Imagine this scenario: If you have 1,000 USDT on the Ethereum mainnet and want to buy $OP on the Optimism layer 2 network’s DEX, what should you do?
First, you need to choose a wallet that supports Optimism and add the corresponding network settings; then, through a secure cross-chain bridge, you can bridge 1,000 USDT and some ETH used as gas fees to Optimism, and then connect the wallet to the corresponding DEX and execute the transaction. Although the whole process is intuitive, it involves multiple interactions and waiting for confirmation time, as well as uncertain factors such as potential network fees and transaction slippage. For novices in on-chain trading, each step may be a challenge, which also limits the large-scale promotion of on-chain applications. So, can the complexity of on-chain interactions be reduced to the same simple level as centralized exchange (CEX) operations?
Intent-centric means "intent-centric". Different from the above scenarios, intent-centric only focuses on the results, not the process. Users only need to issue the instruction "I want to buy $OP in Optimism" and sign. The Intent-centric protocol will work with third parties to complete all necessary steps, thereby lowering the operational threshold and bringing users a seamless experience similar to Cefi.
There are currently many projects exploring intent-centricity.
Bob the Solver
Bob the Solver is an infrastructure based on intent transactions that can be integrated into account abstraction wallets and decentralized applications. It performed well in the ETHGlobal Paris hackathon and won the 1inch Best Use Case Award. It consists of two parts:
Solver: Solver is equipped with ML to identify user intent, classify intent, and plan the best path to achieve the intent. After determining the path, the solver constructs the transactions required to achieve the user intent and forwards them to the account abstraction wallet.
Account Abstraction Wallet (AA Wallet): Responsible for the execution of transactions, it consists of bundler and paymaster. Bundler is responsible for receiving and planning transactions sent by solver, while paymaster is responsible for managing gas fees associated with these transactions.
Anoma
Anoma is an intent-centric privacy-preserving protocol for decentralized counterparty discovery, resolution, and multi-chain atomic settlement. The core process includes the following steps:
User Interaction: Users can send transparent, private, or protected intents to Anoma’s intent gossip network (P2P network layer).
Intent collection and matching: The solver (which can be a searcher or other role) in the network collects intent and performs equilibrium state transitions to achieve counterparty matching.
Transaction processing: The matched transactions are submitted to the encrypted mempool, and the validator sends the blocks packaged by the proposer to the execution layer to complete the execution and verify the validity, and finally complete the state root update.
Anoma’s execution layer is built on Taiga, a zk-circuit based on Halo2, which allows Anoma to deploy Ethereum’s zk-rollup and share part of Ethereum’s security.
In addition to zk-rollup, Anoma can also be used for fully decentralized development of op-rollup, NFT Marketplace, Dex, etc. It provides a simplified way to build and operate these applications while protecting user privacy and security.
Essential
Essential focuses on building intent-based infrastructure and tools to solve the MEV (Miner Extractable Value) problem. Its core goal is to reduce the negative externalities brought about by MEV and enable users to achieve their intentions at the lowest cost. Essential plans to build a solver network to capture user intentions and compete to find the best solutions, transforming searchers who aim to make profits into solvers who seek the best solutions for users.
To achieve this goal, Essential is developing a range of products:
A common domain-specific language (DSL) for expressing intent: It is actually a standardized intent language that makes it easier for solvers to understand and reason about user intent.
Ethereum and EVM's intent-centric account abstraction standard: Solver needs permission to perform on-chain operations, so account abstraction is required. The new standard will introduce ERC-4337, entrusting the solver to construct valid transactions to satisfy the intent.
Modular intent layer: To solve the inevitable design sacrifices when intent-centric architecture is compatible with the underlying layer. Its benefits include:
Simplified architecture: Intent-only abandons the concept of transaction, allowing the solver to focus on providing solutions without having to understand the dependency between intent and transaction;
Order flow aggregation: All orders are distributed through the same solver network, ensuring transparency and optimizing user results by leveraging multiple liquidity sources;
MEV resistance: incentivizes solvers to return more value to users to provide the best results;
Modular design: allows the protocol to be deployed in multiple stacks and ecosystems, facilitating cross-chain intent execution.
Flashbots Suave
It is worth mentioning that suave launched by Flashbots focuses on intent-centric cross-chain MEV extraction. As mentioned earlier, the architecture of suave is composed of user transaction preferences, including the expression, execution and settlement of preferences. The "preference" here can be understood as user intentions with conditions and constraints. The executors of the intentions fully compete and return part of the MEV income to the users to maximize the benefits of the users.
Last month, flashbots launched MEVM, which provides a new pre-compilation for MEV, allowing any centralized MEV infrastructure to be converted to smart contracts on a decentralized blockchain. In addition, MEVM provides privacy and efficiency by moving the calculation of sensitive data to execution nodes running off-chain. MEVM will greatly enrich the suave chain ecosystem, bring more order flow, users will get better results, and proposers will get better blocks.
What opportunities are there for Intent-centric in the future?
Combination of intent language and AI: In most cases, user intent is complex and the intent expression is insufficient, which may make it more difficult for the solver to understand the intent and thus unable to plan the optimal solution path. AI can be used to more accurately identify user intent, such as using machine learning to build an intent recognition model to infer potential purposes and needs based on the user's transaction request source, transaction data, etc.
Third-party execution layer: After Solver recognizes the intention, it will package the transaction process to the third-party execution layer. The execution process often involves complex transaction processes and multiple participants. A third-party execution layer that can respond quickly, accurately handle the transaction process, and is safe and stable is one of the keys to realizing user intentions. However, we must also be wary of centralization issues and DOS attacks in the third-party execution layer.
Large-scale adoption of Defi: In fact, there are already Defi projects that use intent-centric, such as Cowswap, 1inch Fusion, UniswapX, etc. Cowswap launched Cow Hooks for intent-based AMM exchange; UniswapX allows users to sign intent, and the solver executes orders off-chain and settles on-chain. In the future, with the large-scale adoption of intent-centric in the Defi field, it is possible to improve capital efficiency and liquidity provision.
Development of full-chain games: All game logic and data of full-chain games are stored on the chain in the form of smart contracts. Limited by bottlenecks such as blockchain speed and scalability, it is currently unable to support games with complex game strategies and exquisite graphics. Full-chain games can reduce the complexity of player operations through intent-centric. Players only need to issue intent instructions and sign to complete the game operation, rather than approve and sign every step of the intent operation, which improves the player's gaming experience.
As Web3 continues to develop, user experience and interaction efficiency have gradually become the focus. Intent-centric allows us to build and operate complex systems in a completely new way, looking forward to a more user-friendly, efficient and transparent decentralized world.
Reference Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsfHYsocZjI
https://medium.com/anomanetwork/an-overview-of-anoma-s-architecture-26b72e8c9be5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdYwfW6tMJ8&ab_channel=[EthCC]Livestream4
https://blog.essential.builders/introducing-essential/
https://writings.flashbots.net/mevm-suave-centauri-and-beyond