from-vm-to-im.md

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From VM to IM

Anoma’s intent machine adds powerful functionality to the EVM, enabling fully expressive apps that are decentralized across the entire stack.

Virtual machine	Intent machine
Transaction-centric Users must specify specific execution traces, adding unnecessary complexity.	Intent-centric Users only need to specify their desired outcome, significantly improving UX.
On-chain data & compute Expensive and inefficient on-chain data & compute limits scalability and increases costs.	Distributed data & compute Data and compute lives on edge devices with on-chain verification. Costs stay low even as usage scales.
Infrastructure lock-in Apps are locked-in to their specific deployment chain.	Application portability Apps are fully portable — infrastructure comes to you, wherever you have state.
Transaction-level composability Composability is limited to transactions, and breaks down when multichain operations are required.	Intent-level composability Intents are fully composable across any chain or application, defragmenting multichain intent liquidity.
Limited data protection Global, immutable shared state limits the ability to protect user data.	Programmable data sovereignty You and your users have precise control over what data is shared with whom.
Centralized counterparty discovery Intent-centric apps on VMs need to rely on centralized servers or build everything on-chain.	Decentralized counterparty discovery Intents are matched and solved in a fully-decentralized way, regardless of which chain or app users are on.
Limited applications Intents in the VM model are application specific, anything more complex requires centralized components.	Build anything You can build any application, including applications that cannot be built on VMs without adding centralization points.

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