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Comment by splix | Hacker News Reader

I tried to find any description of the project, but no luck. Github readme is only about running it. Link to the website redirects back to the Github. Mentioned Aleo network website doesn't say anything about the project too, it's basically just "Intrigued? Subscribe below", and it's unclear if the projects are related at all. Okay, I'm intrigued. So what the project does?

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Its a new 'decentralized' blockchain network. I believe SnarkOS is the virtual machine used to run (d)apps (exchanges, games, markets). Most popular blockchains (Bitcoin, Ethereum) are psuedo-anonymous. And Aleo aims to be private by default, with the use of zero-knowledge protocols.

There are private blockchains like Monero, however they're some-what limited to just the cryptocurrency use-case.

The VM is called snarkVM. SnarkOS is just a client utility to interact with the VM and the nodes.

Ah yes, that's right actually.

Links to more resources from https://developer.aleo.org/getting_started/

It doesn't really say anything (and it was not clear that these two projects are related).

I mean it doesn't say what is it. Is it a blockchain? Is it a network protocol? It it a development SDK for something? If latter, the for what? Or maybe it's an app container like Docker or Kubernetes but encrypted? Or guessing by the name, an Operating System, it must be run on some hardware? What hardware it supports? Though from the "installation" section it doesn't seem that it's an Operating System at all. So what it is?

Not sure what exactly about blockchain projects short circuits some people’s brains. SnarkOS features extensively in the Aleo documentation, which is linked right at the bottom of the first page, where it should be. It also comes up in some of their blog posts. It’s a client to interact with the Aleo blockchain, like gEth. It’s used to deploy apps, etc.

I'm just suggesting to add a one-two sentence description to understand if it's something worth exploring or not. I understand that people can go to some videos, spent some time reading bunch of articles, etc, but if they don't know what kind of project is this it's unlikely to happen.

As I mentioned below, my question: is it a blockchain? Is it a network protocol? It it a development SDK for something? If latter, the for what? Or maybe it's an app container like Docker or Kubernetes but encrypted? Or guessing by the name, an Operating System, it must be run on some hardware? What hardware it supports? Though from the "installation" section it doesn't seem that it's an Operating System at all.

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