How far are we from an Ethereum centered around intent?

How close are we to an intent-focused Ethereum?

“Intent” has recently become a hot topic in the Ethereum community. Stanley He, a researcher at MetaWeb Ventures, explored the transition from “transaction-based exchange” to “intent-based interaction” and stated that this may completely change the form of MEV.

Simply put, trading is equivalent to specifying how to do it, while intent is like specifying what you want, but not caring about how to achieve it. In fact, we have already expressed intent on Ethereum, and every exchange using a DEX aggregator is an intent: you just need to specify the input amount and slippage tolerance, and let the routing contract find the best route for you. We call it “simple intents”. There is also something called “searcher intents”, which includes searchers’ preferences for sorting transactions. There is also a type called “arbitrary intents”, where users can express any intent and complete these intents.

We first need an intent layer, where users express their intent and solvers compete to solve these intents. The design principles for building the intent layer can be reflected on the SUAVE blueprint: 1) trustworthy commitments and decentralization: we need to ensure that users will pay the committed amount after their intent is solved, so when we need a decentralized solution, there is only one choice, which is blockchain; 2) privacy: if we want to provide the best execution for user intent, we may need as much information as possible, but we do not want malicious actors to exploit them, so we need to hide some intent information; 3) intent language: users also need a language to express intent, which is why SUAVE will use EVM/Solidity; 4) cross-chain settlement and oracle: Ethereum users must deposit funds on SUAVE and promise to unlock them if the intent is solved, and to verify this, an oracle is needed.

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The intent layer requires account abstraction: account abstraction allows the wallet to become an intent entry point. Taking SUAVE as an example, there are two scenarios: 1) SUAVE directly handles user intent: but this will degrade the user experience and not solve any challenges of SUAVE, we still need a cross-chain bridge and an intent protocol that do not require trust; 2) SUAVE only solves the searcher’s intent: in this case, someone must first turn the user’s intent into a transaction and submit it to SUACE, which means that the solution to the intent will occur before SUAVE, and in this case, as account abstraction matures, smart contract wallets may become the de facto intent layer.

Reference: https://medium.com/metaweb-vc/account-abstraction-and-suave-how-far-are-we-from-an-intent-centric-ethereum-907e30804880

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