Key Concepts

Intelligent Contracts

Smart contracts that can perform non-deterministic operations such as accessing the web and calling LLMs, while still maintaining blockchain consensus. See Core Architecture for the full specification.

Deterministic vs Non-deterministic Execution

GenVM enforces deterministic execution by default. Non-deterministic operations (web access, LLM calls) are handled through controlled interfaces that allow validators to independently execute and then compare results. See Execution Environment for execution details.

Runners

Language-specific runtimes compiled to WebAssembly that serve as execution backends within GenVM. Each runner provides the standard library and runtime support for its language. Python is the currently supported runner. See Core Architecture for implementation details.

Equivalence Principle

The mechanism by which validators agree on the outcome of non-deterministic operations. Rather than requiring identical outputs, validators check that their results are equivalent according to contract-defined criteria. See Execution Environment for the specification.

Sub-VMs

Isolated WebAssembly virtual machine instances within GenVM. Each Sub-VM provides a sandboxed execution context for contract code. See VM Specification for VM architecture details.