secure nationwide consensus. This is completely different from Ethereum’s design, which locks and forces everyone to use the same consensus, giving developers and users tremendous flexibility.

Anoma Mainnet Launch and Token Plans

Odaily: Anoma mainnet is about to launch and will first support Ethereum. What direct opportunities does this mean for developers?

Adrian: If you’re a developer looking to build novel and cool applications, now is your chance. Honestly, since 2017, there hasn’t been any fundamental innovation at the infrastructure layer in this space. What you can do on Ethereum now is pretty much the same as in 2017. Anoma provides developers with a whole new set of tools to build truly usable applications for ordinary people. Our goal is to first conquer Web3, then leverage the power of Web2, and ultimately upgrade the world’s coordination systems.

Odaily: The community is very interested in your tokenomics, especially the fact that up to 25% is reserved for the community, as well as the interesting “Shrimp NFT.” Can you tell us about the design philosophy behind this?

Adrian: Anoma is first and foremost an open-source community, one that cares about the long-term development of human coordination infrastructure. The token design reflects this, allowing the community to participate in governance, risk, and rewards of the system. As for why Shrimp NFT? I have to admit, it was the team’s idea. They showed them to me, and I thought they looked interesting and cute—a cultural symbol the community can have fun with. That’s all!

Further reading: Anoma announces $XAN tokenomics: total supply of 10 billions, 25% airdropped to the community, how long is the lock-up period?

Odaily: As a builder solving complex problems in Web3, outside of coding, do you have any hobbies or habits to get inspiration or relax?

Adrian: I have two things to relax. One is playing video games, mainly League of Legends. The other, which I find more effective than any meditation, is full-contact combat sports, such as Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Judo. Honestly, getting punched once or twice a week works better than anything else. Because when you’re fighting, you have to be 100% focused, or you’ll get hit in the face. If you need to relax, go do Muay Thai—I highly recommend it.