why-gno from gnolang/gno#4226 (#130)

* why-gno from gnolang/gno#4226

Author: jaekwon

posts/2025-04-29_why-gno/README.md

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+# Gno.land
+
+Tendermint changed the way blockchain developers think about blockchain
+consensus algorithms. Gno.land will change the way developers think about
+programming.
+
+Gno.land represents paradigm shift in multi-user programming that no other
+solution offers. It is not just a smart contract platform and blockchain; it is
+the world's first viable language-based multi-user operating system. Its
+ultimate goal is to host the world's knowledge base for the new millennium.
+
+## Why Gno.land?
+
+Compare publishing a blog site in Gno.land to all prior smart contract systems.
+
+```go
+// Realm: gno.land/r/me/myblog
+
+package gnoblog
+
+import (
+"std"
+
+"gno.land/p/demo/blog"
+)
+
+var b = &blog.Blog{
+Title: "gno.land's blog",
+Prefix: "/r/gnoland/blog:",
+}
+
+func AddComment(postSlug, comment string) {
+ crossing()
+assertIsCommenter()
+assertNotInPause()
+
+caller := std.OriginCaller()
+err := b.GetPost(postSlug).AddComment(caller, comment)
+checkErr(err)
+}
+
+func Render(path string) string {
+return b.Render(path)
+}
+```
+
+You can see the Gno source code that rendered this webpage by clicking
+on "\<\/\>Source" on the top right of the webpage.
+
+Q: Why is everything else so complicated?
+
+A: Strangely difficult to answer, but ultimately because our languages,
+compilers, interpreters, and programming paradigm is still evolving.
+
+## Brief Evolution of Language
+
+Written human language has only been around for a mere 6000 years, a blip in
+our evolutionary history. Like living species our language and writing have
+evolved along side us and within us. Adam was not the first homo sapiens on
+earth, but he may have been the first with written language, and thereby a new
+kind of man. 
+
+Programming languages likewise has been evolving rapidly, but only for a
+handful of decades; it was in the 1970s when Alan Kay developed Smalltalk, the
+first object oriented programming language. In the 1990’s Brendan Eich of
+Netscape invented Javascript which forever transformed the World Wide Web; Sun
+Microsystem made Java, and industries prospered greatly by these and similar
+language technologies. 
+
+## Gno vs Previous
+
+Our languages, compilers & interpreters, and programs are today:
+ - Nondeterministic - randomness is the norm in concurrent programming, but
+ even Go randomizes map iteration. 
+ - Disk Bound - programs need to be designed to save to disk —> SQL solutions;
+ NOT native language
+ - Dependent - running programs are owned by an owner; dependent on
+ individuals, not self-sustaining
+ - Ephemeral - running programs are expected to fail; no guarantee of
+ presence.
+ - Single User Realm - import of internal libraries are native, but
+ interactions with external programs are NOT native; generally no `import
+ “gno.land/r/external/realm”`, but leaky abstractions synthesized ie GRPC
+
+Gno, GnoVM, and Gno.land is in contrast:
+ - Deterministic - gno routines not yet supported, but even these will be
+ deterministic.
+ - Auto Persistent - all changes to instantiated Gno objects in the transaction
+ are persisted transparently.
+ - Self Sustaining - every transaction locks $GNOT up for new storage allocated;
+ CPU gas fees paid in any language.
+ - Immortal - every Gno object that is referenced (not GC’d) remains forever.
+ - Multi User Realm - all objects are stored in realm packages (namespaces). 
+
+## Gno Language Innovation
+
+All modern popular programming langauges are designed for a single programmer
+user. Programming languages support the importing of program libraries natively
+for components of the single user's program, but this does not hold true for
+interacting with components of another user's (other) program. Gno is an
+extension of the Go language for multi-user programming. Gno allows a massive
+number of programmers to iteratively and interactively develop a single shared
+program such as Gno.land.
+
+The added dimension of the program domain means the language should be extended
+to best express the complexities of programming in the inter-realm (inter-user)
+domain. In other words, Go is a restricted subset of the Gno language in the
+single-user context. (In this analogy client requests for Go web servers don't
+count as they run outside of the server program).
+
+Gno is Go plus:
+ - [`cross(fn)(…)`](https://github.com/gnolang/gno/blob/master/docs/resources/gno-interrealm.md#crossfn-and-crossing-specification)
+ calls `fn(…)` where fn is another realm.
+ - `std.CurrentRealm()` and `std.PreviousRealm()` changes upon cross-calls.
+ - `func fn() { crossing(); … }` signifies that fn is a crossing-function where
+ std.CurrentRealm() returns the realm in which the function is declared.
+ [Gno2 proposed syntax](https://github.com/gnolang/gno/issues/4223):
+ `@fn(…)`, `@func @fn() { … }`. These are like verb (function) modifiers in
+ [honorifics in Korean and Japanese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorifics_%28linguistics%29)
+ - While all data is readable by other realms, dot.selector access
+ across realms get [tainted with 'readonly' attribute](https://github.com/gnolang/gno/blob/master/docs/resources/gno-interrealm.md#readonly-taint-specification).
+ - [`revive(fn)`](https://github.com/gnolang/gno/blob/master/docs/resources/gno-interrealm.md#panic-and-revivefn)
+ for Software Transactional Memory (STM). 
+ - Function/method return implies access without readonly taint.
+ - Inter-realm type conversion limitations to prevent exploits.
+ - More and refinements to come in Gno2.
+
+These language innovations/extensions allow for safer multi-user application
+development where many users are collaboratively programming a single timeless
+(immortal) communal program.
+
+## The Logoverse
+
+Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος καὶ ὁ Λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν Θεόν καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος. In the
+beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was
+God. - John 1:1
+
+Logos means “word, discourse; reason”, and shares its root with the word
+“logic”. 
+
+With these elements altogether you can derive a new property:
+ - Gno expressions become "real" on Gno.land.
+ - Ethereum comes close but isn't object-oriented and Solidity has no pronouns.
+ - TBL's WWW, DOM model, HTTP verbs, Plan 9, Ethereum, and FB Meta are all
+ attempts to arrive at the logoverse.
+ - Gno.land is the first complete logoverse.
+
+## Adoption Strategy
+
+There are over a million Go developers and growing. Go as a language remains a
+popular language for developers, an order of magnitude more than Rust
+developers, on par with Javascript developers but growing faster than
+Javascript.
+
+![TIOBE 2025](./src/tiobe_2025.png)
+![GitHut2 2024](./src/githut2_2024.png)
+
+Gno.land and its associated network of Gno VM chains, and AtomOne if it hosts
+it, will become the nexus of human to human, human to machine, and machine to
+machine coordination; but only after it finds a self-sustaining organic growth
+cycle.
+
+The best way to ensure success and to accelerate adoption is to seed the
+initial community with the right community. There are many types of
+communities, such as crypto community, ethereum community, student community,
+but since Bitcoin has gone mainstream these communities aren't always in
+agreement about the purpose of blockchain technology; because they aren't aware
+of the history and fabric of the hidden power structures that run the
+narrative--both mainstream AND controlled oppositions. They do not feel that
+they need something, so their habits are not as obvious to change.
+
+But the "free-thinking" and "conspiracy" and "anti-war" and "anti-Covid19-vax"
+and even the "true Christian" communities feel an urgent need for
+censorship-proof coordination and communication tools. These communities have
+influencers who are kept hidden from the general public; they have suffered
+deplatforming, defamations, and even death.
+
+Build tools, connections, and relations with these particular communities and
+especially those influencers who are nuanced in their research and speech.
+Even those that don't promote crypto will see the benefits uniquely offered by
+Gno.land.
+
+## Gno.land License
+
+Anyone can make Gno VM powered chains derived from Gno.land according to the
+viral copyleft license terms and strong attribution requirement. The Strong
+Attribution clause of the Gno Network GPL license preserves the spirit of the
+GNU AGPL license for the blockchain world.
+
+## Tokenomics
+
+$GNOT is the storage lock-up utility token, so Gno.land is to Gno England like
+$GNOT is to presence in Gno England, where total storage is kept finite for
+very-long-term existential purposes, and value is derived from the Gno
+artifacts created by its users, and some new users competing for attention from
+many existing users.
+
+Gno.land may migrate to AtomOne ICS once it is support hard-fork upgrades.
+There Gno.land would be one ICS shard, and many Gno VM shards may also exist,
+each with their own namespace and probably each their own storage token unless
+separate treaties are made between the main Gno.land chain (ICS shard) and
+other Gno VM shards. Transaction fees for CPU usage may be paid in either $GNOT
+or $PHOTON.
+
+## Team
+
+### New Tendermint, LLC
+
+NewTendermint, LLC is the core maintainer of the GnoVM, Tendermint2, and 
+at present Gno.land.
+
+#### GnoVM & Gno.land Core Team
+
+ * Jae Kwon before and after creating Tendermint and Cosmos always had a
+ passion for programming languages and wrote multiple parsers and
+ interpreters, and initially also wrote an EVM on top of the framework which
+ became the Cosmos SDK. Gno.land is the result of two decades of search for
+ the logoverse.
+
+ * Manfred Touron, builder focused on open-source and resilient technologies;
+ co-founded scaleway (cloud) and berty (p2p messaging), with contributions to
+ 900+ open-source projects.
+
+ * Miloš Živković - Senior distributed systems engineer; passion for solving
+ protocol-level problems in the blockchain space.
+
+ * Morgan Bazalgette - Senior Go engineer; bringing the joy of developing Go to
+ Gno.
+
+ * Ray Qin - With over 15 years of experience in software development and
+ building large-scale networks, I have a deep passion for Go programming
+ language and blockchain technology.
+
+ * Marc Vertes - Senior VM and hardware developer; more than 3 decades of
+ experience, Co-founder of 3 companies (1 acquired by IBM), author of 34
+ patents, author of the Yaegi Go interpreter.
+
+ * Alexis Colin - Senior Frontend Engineer with 10+ years of experience
+ building user-focused interfaces and exploring modern tech stacks. Driven to
+ push forward efficient UX in the blockchain space through clean code and
+ technical precision. Currently working on gnoweb.
+
+#### Gno Studio Team
+
+ * Ìlker Öztürk - Senior software architect; 17 years in building and designing
+ products, distributed p2p systems, leadership and strategic vision.
+
+ * Jerónimo Albi - Experienced full-stack systems engineer with attention on
+ simplicity and minimalism, focused on Blockchain and Golang development
+
+ * Salvatore Mazzarino - Site Reliability Engineer with over 10 years of
+ experience in building and mantaining high and scalable distribute systems
+ across different range of platforms. "If it is not monitored, it does not
+ exist"
+
+ * Danny Salman - Vast experience in blockchain developer relations, technical
+ writing and education, and product, with a background in full-stack
+ development, engineering, and policy.
+
+ * Alan Soares - A Brazilian lost in middle earth. Passionate coder with love
+ for open-source and software craftsmanship. Taking the web forward for over
+ 16 years.
+
+ * Lucio Caetano - Senior Frontend Engineer with 10+ years of experience
+ building web applications, specializing in web3 and blockchain technologies.
+ With a background in data analysis, providing data-driven decisions and
+ reporting with large datasets.
+
+### All in Bits, Inc 
+
+Members of All in Bits, Inc also build applications and community on top of
+Gno.land.
+
+ * Kristov Atlas - Since 2012, I’ve been a crypto security engineer and
+ researcher focusing on non-custodial wallets, CeFi exchanges, Bitcoin,
+ Ethereum, and the Cosmos ecosystem.
+
+ * Michelle Leech - "Experienced marketing and ecosystem builder skilled at
+ creating and driving strategic initiatives that foster relationship building
+ and boost developer advocacy, engagement, education, and product
+ utilization"
+
+ * Lav Leon Hudak - DevRel Engineer with a strong background in blockchain
+ development, documentation, and education.
+
+ * Sean Casey - CFO (Chief Financial Gnome) - 10+ years’ experience in finance,
+ aircraft leasing, and blockchain. Leads financial strategy, and treasury
+ operations, ensuring capital discipline, regulatory compliance, and
+ long-term value creation.
+
+ * Jordan Magazine - Experienced General Counsel with over a decade of
+ practice, specializing in designing frameworks that enable blockchain
+ ecosystems to operate with clarity and compliance, empowering projects to
+ scale confidently and with integrity.
+
+ * Carolyn Pehrson - Paralegal keeping AIB,Inc and NT,LLC alive. Thinks you
+ should get a pet mini pig.