The anticipated business changes of "intention": How will it affect sectors such as DeFi and wallets?

Author: Haotian

It feels like Intent-centric is a grand narrative, especially with the support of AI, the Intent-based ecosystem seems to always be on the verge of bursting forth, igniting the public's anticipation for the next bull market's "pleasure." But what is the reality? The most basic intent narrative like AA Wallet can only quietly cultivate behind the scenes, let alone the AI + intent that sounds cool at first but lacks a practical foundation upon closer inspection.

This article explores the foreseeable commercial changes in Intent-centric:

Tips: I have already written a series of popular science articles on Intent-centric. If you want to gain a systematic understanding, feel free to browse the highlights section on the homepage.

1. Reordering the ecological structure of DeFi protocols and products: Will Wallet become the true front-end entry?

Currently, Wallets are merely asset management (recharge + flash swap, etc.) and display platforms, positioned at the end of the DeFi ecosystem. Although wallets have DApp centers to connect applications, they are still far from the commercial vision of taxing through wallets. Most wallets only help users display assets, and there is still a significant gap between this and the future Crypto world envisioned for investors.

Intent-centric may be an opportunity for wallets to turn the tide.

Previously, user interaction needs such as bridge, swap, staking, and withdraw directly interacted with on-chain contracts in the form of commands. Most DeFi protocols would autonomously design front-end interaction pages for users, with Wallet's role being merely Connect Wallet + Signature.

The intent process is essentially an off-chain preprocessing black box. Wallets can completely become the user intent preprocessing center, used to collect and preprocess user transaction needs, and then link to all DeFi protocols on the back end for interaction. This way, DeFi protocols would no longer rely on front-end traffic. Only then can the commercial potential of wallets as entry points to collect tolls be realized. Of course, to be a good Solver, wallets will face significant challenges.

2. The paradigm of "off-chain" preprocessing + on-chain integration will become mainstream: Will UniswapX become the DeFi trading hub?

For a period after the release of UniswapX, everyone felt it was neither painful nor itchy, and not at all paradigm-shifting, while similar functions like cowswap and fusion were not well received. However, in my view, this is merely because the overall new architecture of off-chain + on-chain has yet to take shape. Only when the off-chain preprocessing environment matures and stabilizes will the market effects of UniswapX become apparent.

Here, "off-chain" actually refers to a set of Solver preprocessing mechanisms that also need to adhere to fundamental norms such as openness, transparency, distribution, and permissionlessness, rather than the traditional notion of off-chain client-server. The "off-chain" here can be seen as a structured intent extension of the existing smart contract framework;

For example: In the MEV scenario, miners sort blocks based on GAS prices, and MEV bots can profit by front-running. This is a point where the existing blockchain framework is powerless. Now, SUAVE aims to create a decentralized MEV-geth off-chain service node, where most potential MEV transactions are first preprocessed for thorough digestion before being submitted on-chain, thus reducing on-chain congestion.

Flashbot 2.0's MEV-geth and MEV-relay service nodes in the SUAVE chain architecture are, relative to the Ethereum mainnet, an "off-chain" extension, but they are also an independently operating chain. This method of interacting with the main chain through preprocessing on other chains is essentially a way to realize structured intent off-chain preprocessing. The currently popular Rollup layer2 is fundamentally based on this idea.

With this understanding, let's look at UniswapX again. The gas-free, anti-MEV, pool bidding mechanisms it aims to achieve also need to be based on a fair off-chain preprocessing environment. This off-chain environment is a free, permissionless node service model, or it could even be an independent side chain. (This is just speculation; the official details are not yet available.)

If Uniswap's off-chain preprocessing solution is implemented, assuming it is a chain focused on trading, combined with the entry of Uniswap Wallet and Uniswap's top market position in the current Ethereum DeFi liquidity, the vision of UniswapX becoming the future DeFi trading hub makes a lot of sense.

3. Multiple implementation paths for Solver: Super Smart Contract or AI

AA contract wallets are a type of structured intent formed by abstracting user intent such as gas payment, social recovery, and conditional execution through smart contracts and proxy contracts. This type of intent is achieved through the combination of functions by geeks in Ethereum contracts, and it can be considered the simplest form of Solver.

The future of Solver will evolve in two levels. The nearer level: SSC (Super Smart Contract), and the implementation path of AA contract wallets is similar, differing mainly in the complexity of the combination.

For example: Anoma's solution explores a Layer 1.5 multi-chain structure. Pure trading intents go through layer 1, while privacy and security intents go through layer 2, integrating zk-SNARK/ciphertext and other cryptographic technologies. Ultimately, transactions will be summarized to the user client. I believe this blockchain architecture could be the next generation of blockchain smart architecture after Ethereum, as it aggregates various technologies under the current blockchain framework and unifies them into a brand new processing framework system.

The further level: AIGC automated execution, is also the most anticipated aspect since Paradigm proposed the Intent-centric concept. In the future, users will only need to chat with AIGC, and AI will automatically help users complete complex transactions. It sounds wonderful, but the implementation of this process will be very challenging.

On one hand, AIGC's semantic understanding model struggles to achieve 100% accuracy in discerning user intent, which many users of chatGPT can relate to; on the other hand, after understanding user intent, AIGC must also have the capability to compute real-time data such as transaction depth and slippage across various DeFi protocols, conduct real-time audits to identify security risks, and fully understand the communication standards between different chains and protocols to reasonably plan processes, etc. This not only tests the data capacity of the Database but also requires achieving a level of "intelligence" that encompasses real-time learning, analysis, judgment, and application to cope with the complexities of the DeFi environment.

However, the AI-driven Solver can merge the entrepreneurial power of the AI field with blockchain once again. The advantage of AI is technology, but it lacks a commercial closed loop, while the blockchain DeFi direction is quite the opposite. The intent track undoubtedly can attract a large number of AI talents, resources, and capital. Whether this path can be successfully navigated is uncertain, but it gathers the innovative forces of AI + Crypto, driving the imagination space for new technologies and applications to be sufficiently large to support a new narrative.

That's all.

We will find that these commercial changes have already been quietly happening. Some Wallets are making strides in AA and other directions, Uniswap is laying out its strategies in wallet, V4, and UniswapX, Flashbot 2.0's new MEV solutions, etc. Of course, there are also some cool products that have recently applied AI to DeFi interactions. They are all working on "Solver" tasks, all seeking step-by-step practical paths for Intent-centric.

Of course, these may happen in the future, or they may ultimately just be a hypothesis. Friends interested in Intent-centric are welcome to discuss together.