In the 8 years since the birth of the open source blockchain network Ethereum, countless competing chains have emerged, and at the same time, it has laid the underlying foundation for the development of on-chain applications in finance, games and other scenarios. The only regret is that after 8 years, the vast majority of Internet users still cannot touch the Web3 gate with the blockchain as the bottom layer.
Statistics show that among the total 5.16 billion Internet users, less than 100 million users have blockchain wallets (the main entrance to Web3 networks and applications). Why is it so difficult to get out of the Web3 circle?
On the one hand, there are no popular applications that Web2 users are familiar with, such as in social networking, e-commerce and other fields, and more importantly, the complexity of use and operation: if the last link does not move, the "network fee" (gas fee, network usage One of the costs), and an encrypted wallet signature is required for an interaction (similar to providing authorization and verifying transactions).
Recently, a new concept aimed at changing the experience of Web3 scum has emerged - the investment institution Paradigm proposed "intent-centric", explaining the new idea of "intent-centric" to build a Web3 interactive experience: Ideally, users only need to issue an intent Instructions, all operations can be automatically executed behind the scenes, and users only need to sign once to realize their intentions.
Intent-centric, which only focuses on the result and not the process, sounds very user-experience-oriented. Does this simplification look like what AI dialogue robots are doing? In fact, artificial intelligence can be used here.
New focus on Web3
A recent research article by Paradigm, a well-known encryption investment institution, makes the intent-centric concept a new focus on the Web3 track. The agency listed intent-centric at the top of the "ten Web3 directions worthy of attention", and this unfamiliar term spread in the encryption community and caused excitement.
Intent-centric, the translation is "intent-centric", the intention refers directly to "what you want to do", it focuses on the result, not the process. Intent-centric aims to make tedious on-chain operations "one-step" through the optimization of protocols and infrastructure. More precisely, by hiding the complex operation process in the past, users can achieve their goals directly and without feeling.
For example, a user wants to exchange the USD stable currency USDT of the Ethereum blockchain version into the ARB currency on the Arbitrum blockchain. This process is a bit like a cross-border cross-bank transfer. Chain bridge (cross-system trust solution), connect wallet (account), transfer USDT and gas fee ETH (handling fee) used for this exchange from Ethereum network to Arbitrum, wait for assets cross-chain to complete, and then transfer assets to Arbitrum Find a liquid exchange (forex exchange) on the Internet, and then perform the exchange operation.
The above is an operation that a "veteran" on the chain is very familiar with and used to. Every day, there are a large number of users who transfer assets between various blockchains, conduct transactions, and pledge assets. The complicated operation process is extremely unfriendly, especially for novice Xiaobai, who wants to complete this series of basic operations. Step by step It's all a challenge.
Intent-centric is to solve this kind of problem, so that the long chain of operations becomes a short chain. More precisely, it is such that the chain is "insensitive" on the user experience side.
Ideally, the user only needs to output the intent: "Help me exchange the USDT in the wallet for ARB on Arbitrum", and the intent-centric related protocols can be automatically operated behind the scenes, including cross-chain, finding the optimal exchange path, paying Gas until Complete the exchange. All the above processes, the user is indifferent, and the user will only get a clear result, that is, the USDT in the wallet is replaced by ARB.
This is very close to the experience of Web2 applications. For example, we use Alipay to buy things on Taobao, just pay and wait for the delivery, without knowing how the money arrived at the merchant.
The cross-chain transaction from USDT to ARB is just a simple example. In theory, with the maturity and perfection of the intent-centric concept at the protocol level, any operation on the chain can be completed with one click. For example, one-click purchase of designated NFT, one-click search for investment products with the highest annualized yield, etc.
In short, the core concept of intent-centric is to optimize the user experience, so that Xiaobai can quickly play with the world on the chain.
So, how can the intent-centric vision be realized technically? In fact, its principle is not difficult to understand, it is to disassemble the intention and arrange each step of the process to a professional agreement to complete.
Take Bob the Solver, who recently performed well at the ETHGlobal Paris Hackathon as an example. It is an intent-based transaction infrastructure consisting of two parts, Solver (solver) and account abstraction wallet (AA wallet).
Bob the Solver brings intent-centric boilerplate
The solver is equivalent to the coordinator, which is responsible for identifying user intent, classifying the intent, and planning the optimal path to realize the intent. After determining the path, the solver will construct the transactions required to realize the user's intention, similar to formulating a "process outline", and then forwarding to the programmable account abstraction wallet.
The account abstraction wallet is responsible for performing the work. It consists of a "bundler" (bundler) and a "cashier" (paymaster). The former is responsible for the transactions sent by the planning solver, while the cashier is responsible for managing and disbursing related Gas fees.
Bob the Solver provides a simple template for an intent-centric track. According to this idea, as long as there are enough professional solver solutions and wallet programming solutions, it is possible to achieve multi-scenario one-click direct access to the intention.
It is expected to be combined with AI
The application ecology on the chain has experienced 8 years of development, and there have been a large number of applications such as transactions, loans, financial management, games, and new assets such as NFT. In the context of the initial scale of the chain ecology, the emergence of intent-centric At the right time, only by realizing a leapfrog upgrade of user experience can the world on the chain achieve exponential user growth.
At present, there are still relatively few new protocols under the intent-centric narrative, but in fact, applications similar to its vision have appeared before.
The decentralized encrypted asset trading application 1inch is a typical case. Compared with the well-known Uniswap, 1inch is characterized by allowing users to trade encrypted assets across multiple DEXs in one transaction. By scanning multiple DEXs at the same time, 1inch can find the best price for a specific trading pair, and use the most favorable price for The user executes the transaction.
Before the emergence of 1inch, users wanted to complete a transaction in a way that maximized value, and usually had to visit multiple DEXs for price comparison, and at the same time, factors such as transaction slippage and gas fees had to be considered. 1inch can efficiently find the optimal exchange path through specific algorithms and aggregate dozens of DEXs, allowing users to complete the optimal transaction at the best price in real time.
1inch transaction page
Aggregation is a simple and effective way to simplify user operations. But the world on the chain is not only a simple transaction of exchanging A to B. There are hundreds of independent and open public chains alone, and they also support a variety of digital assets on the chain. Aggregation alone is not enough to solve the problem. Most operations are cumbersome.
Therefore, there is still a long way to go to realize the intent-centric vision, and in this process, highly intelligent AI may become a powerful assistant.
Whether it is the natural language input of intentions, or dismantling the target, calculating the optimal path and executing the operation, AI can play an advantage.
In many cases, the user's intention is complex, and the expression of the intention may not be accurate, which may make it difficult for the solver to accurately understand the user's intention, and thus fail to plan an optimal solution. The AI trained by a specific model can more accurately identify user intentions, and infer potential purposes and needs based on the user's transaction request source, transaction data, etc.
In terms of dismantling goals and execution, OpenAI's AutoGPT based on the GPT-4 large language model has proven its power. Only one task needs to be issued, and AutoGPT can plan and execute it automatically. Its characteristics just fit the needs of intent-centric.
In the eyes of many professionals, the realization of intent-centric is inseparable from 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 the blockchain user-friendly era.
Of course, when developers hand over the "middle layer" operation from intent to result to AI and other third-party execution layers, it means that there are multiple parties involved behind "one-click realization of intent", and security issues must be taken seriously. On the one hand, the intent-centric protocol party needs to formulate a punishment mechanism for malicious behavior and provide a safe and stable third-party execution layer; on the other hand, it also needs to improve technical security capabilities to prevent algorithms from being discovered or AI from being "fooled". Once a problem occurs in one of the links, the rights and interests of users will not be guaranteed.
Intent-centric proposes an exciting future for the Web3 industry, and more secure and easy-to-use "intent" applications are expected to emerge, which will revolutionize the blockchain experience from the user side.