The novel bits are: * Everything on the VM is purely functional, and inputs essentially cause transactions which can fail/succeed - the result being that it's

The novel bits are: * Everything on the VM is purely functional, and inputs essentially cause transactions which can fail/succeed - the result being that it's supposedly easier to implement certain types of network protocols, specifically the ones that Ames implements * A somewhat decent revision-controlled filesystem with push/pull/merge, static typing of files, and a built-in build system of sorts And last but not least... * Feudalism built into the core p2p protocol as an explicit design decision