Christopher Goes is a protocol designer and software developer known for co-founding Anoma and Namada. His earlier work includes creating the Wyvern Protocol, which was the foundational exchange system for the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, and serving as the lead designer for the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol during his tenure at Tendermint. ^[1]

Career

Goes began his work in the blockchain sector in 2017, initially experimenting with the Ethereum network to learn Solidity smart contract development. This exploration led to the creation of his first significant project, the Wyvern Protocol. He designed it as a generalized, non-custodial exchange system capable of supporting any digital asset type, not just fungible tokens. The protocol's flexibility made it suitable for the nascent NFT market, and it was subsequently adopted by OpenSea, where it served as the platform's core exchange mechanism until 2022. In a 2024 forum post, Goes described Wyvern as a "proto-intent system" and noted that the experience highlighted the architectural limitations of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) for handling more complex, intent-based applications. ^[2]

Following his work on Wyvern, Goes joined Tendermint to contribute to the Cosmos project, where his focus shifted to blockchain interoperability. He became the lead designer of the Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol, a standardized framework for enabling communication between independent blockchains. The protocol's successful launch in 2021 was a key development for the cross-chain ecosystem, establishing a standard for secure asset and data transfer between sovereign networks. ^{[1] [3]}

After his time at Tendermint, Goes co-founded several organizations with collaborators Awa Sun Yin and Adrian Brink. Their first venture was Cryptium Labs, a company that provided validator services for proof-of-stake networks, including Tezos and Cosmos. Subsequently, the same team founded Metastate, a research and development organization dedicated to protocol architecture, cryptography, and programming language design. In 2021, Goes, Sun Yin, and Brink co-founded Anoma and its related project, Namada. Goes has stated that the motivation for starting Anoma was to synthesize the knowledge gained from his experiences with Wyvern and IBC to build a more comprehensive and unified protocol architecture. These projects focus on developing privacy-preserving, intent-centric, and interoperable network frameworks. ^{[1] [2]}

Technical Contributions and Concepts

Goes's work has focused on advancing protocol architecture, particularly in the areas of interoperability, user intents, and privacy. His projects reflect a progression from specific applications on a single chain to foundational protocols for cross-chain communication and, ultimately, to a generalized framework for decentralized interactions.

Wyvern Protocol

The Wyvern Protocol was a generalized, non-custodial exchange protocol built on Ethereum. Its design was intentionally flexible to accommodate the exchange of any digital asset conforming to Ethereum standards, which made it particularly well-suited for NFTs. It operated as the core trading protocol for OpenSea for several years. Goes later reflected that while successful, the protocol's implementation on the EVM revealed constraints in handling complex user preferences and state management, an experience that informed his later work on intent-centric systems. As of March 2024, Goes noted that the Wyvern smart contracts were reportedly still the largest consumer of state among all decentralized exchanges on Ethereum, indicating their significant historical usage. ^[2]

Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) Protocol

As the lead designer of IBC at Tendermint, Goes was responsible for the architecture of a protocol that allows sovereign blockchains to communicate and transfer assets securely. IBC is designed as a general-purpose interoperability standard that does not rely on a trusted third party or intermediary chain. It established a standardized method for blockchains to verify the state of other chains and facilitate cross-chain transactions, becoming a foundational component of the Cosmos ecosystem and seeing adoption by other networks. ^[1]

Anoma and Namada

Anoma is an architecture designed to function as a universal framework for decentralized, intent-centric applications. Namada is a related but distinct protocol focused on providing multi-chain privacy.

Core Philosophy and Architecture

In a 2024 Request for Comment, Goes described Anoma as a "universal intent machine" designed to serve as an interface for user preferences, rather than an intermediary that processes transactions. The core concept is to allow users to express their desired outcomes (intents) as a set of preferences and constraints over possible state transitions. This system then finds a way to satisfy these intents, potentially across multiple blockchains. ^[2]

The architecture is designed to provide several key capabilities:

• Permissionless Intent Infrastructure: Allows developers to build and deploy intent-centric applications without needing to operate their own off-chain infrastructure for matching or solving.
• Intent-Level Composability: Enables intents from different applications to be combined and settled together, which can unify liquidity and create more efficient execution paths.
• Information Flow Control: Provides users and developers with granular control over what information is disclosed at the state, intent, and network levels.
• Heterogeneous Trust: Allows for the programmatic delegation of network roles—such as ordering, storage, and computation—to different participants based on customizable trust assumptions.

To achieve this, Anoma utilizes a Resource Machine, an alternative to the EVM that organizes state around immutable "resources" that can be created and consumed once. This model is intended to be more suitable for verifying and executing complex intents. The architecture also includes a Heterogeneous Trust Node Architecture, where a single software client can support multiple networks and perform various roles simultaneously. ^[2]

Cryptographic Components

In a December 2022 presentation, Goes detailed two key cryptographic components developed for the Anoma stack:

• Tyga: An architecture for private counterparty discovery and settlement. It allows users to express intents or partial transactions, which the system can then match with other users' intents without revealing sensitive information prematurely. This process maintains privacy until a final, valid transaction is constructed and executed. ^[4]
• Vampire: A compiler designed to bridge the gap between advanced cryptographic schemes and their practical application. It aims to simplify the integration of new cryptographic primitives into applications, allowing developers to utilize them without needing to be experts in the underlying cryptography. ^[4]

Anoma Crypto-Economic System (ACES)

At Anoma Day in June 2025, Goes presented the Anoma Crypto-Economic System (ACES), a model for adaptive economic regulation within the protocol. He outlined three core components designed to move beyond the static monetary policies common in other blockchain systems:

• Time-Variable Staking: A mechanism that allows participants to commit tokens for varying, user-defined durations, introducing a temporal dimension to network security and capital commitment.
• Distribution Stream Governance: A system that enables the community to adjust the flow and distribution of tokens through on-chain voting, allowing for dynamic resource allocation.
• Metastability Mechanism: A feature designed to manage the protocol's economic relationship with external economies. It utilizes a foreign reserve account to maintain stability and adapt to external market conditions. ^[5]

Autonomous Ecologies

In a September 2023 talk, Goes introduced the concept of "autonomous ecologies," which he defined as groups or communities that self-determine their own boundaries and governance rules without relying on enforcement from a traditional state. He contrasted this with "Westphalian ecologies," which are characterized by rigid, standardized relationships. Goes positioned Namada and Anoma as foundational tools for these emerging forms of organization. He described Namada as a tool for providing privacy for public actions and funding public goods, while Anoma is envisioned as a unified operating system for decentralized interactions where users can define their own consensus rules for specific activities. ^[6]

Public Appearances and Views

Goes frequently speaks at industry events and participates in interviews, where he discusses his technical work and offers commentary on the broader trends within the blockchain and cryptocurrency sectors.

Interview on Industry Trends

In an August 2025 interview with LI.FI, Goes discussed Anoma's vision to create a "distributed operating system" that abstracts away the complexity of interacting with different networks. He also commented on a broader shift he observed in the cryptocurrency industry, suggesting that the sector has moved away from ambitious, architecturally novel "moonshot" projects toward more incremental, product-focused development. In his view, while this reflects a maturation of the market, it has also led to a "scarcity of groundbreaking innovations." He stated that Anoma was preparing to launch protocol adapters for EVM-compatible chains, signaling a move from a research phase to practical application. ^[3]

Panel on Privacy Protocol Development

During a panel discussion at the Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress in December 2024, Goes, alongside Pie Man of Fairblock and Amit Chaudhary of Labyrinth, discussed the relationship between academic research and the development of applied privacy protocols. The panelists explored the challenges of translating theoretical advancements, particularly in zero-knowledge proofs, into practical, user-centric products. Chaudhary noted a disconnect between theoretical research and its implementation, while the panel collectively called for more interdisciplinary approaches that incorporate insights from fields like sociology and economics into the design of cryptographic systems. The discussion highlighted the need for better frameworks to bridge the gap between academic research and applied product development in the privacy space. ^[7]