Anecdotally, I’ve found that when I ask someone to take a look at Anoma, they often listen to a podcast and come back confused and unimpressed. When I take a pen and paper and attempt to explain scale free money, liquidity routing and the deconstruction of the three functions of money, contextualizing intents from that light, there is much more excitement.
Given this positive feedback, I’ve decided to attempt to formalize the explanation a bit. I’ve put together a draft for a 3 part series of explainer videos that Pam Pascual and I are hoping to produce in the coming weeks.
Before moving forward, we’d love to hear any feedback:
Explainer 1 Script: Scale-Free Money & Liquidity Routing
(~2.5 minutes narration)
Intro
Narration:
This video is part of a series explaining the value of intent-centric architecture, like Anoma.
In this first episode, we’ll look at the idea of scale-free money and how liquidity routing works.
The phrase “scale-free money” was coined by Christopher Goes, and it builds on a long tradition of alternative thinking about currency — from community exchange systems to anthropological studies of credit and trust.
Visuals:
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Series title card: “Explaining Intent-Centric Architecture: Episode 1”.
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Subtitle: “Scale-Free Money & Liquidity Routing”.
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Portrait or simple mention of Christopher Goes, then a fade into a historical montage: barter myth illustration crossed out → community scrip → local currency notes → digital tokens.
Introducing actors
Narration:
In a scale-free system, anyone can issue their own credit.
For example:
A worker cooperative issues credits backed by labor — building, repairs, and collective projects.
A community garden issues credits tied to its harvest — vegetables, herbs, and fruit grown each season.
A permaculture designer issues credits for consulting and design work — trusted because her expertise improves gardens and farms.
Visuals:
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Three nodes appear: Co-op, Garden, Designer.
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Each node produces a differently colored token labeled Labor Credits, Garden Credits, Design Credits.
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Small animations show the co-op building something, the garden harvesting vegetables, the designer sketching a farm plan.
Trust graph explained
Narration:
These credits are only useful if people believe the issuer will deliver value in the future.
Trust forms a network, or graph: if I trust the garden’s credit, and the garden trusts the designer’s credit, then value can move between us — even if I don’t know the designer directly.
The process of moving value along these trust connections is called liquidity routing.
Visuals:
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Lines draw between the Co-op, Garden, and Designer nodes.
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Caption overlay: “Trust Graph”.
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A glowing token travels from one node to another, changing color at each step.
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Caption overlay: “Liquidity Routing”.
Local example
Narration:
Here’s a local example.
A co-op member wants to buy vegetables. She pays with co-op credits.
The garden accepts them, because it needs labor from the co-op.
The credits move through the trust graph, and the exchange is complete — no national currency required.
Visuals:
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Close-up: Co-op node sends glowing tokens to Garden node.
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Garden icon shows a basket of produce exchanged.
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Caption overlay: “Local Exchange through Trust”.
Global extension
Narration:
The same mechanism also works across distance.
The co-op member now wants to buy art from an artist in Spain.
She doesn’t know the artist, and the artist doesn’t know her.
But the garden trusts the designer.
The designer is connected to an international eco-network.
And that network already trades with artists abroad.
The co-op credits flow step by step through this route, until they reach the artist in Spain.
Visuals:
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Zoom out: new nodes appear → International Eco-Network → Artist in Spain.
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Token travels Co-op → Garden → Designer → Eco-Network → Artist.
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Artist node receives a glowing canvas icon.
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Caption overlay: “Routing Across Distance”.
Closing
Narration:
Scale-free money shows how credits issued by anyone can circulate through networks of trust.
Liquidity routing connects local economies into global flows, without relying on a single universal currency.
This is the foundation. In later videos, we’ll see how intent-centric systems like Anoma expand these ideas beyond tokens, to coordinate the exchange of any kind of resource.
Visuals:
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Wide zoom-out: many nodes and credits flowing in a large trust graph.
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Closing text overlay:
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“Scale-Free Money = Trust + Liquidity Routing”
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Then: “Next: Implications for Governments, Billionaires, and Public Goods”.
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Explainer 2 Script: Implications of Scale-Free Money
(~3 minutes narration)
Intro
Narration:
This is the second video in our series on intent-centric architecture, like Anoma.
In the first video, we saw how scale-free money works: anyone can issue credits, and value flows along networks of trust.
In this video, we’ll take some practical examples and see what happens when this system is adopted more broadly.
Visuals:
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Title card: “Episode 2: Implications of Scale-Free Money”.
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Quick recap: co-op → garden → designer → artist in Spain, with credits flowing.
Example 1: a government
Narration:
Let’s start with a local government.
Today, governments issue national currencies, and these are enforced as legal tender. That means people must accept them for taxes, debts, and most transactions.
In a plural system, governments don’t lose the ability to create money — but they lose their monopoly.
A city could issue transit credits to ride buses, or education credits to fund schools.
People would choose to use these credits only if they believed the services would keep running as promised.
If buses are reliable and schools are staffed, the credits circulate. If services break down, people route toward other issuers they trust more.
Visuals:
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City Hall node. Tokens labeled Transit Credits flow → buses and classrooms animate smoothly.
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Alternate view: empty bus stops, shuttered classrooms → credits dim.
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Overlay: “Credits hold only if services are delivered.”
Example 2: a powerful factory owner
Narration:
Now consider a large factory owner.
He issues credits backed by the goods his factory produces. At first, these credits circulate widely, because the factory is productive and its goods are in demand.
But over time, the factory pollutes the local river. Fish die, water becomes unsafe, and neighbors grow frustrated.
In today’s system, the factory owner can still spend the national currency he has accumulated, even if people no longer trust him — because that money is backed by the state, not by his reputation.
In a plural system, there’s no such umbrella.
If people stop trusting his credits, they simply stop accepting them. Liquidity dries up, and the trust graph routes around him.
Visuals:
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Factory node with smokestacks. Factory Credits flow at first, neighbors accept.
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River darkens, fish die, neighbors’ connections fade.
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Credits pile up unused at factory node.
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Overlay: “No trust → no liquidity.”
Aside: credit vs. equity
Narration:
It’s worth noting: this kind of credit is not the same as equity in a company.
Equity is a share of ownership, and it pays off only if the company makes profits.
Credit in a scale-free system is simpler — it’s a claim that the issuer will provide future value.
That distinction makes trust, not ownership, the central question.
Visuals:
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Split diagram: Equity → stock certificate icon, arrows to profits. Credit → token icon, arrows to goods/services.
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Overlay: “Equity = ownership. Credit = trust in future value.”
Example 3: a pro-social cooperative
Narration:
Compare this with a regional clean-energy cooperative.
It issues credits for installing and maintaining solar panels.
Each time a household accepts these credits, it gains cheaper electricity and more independence from fossil fuels.
Because the co-op consistently delivers on its promises, more households — and eventually schools, shops, and local institutions — begin to hold its credits.
Over time, the co-op’s credits circulate more widely, and the trust behind them grows stronger.
Visuals:
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Solar Co-op node. Energy Credits flow to households → roofs light up with panels.
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Graph expands: schools, shops, and City Hall connect in.
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Credits glow brighter as they spread.
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Overlay: “Trust grows with shared value.”
Closing
Narration:
These examples show how plural money changes incentives.
Governments, companies, and cooperatives can all issue credits.
But the value of those credits no longer comes from monopoly enforcement — it comes from trust: whether people believe the issuer will deliver in the future.
Scale-free money replaces the umbrella of guaranteed currency with a field where liquidity follows trust.
In the next video, we’ll see how intents expand this further, coordinating not just money, but any kind of resource.
Visuals:
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Wide graph: City Hall, Factory, and Solar Co-op all connected.
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Factory’s credits dim, Co-op’s credits glow and spread.
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Umbrella icon labeled State Monopoly fades away.
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Closing overlay: “From Monopoly → To Trust.”
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Teaser: “Episode 3: Intents Beyond Tokens.”
Explainer 3 Script: Intents & Beyond Credits
(~3 minutes narration)
Intro
Narration:
This is the third video in our series on intent-centric architecture, like Anoma.
In the first two videos, we looked at scale-free money: anyone can issue credits, and value moves through trust graphs using liquidity routing.
In this video, we’ll see how Anoma amplifies these capacities — and how intents expand coordination beyond credits, to almost any resource.
Visuals:
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Title card: “Episode 3: Intents & Beyond Credits”.
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Quick montage recap: co-op, garden, designer, artist with credits flowing.
How Anoma amplifies scale-free money
Narration:
Scale-free money works through plural issuance and trust-based routing.
Anoma strengthens this by adding three key capabilities:
First, privacy — trust connections can remain hidden, protecting participants from coercion.
Second, composability — multiple credits, even from different issuers, can be routed together in a single transaction.
Third, flexibility — medium of exchange, unit of account, and store of value no longer need to be bundled; intents allow them to be disaggregated and recombined as needed.
Visuals:
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Animation:
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Privacy: trust lines blur into encrypted links.
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Composability: two tokens merge and route as one packet.
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Flexibility: icons for exchange, accounting, savings unbundle and recombine.
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Caption overlay: “Anoma amplifies: Privacy, Composability, Flexibility.”
From credits to intents
Narration:
Credits are already powerful. But intents go further.
An intent is a statement of what someone wants, and under what conditions.
Instead of just saying, “I will pay garden credits for vegetables,” an intent might say, “I want irrigation supplies, and I can offer bookshelf labor, design consulting, or co-op credits in return.”
Intents allow the system to search the trust graph not only for money paths, but for complementary offers and needs.
Visuals
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Co-op node broadcasts a bubble: “Seeking irrigation supplies”.
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New node appears: Irrigation Supplier → bubble: “Offers irrigation, needs solar panels”.
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Another node appears: Solar Installer → bubble: “Offers solar panels, needs greenhouse design”.
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Garden node adds bubble: “Needs greenhouse design”.
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Designer node adds bubble: “Offers design, seeks residency”.
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Artist in Spain adds bubble: “Offers residency, seeks ecological knowledge”.
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Puzzle-piece icons lock together as intents align.
Narration (Example chain)
Let’s extend our earlier scenario.
The co-op needs irrigation equipment.
A regional supplier provides irrigation, but they’re asking for solar panels in return.
A solar installer can provide panels, but they want help redesigning a greenhouse.
The garden needs greenhouse design, which the permaculture designer can provide.
The designer, in turn, is looking for a residency to teach.
And the artist in Spain offers that residency, in exchange for ecological knowledge for her community.
With intents, the system doesn’t need to resolve these one by one. It chains them together automatically, creating a coordinated exchange where each party’s need is matched with someone else’s offer.
Visuals
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Flow animation: irrigation equipment delivered to Co-op → solar panels delivered to Supplier → greenhouse design delivered to Installer → residency provided to Designer → ecological design knowledge shared with Artist.
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Caption overlay: “Intents chain needs and offers together.”
Closing
Narration:
Scale-free money showed us that trust can replace monopoly currency.
Anoma amplifies this with privacy, composability, and flexibility.
And with intents, it generalizes coordination beyond money altogether — into a system that can align many kinds of resources, across many kinds of communities.
This is what intent-centric architecture makes possible.
Visuals:
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Wide zoom-out of a large trust graph, now with diverse icons: goods, services, knowledge, energy, art.
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Closing overlay text:
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“From Credits → To Intents.”
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“Anoma: Coordination Beyond Money.”
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