Intent-centric: A new interaction paradigm focused on intentions

Imagine a scenario: If you hold 1000 USDT on the Ethereum mainnet and wish to purchase $OP tokens on a decentralized exchange in the Optimism Layer 2 network, how would you proceed?

First, you need to choose a wallet that supports Optimism and add the corresponding network settings. Then, transfer 1000 USDT and some ETH for gas fees to the Optimism network through a secure cross-chain bridge. Finally, connect your wallet to the corresponding decentralized exchange and execute the trade. While this process is intuitive, it involves multiple interactions and waiting for confirmations, as well as potential network fees and trading slippage, among other uncertainties. For newcomers to on-chain trading, each step can be a challenge, which also limits the widespread adoption of on-chain applications. So, can we reduce the complexity of on-chain interactions to a level that is as simple as operating in a centralized exchange?

Intent-centric means "intention-centered". Unlike the previously mentioned scenarios, it focuses solely on the outcome and not the process. Users only need to issue the command "I want to buy $OP on Optimism" and sign it, and the Intent-centric protocol will coordinate with third parties to complete all necessary steps, thereby lowering the operational threshold and providing users with a seamless experience similar to centralized finance.

Currently, multiple projects are exploring intent-centric.

Bob the Solver

Bob the Solver is an infrastructure based on intent trading, which can be integrated into account abstraction wallets and decentralized applications. It consists of two parts:

1. Solver(: Equipped with machine learning to identify user intentions, classify those intentions, and plan the optimal path to achieve them. Once the path is determined, the solver constructs the transactions needed to fulfill the user's intentions and forwards them to the account abstraction wallet.

2. Account Abstract Wallet ) AA Wallet (: Responsible for the execution of transactions, consisting of a bundler and a paymaster. The bundler is responsible for receiving and planning the transactions sent by the solver, while the paymaster is responsible for managing the gas fees associated with these transactions.

Anoma

Anoma is an intent-centric privacy-preserving protocol for decentralized counterparty discovery, resolution, and multi-chain atomic computation. The core processes include:

1. User Interaction: Users can send transparent, private, or protected intents to Anoma's intent gossip network.

2. Intent Collection and Matching: Solvers in the network collect intents and perform balanced state transitions to achieve counterpart matching.

3. Transaction processing: The matched transaction is submitted to the encrypted mempool, where validators send the blocks packaged by proposers to the execution layer, completing execution and verifying validity, and ultimately completing the state root update.

Anoma's execution layer is built on Taiga, which is a zero-knowledge proof circuit based on Halo2, allowing Anoma to deploy zero-knowledge rollups on Ethereum, sharing part of Ethereum's security.

Essential

Essential focuses on building intent-based infrastructure and tools to address the maximization of extractable value ) MEV ( issues. Its core goal is to reduce the negative impact of MEV, allowing users to achieve their intentions at the lowest cost. Essential plans to establish a solver network that captures user intent and competes to find the best solutions, transforming profit-seeking searchers into solvers seeking the best solutions for users.

Essential is developing the following products:

1. General-purpose domain-specific language for expressing intentions )DSL(: A standardized intention language that makes it easier for solvers to understand and reason about user intentions.

2. Intent-centric account abstraction standard for Ethereum and EVM: Introducing a new standard that delegates solvers to construct valid transactions to fulfill intents.

3. Modular Intent Layer: Addressing design sacrifices when reconciling intent-centric architecture with lower-level compatibility.

Suave

It is worth mentioning that the suave launched by a certain project focuses on intent-centric cross-chain MEV extraction. The architecture of suave is composed around user trading preferences, which include the expression, execution, and settlement of preferences. Here, "preferences" can be understood as user intentions with conditions and constraints. The executors of these intentions compete fully, returning a portion of the MEV earnings to users in order to maximize user benefits.

Recently, the project launched MEVM, which provides new precompiles for MEV, allowing any centralized MEV infrastructure to be converted into smart contracts on a decentralized blockchain. Additionally, MEVM offers privacy and efficiency by moving the computation of sensitive data to execution nodes running off-chain. MEVM will significantly enrich the suave chain ecosystem, bringing more order flow, users will achieve better outcomes, and proposers will receive higher quality blocks.

Future Opportunities of Intent-centric

1. Integration of Intent Language and AI: Utilizing AI to more accurately identify user intent, such as building intent recognition models using machine learning to infer potential purposes and needs based on the source of user transaction requests, transaction data, etc.

2. Third-party execution layer: A third-party execution layer that can respond quickly, accurately process transaction flows, and is secure and stable is one of the keys to realizing user intentions. However, it is also important to be vigilant about the centralization issues of the third-party execution layer and potential DOS attacks.

3. Large-scale adoption of decentralized finance: Certain decentralized finance projects have begun adopting intent-centric approaches, such as a swap platform that introduced Hooks for intent-based automated market maker exchanges; a certain exchange allows users to sign intents, with solvers executing orders off-chain and settling on-chain. In the future, as intent-centric approaches are widely adopted in the decentralized finance space, there is potential to improve capital efficiency and liquidity provision.

4. The Development of On-chain Games: On-chain games can reduce the complexity of player operations through intent-centric mechanisms. Players only need to issue intent commands and sign them to complete game actions, rather than approving and signing each step of the intent operation, thereby enhancing the player's gaming experience.

As Web3 continues to evolve, user experience and interaction efficiency are gradually becoming the focus. Intent-centric allows us to build and operate complex systems in a new way, looking forward to a more user-friendly, efficient, and transparent decentralized world.

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