Setting the Stage: How ‘Intent’ is Revolutionizing the EVM Ecosystem
In the ever-evolving landscape of the EVM ecosystem, Intents stand out as a groundbreaking approach to structure and execute user preferences, bringing with them enhanced UX and efficiency.
Consider a user’s simple wish:
“I want 100 Matic on Polygon, use USDC from Ethereum, and I want the best rate.”
Today, to materialize this, a user painstakingly:
- Scours for a reputable DEX on Ethereum.
- Makes multiple swaps: From USDC to Eth, to cover for the gas costs, and from USDC to Matic on Ethereum.
- Then, looks for an efficient bridging protocol to transition Matic to Polygon from the Ethereum chain.
Sounds convoluted, doesn’t it? But what if there was a way to streamline and delegate this process?
Enter solvers — sophisticated algorithms that, once given the intent, scout for the optimal transaction route ensuring minimal fees and swift execution. This solver crafts a series of transactions, forwarding them to a smart wallet ready for execution.
Welcome to the world of Intent-centric Architecture — a transformative, declarative paradigm that entrusts transaction creation to specialized entities, reshaping the way we interact with the EVM ecosystem.
Journeying Through Intent: A Roadmap to Our Exploration
In this comprehensive exploration of the Intent-centric Architecture within the EVM ecosystem, we’ll be delving into:
- The Essence of Intents: Unraveling what they are and pinpointing the imperative need for their incorporation.
- Current Landscape: A snapshot of prevailing implementations and emerging concepts in the domain.
- Architectural Blueprint: Decoding how to seamlessly weave this system into chains, especially where Transactions reign supreme.
- Applications’ Windfall: Illuminating how various wallets and applications can substantially gain from harnessing the power of intents.
Stay tuned as, in our subsequent edition, we’ll delve into the intricacies of the Intent Architecture revealing the mechanics and nuances behind it and ground breaking use cases.
Decoding Intents: From Web2 Origins to Web3 Innovations
A Brief Dive into Origins and Context
At its core, an intent captures a straightforward idea: expressing what you desire, not necessarily delineating how to achieve it. It acts as a beacon, highlighting a user’s specific aim or preference.
This isn’t a novel concept. In the realm of web2, we’ve witnessed the potency of intents. Recall the simplicity of using a search engine like Google: when one types “seven wonders of the world,” they don’t instruct how Google should fetch that information. They merely express the intent, and the engine discerns the process.
Apple has integrated this principle, evidenced by its Intent framework. This system seamlessly interweaves an app’s content and functionalities into services like Siri and the Shortcuts app. Consider the command:
Hey Siri, arrange a meeting with Vitalik at 2PM tomorrow in my work calendar.
Here, Siri’s intent framework assumes the role of orchestrator — discerning Vitalik’s contact, identifying the appropriate calendar, and crafting an event that mirrors the user’s intention.
Amazon, too, harnesses the power of intents to fine-tune its conversational agents. By prompting a large language model (LLM) with specific intents like “book a flight” or “play music”, the LLM crafts responses in line with the intent. This method not only widens the conversational scope of agents but also trims the resources required for their training.
Intents in the World of Web3
Contrast this with the web3 sphere. If a transaction serves as a detailed manual dictating “how” an action unfolds, an intent illuminates “what” the action’s eventual result should embody.
To exemplify:
Intent:
I desire X, in exchange for C.
The corresponding transactions might read:
First do A, followed by B, and allocate precisely C to retrieve X.
For users to convey their expectations, they express an intent. It encapsulates critical parameters pivotal for the realization of the said intent, paving the way for an apt solution to be crafted.
The crux of the distinction between transactions and intents rests on the orchestrator of the execution route. The contemporary approach sees users choreographing these transactions. However, with the rise of intents, this mantle is passed on to a specialized third-party solver, proficient in deciphering the most optimal execution pathway.
The Imperative for Intents: Advantages and Innovations
1. Enhanced User Experience
The blockchain landscape demands users to navigate an intricate web of smart contracts, diverse protocols, and even nuances like sourcing native tokens for gas fees. Such a convoluted process often diminishes user experience. With intent-based architecture, the intricate decision-making process concerning which protocols to use is efficiently managed, shielding users from complexities and potential scams.
2. Unprecedented Efficiency
Traditional interaction with a DEX is restrictive. Users are often tethered to the liquidity it provides, with its own set of limitations. Even advanced solutions like DEX aggregators, while expanding the horizon, don’t entirely free users from these bounds.
But where traditional systems fall short, the intent-based model offers a breath of fresh air. Rather than being restricted by pre-defined routes and liquidity options, the new model dives deeper. With a vast information database at their disposal, adept third parties can not only navigate DEXes and aggregators but also explore off-chain liquidity and a myriad of other avenues. The playing field becomes even more intriguing when solvers compete to cater to these user intents, ensuring the best deals are always within reach.
3. Empowered Decision-making and Broader Choices
Consider a scenario where a user wants to swap Asset A for Asset B on a particular DEX’s website. Inadvertently, they’re committing to a range of hidden parameters: from fee constraints to conditions like the time a transaction might revert. Even using DEX aggregators might still bind them to specific service terms.
However, with the emergence of intents, users gain a voice. They can stipulate precise parameters — whether it’s fees, slippage, or any other factor — that truly resonate with their preferences. The job of these specialized third parties (solvers) then becomes ensuring these parameters are met, tailoring the transaction to genuinely mirror user desires. In this model, the user isn’t just a passive participant but is at the helm of their on-chain journey.
High-Level Architecture of Intents in the EVM Ecosystem
Facilitating the Intents paradigm within the EVM ecosystem necessitates a bifurcated solution approach: a robust “solver” to process and map user Intents, complemented by a “smart account” designed for seamless transaction execution.
The Intent Solving Infrastructure: Precision Interpretation, Task Delegation, and Aggregation
The solver’s architecture is intrinsically multifaceted, integrating several pivotal components:
- AI-Enhanced Resolver: The journey commences with this advanced AI system deciphering the user’s Intent. It systematically translates it into specific, actionable tasks essential for seamless execution. This piece of Infra might not be required if we already the high level tasks that would be required to achieve users’ Intent.
- Mempool Management: Rather than traditional transactions, a dedicated mempool is designed to hold these decomposed tasks. Serving as a dynamic pool, it ensures that tasks are both accessible and prioritized, ready to be claimed by specialized solvers.
- Domain-Specific Solvers: Leveraging the mempool, domain-specialized solvers then claim their respective tasks. For instance, a swap-focused solver such as 1inch might elect a swap task, determining the best route and generating the exact transaction with parameters like ‘to’, ‘from’, and ‘calldata’. Concurrently, a bridging solver might address a bridging task, crafting a distinct transaction to execute it optimally.
- Aggregation Mechanism: Post the generation of optimal transactions by these solvers, an aggregation mechanism assumes responsibility. It orchestrates the collection, organization, and preparation of these transactions, streamlining them for efficient ecosystem execution.
However, pioneering such a solver model poses its unique challenges. Be it contending with AI hallucinations, safeguarding solver trustworthiness, or achieving solver scalability, there are multiple intricacies. Our subsequent articles will delve deeper into these layers of sophistication inherent to the Intent-based paradigm.
The Smart Account: Execution Excellence
Post transactional assembly, the baton passes to the smart account, ensuring impeccable execution. Its prowess encompasses:
- Provisioning user-specific wallets on emergent chains as needed.
- Enabling gasless transactions in scenarios where users are devoid of native tokens.
- Effectively batching transactions, optimizing them for efficient execution.
Engage with our forthcoming Bananahq articles as we delve deeper into this paradigmatic shift, illustrating the intricacies and latent potentials within the EVM ecosystem.
Intent-based Architecture in Action: Diverse Use Cases
1. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Apps
- Systematic Investment Plans (SIP): Users set aside a specified amount every month. Solvers then pinpoint and execute(if they have the access) the most lucrative investments based on the user’s intent.
- Decentralized Limit Order Books: Users define limit prices for assets. Solvers leverage decentralized batch auction algorithms to execute these orders optimally.
- DeFi Super Apps: An all-in-one platform where users simply declare their intent, and solvers efficiently handle the execution.
- Automated Investment Strategies: Solvers streamline the investment process by acting on user-defined intents, ensuring optimal returns.
- Cross-domain DeFi: Users can broadly state intents, like opting to go long or short on certain assets. Solvers adeptly navigate multiple protocols to manage swaps, transfers, borrowing, and collateral across diverse chains and rollups.
2. Wallets
- Payment Streaming: Instead of regular manual transfers, users might specify, “Transfer X USDC to a certain address bi-weekly.” While existing apps can support this, they often mandate asset deposits into smart contracts.
- Wallet Chat-based Applications: A comprehensive DeFi-enabled super app that can be maneuvered right from a user’s wallet.
3. Gaming
- Strategic Gameplays: Players provide overarching strategies, like “prioritize yield generation” or “evade combat scenarios.” Solvers interpret and convert these intents into optimized in-game actions.
4. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
- Peer-to-Peer (P2P) NFT Marketplace: Solvers maintain an off-chain mempool, allowing users to trade gaming NFTs and in-game assets directly with peers.
- Multi-chain NFT Exchanges: Simplifying cross-chain transactions, users can acquire NFTs on one blockchain using assets from another. Solvers seamlessly handle potential bridging and swapping tasks.
These examples represent just the tip of the iceberg, with endless possibilities awaiting exploration in the evolving landscape of intent-based architecture.
Conclusion
In this article, we have primarily explored the concept of intents, shedding light on what they are and why they are an essential evolution in the Web3 space. Through examples from tech giants like Google, Apple, and Amazon, and applications in various domains like wallets, games, and NFTs, we’ve demonstrated how intent-based architecture simplifies transactions, enhances efficiency, and opens up a myriad of possibilities.
The insights shared here represent an introduction to the complex world of intents. In future articles, we’ll delve deeper into the architecture and unravel further use cases that are changing the way we interact with decentralized ecosystems.
Don’t miss out on our upcoming insights! Follow us on Twitter and join our Telegram group to stay updated.
