Without looking at the process but focusing on the result, what problems can the most dominant architecture of Web3, Intent-Centric, solve?

What problems can the Intent-Centric architecture of Web3 solve, without considering the process?

Original author: Kyle

The concept of Intent-Centric has sparked heated discussions in the Web3 community. This new concept, which translates to “intent-centered,” aims to simplify the complexity of on-chain interactions, allowing users to provide their intentions and receive corresponding results. It is a new concept that revolutionizes the on-chain experience, and AI may play a key role in it.

In the eight years since the birth of the open-source blockchain network Ethereum, countless competing chains have emerged, laying the underlying foundation for on-chain applications in various scenarios such as finance and gaming. The only regret is that after eight years, the vast majority of internet users still cannot access the Web3 gateway built on blockchain technology.

Data shows that out of a total of 5.16 billion internet users, less than 100 million users have blockchain wallets (the main entry point for Web3 networks and applications). Why is it so difficult for Web3 to break out?

• AMA with Alex, co-founder of Matter Labs The Final Battle of zkSync
• What can the Intent-Centric architecture, the most domineering architecture of Web3, solve without looking at the process?
• Kansas Fed Huge Losses May Result from Purchasing Cryptocurrencies through Cryptocurrency ATMs

One reason is the lack of popular applications that Web2 users are familiar with, such as in the fields of social media and e-commerce. More importantly, the operations are complicated: every time you interact with the chain, you have to calculate the “gas fee” (one of the costs of network usage), and every interaction requires a wallet signature (similar to providing authorization and verifying transactions).

Recently, a new concept aimed at transforming the poor Web3 experience has emerged. Investment firm LianGuairadigm proposes “intent-centric” and expounds on the new approach of establishing a Web3 interactive experience centered around intentions: ideally, users only need to issue an intent command, and all operations can be automatically executed behind the scenes, with users needing to sign only once to realize their intentions.

The intent-centric approach, which focuses on results rather than processes, prioritizes user experience. Doesn’t this simplified style resemble what AI chatbots do? In fact, artificial intelligence can indeed be applied here.

Web3’s New Focus

A recent research article by renowned crypto investment firm LianGuairadigm has made the intent-centric concept the new focus of the Web3 race. The firm listed intent-centric as the first of “ten Web3 directions worth paying attention to,” spreading this unfamiliar term within the crypto community and generating excitement.

Intent-centric, as the name suggests, centers around intentions, specifically, “what do you want to do.” It focuses on results rather than processes. Intent-centric aims to simplify tedious on-chain operations through protocol and infrastructure optimization, enabling users to achieve their goals directly and seamlessly, without feeling the complexity of the previous operation processes.

For example, if a user wants to exchange USDT, a stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain, for ARB coins on the Arbitrum blockchain, the process is similar to international interbank transfers and usually involves a series of steps, including opening a cross-chain bridge (a trust solution across systems), connecting wallets (accounts), transferring USDT and ETH (transaction fees) for this exchange from the Ethereum network to Arbitrum, waiting for the cross-chain asset transfer to complete, finding a liquid exchange on Arbitrum, and executing the exchange operation.

Above is an operation that blockchain “veterans” are very familiar with and accustomed to. Every day, there are a large number of users transferring assets, conducting transactions, and staking assets among different blockchains. The complex operation process is extremely unfriendly, especially for beginners. Completing this series of basic operations is a challenge at every step.

Intent-centric aims to solve such problems and turn long chains of operations into short chains, or more accurately, make these chains “invisible” to users on the experience side.

In an ideal situation, users only need to express their intent: “Help me exchange the USDT in my wallet for ARB on Arbitrum.” The intent-centric protocol will automatically operate in the background, including cross-chain transfers, finding the optimal exchange path, paying gas fees until the exchange is completed. Throughout the entire process, users are unaware, and they only receive a clear result: the USDT in their wallet has been exchanged for ARB.

This is very close to the experience of Web 2.0 applications. For example, when we use Alipay to make purchases on Taobao, after paying, we just wait for the goods to arrive without needing to know how the money reached the hands of the merchant.

The cross-chain transaction from USDT to ARB is just a simple example. In theory, with the maturity and improvement of the intent-centric concept at the protocol level, any on-chain operation can be completed with one click. For example, one-click purchase of specified NFTs or one-click finding the highest annualized return investment products, and so on.

In short, the core concept of intent-centric is to optimize the user experience and enable beginners to quickly navigate the world of blockchains.

So, how is the vision of intent-centric achieved technically? In fact, its principle is not difficult to understand. It is to decompose intent and assign each step to specialized protocols to complete.

Take “Bob the Solver,” which performed well at the recent ETHGlobal LianGuairis Hackathon, as an example. It is an infrastructure based on intent-driven transactions and consists of two parts: the Solver and the Account Abstract Wallet (AA Wallet).

Bob the Solver brings an intent-centric template.

The Solver acts as a coordinator, responsible for identifying user intent, classifying intents, and planning the optimal path to achieve them. Once the path is determined, the Solver will construct the necessary transactions to fulfill the user’s intent, similar to creating a “process outline,” which is then forwarded to the programmable Account Abstract Wallet.

The Account Abstract Wallet is responsible for executing the work. It consists of a bundler and a LianGuaiymaster. The former is responsible for planning the transactions sent by the Solver, while the latter is responsible for managing and paying the related gas fees.

Bob the Solver provides a simple template for the intent-centric track. Following this approach, as long as there are professional Solver solutions and wallet programming solutions, it is possible to achieve one-click direct access to intents in multiple scenarios.

Potential Combination with AI

The on-chain application ecosystem has undergone 8 years of development and has seen a large number of transactional, lending, financial management, gaming applications, as well as new assets such as NFTs. In the context of the growing on-chain ecosystem, the emergence of intent-centric solutions is timely. Only by achieving a transformative upgrade in user experience can the on-chain world achieve exponential user growth.

Currently, there are relatively few new protocols under intent-centric narratives, but in fact, applications with similar visions have already appeared before this.

Decentralized cryptocurrency trading application 1inch is a typical case. Compared to the famous Uniswap, the feature of 1inch is that it allows users to trade cryptocurrencies across multiple DEXs in one transaction. By scanning multiple DEXs at the same time, 1inch can find the best price for specific trading pairs and execute transactions for users at the most favorable price.

Before the emergence of 1inch, users who wanted to complete a transaction in a way that maximizes value usually had to access multiple DEXs for price comparison, while also considering factors such as trading slippage and gas fees. With a specific algorithm and aggregation of dozens of DEXs, 1inch can efficiently discover the optimal exchange path, allowing users to complete the best transaction in real time at the best price.

1inch trading page

Aggregation is a simple and effective way to simplify user operations. However, the on-chain world is not just simple transactions of exchanging A for B. There are hundreds of independent open public chains alone, which support various on-chain application-based digital assets. Aggregation alone is not enough to solve most of the cumbersome operation problems.

Therefore, the realization of the intent-centric vision still has a long way to go, and in this process, highly intelligent AI may become a powerful assistant.

Whether it is natural language input of intent, or breaking down goals, calculating the optimal path, and executing operations, AI can leverage its advantages.

In many cases, user intent is complex, and the expression of intent may not be accurate, which may cause the solver to have difficulty in accurately understanding user intent and therefore unable to plan the optimal solution. However, AI trained with specific models can more accurately identify user intent and infer potential goals and needs based on the source of the user’s transaction request and transaction data.

In terms of breaking down goals and executing operations, AutoGPT based on the GPT-4 large language model launched by OpenAI has proven its power. Just by giving a task, AutoGPT can plan and execute automatically. Its features happen to fit the needs of intent-centric.

In the eyes of many professionals, the implementation of intent-centric cannot be achieved without the boost of AI. After all, the efficiency of AI retrieval and execution is much higher than that of humans, and the intervention of AI will accelerate the arrival of a user-friendly era for blockchain.

Of course, when developers hand over the “intermediate layer” operations from intent to result to AI and other third-party execution layers, it means that there are multiple parties involved behind the “one-click implementation of intent”, and security issues must be taken seriously. On the one hand, intent-centric protocol providers need to establish a punishment mechanism for malicious behavior and provide a secure and stable third-party execution layer. On the other hand, they also need to enhance technical security capabilities to prevent algorithms from being deciphered or AI from being “tricked”. Once there is a problem in any link, user rights will not be guaranteed.

Intent-centric presents an exciting future for the Web3 industry, and we look forward to the emergence of more secure and user-friendly “intent” applications, which will innovate the user experience of blockchain from the user’s side.

We will continue to update Blocking; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!