What is AO?

AO is a decentralized compute network built on top of Arweave.

What this really means is that AO is a network of connected computers which perform computations on behalf of users. This is similar to many blockchains out there which run smart contracts, and process smart contract interactions for users.

In terms of AO, a simple way you can think of it is like this:

• Arweave stores all of the smart contract code, and interactions
• AO executes all of the actions users take

Where traditional blockchains have a single node (and network) perform both storage and computation, the separation of Arweave and AO separates these duties.

Is AO a blockchain?

The best way to think of it is that AO is very much like a blockchain. In fact, almost all operations are logged onchain, on Arweave.

However, some of AO's properties make it very different to existing blockchains.

Try to go into this book with an open mind, and don't get caught up too much on whether something fits this definition exactly.

Here are some of the properties which make AO similar to existing machines:

• There are a connected group of nodes which communicate with eachother
• Computation is paid for in cryptocurrency ($AO)
• There is some kind of consensus
• There are cryptographic signatures and attestations for user actions

The following chapters

The next section of the book will establish the very core concepts which make up an AO node, and the type of things that they can do. This will introduce concepts like processes and messages, which are similar to existing blockchain concepts.

We will then take a look at the structure of nodes in more detail, and look at how these nodes communicate with each other. This is where AO starts to deviate from traditional blockchains.

Lastly, we will look at consensus, state, and scaling.

Briefly after this section we will have a reference section which details more about AO's device mechanism, and how modularity works within a system of interconnected nodes.