# What is RenVM?

By [龙阳prince](https://paragraph.com/@trump250) · 2022-03-29

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    RenVM, a permissionless and decentralized virtual machine protocol.
    
    A secure network of virtual computers that power interoperability for decentralized applications, enabling cross-chain lending, exchanges, collateralization & more.
    

What makes up RenVM?
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#### The foundation to how RenVM keeps your data secret?

    The premise is simple: a secret is divided into multiple shares, with participants in the secret sharing scheme needing a majority of the parts to be able to reconstruct the secret.
    

#### How RenVM efficiently runs secret scripts?

    We have pioneered our own state-of-the-art sMPC algorithm that allows untrusted Darknodes to jointly run scripts without revealing the inputs or outputs of the script to anyone, not even to the machines powering RenVM.
    

#### Uptime in a dynamic & potentially malicious environment?

    Our network thrives even if Darknodes become unavailable or behave maliciously. Scripts keep running, and secrets stay secret.
    

#### Fast decentralized consensus

    RenVM uses a modified version of the Tendermint consensus algorithm designed specifically for sharding and sMPC.
    

What is RenVM?
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### RenVM serves as the engine that powers our decentralized interoperability solution.

RenVM provides one of the only practical interoperability solutions that can scale. It is also the only solution that allows for secret computation over multiple inputs and multiple parties. RenVM is not a product or an application in and of itself, it is a network (and an accompanying SDK) that allows developers to bring cross-chain functionality to their DeFi applications.

What are Darknodes?
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### RenVM is powered by a network of machines called Darknodes, earning rewards for contributing compute power and storage space.

RenVM is network powered by decentralized virtual machines. This virtual machine is replicated over thousands of machines that work together to power it, contributing their network bandwidth, their computational power, and their storage capacity. These machines are known as Darknodes. Darknodes earn a share of the volume transacted through RenVM. [Find out more here.](https://docs.renproject.io/darknodes/)

What can be built with RenVM?
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### RenVM serves as a plug-in for decentralized finance and therefore, any DeFi application can incorporate RenVM’s capabilities into their applications and existing smart contracts.

If your project would benefit from cross-chain liquidity, then you stand to benefit from integrating with RenVM. Extra care has been taken to ensure RenVM is composable with existing blockchain and DeFi applications.

[https://renproject.io/renvm](https://renproject.io/renvm)

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*Originally published on [龙阳prince](https://paragraph.com/@trump250/what-is-renvm-2)*