Why is the new narrative of "intention" expected to change blockchain and Web3?

Author: veDAO Research Institute

A new concept in Web3, "intention," proposed by Paradigm, has attracted attention within the community, leading to the emergence of dappOS around this concept. Well-known VCs such as Sequoia Capital and Binance have flocked to this track, with Paradigm's Series A project valued at $400 million and raising $35 million, while dappOS raised $50 million in its seed round. Why has this new concept of "intention" attracted a large influx of capital? Is it a milestone concept? This article will help you understand what "intention" is and share several promising highlight projects.

What is Intention?

As a Web3 user, while marveling at the wonderful birth of new things and technologies, do you also feel overwhelmed by the myriad choices in the Web3 market? Questions such as which platform to choose, how to capture the best price, whether to switch to the correct public chain, and whether the signature is secure can leave you lost in the bustling Web3 world, unable to address your needs.

In life, when we enter a large market, we encounter similar problems: imagine you have a shopping list, but the market is so vast that you need to spend a lot of time figuring out where to start. If you have a friend who knows the market well, you can simply hand over your list to him, and he can help you sort everything out, making it very simple and convenient! In the blockchain world, there is a similar concept called "intention" intent-centric.

Intention is a design philosophy that emphasizes the core position of "user intention," focusing on the user's goals and objectives. Through smart contracts or protocols, it encodes the user's intention into executable instructions, enabling automated execution and interaction.

Intention is like a chef in a restaurant; the user only cares about their needs—ordering the dish they want—and achieving the goal—eating that dish. The steps and techniques involved in cooking are known to the chef, and you can simply wait for the delicious food without having to tell the chef every step of the cooking process.

In the Web3 world, the role of "intention" is similar. Users directly tell it what they want, rather than giving the computer step-by-step instructions. For example, users do not need to say, "I want to transfer money from account A to account B using method XX," but rather say, "I want to send 50 USDC to Lao Wang." The system understands the user's "intention" and takes the necessary steps. This idea of "intention-based transactions" simplifies transactions and has the potential to fundamentally change blockchain and Web3.

How Does Intention Change Blockchain and Web3?

We can compare the limitations of the current transaction model with the advantages of intention-based transactions to appreciate the importance of "intention-based transactions" in simplifying blockchain and Web3.

1. Limitations of Current Transaction Models[1]:

• Lack of transparency in transaction processes—when submitting a transaction, the outcome largely depends on factors such as network congestion, miner/validator behavior, and the overall state of the blockchain at a specific execution time. This lack of transparency makes users vulnerable to attacks such as front-running, back-running, and other "maximum extractable value" (MEV) techniques.

• Complex cross-network pathways—often, the expected transaction results require atomic coordination across multiple domains, protocols, and decentralized applications.

• Risks of signature control—by signing raw transactions, users hand over significant control and permissions to complex smart contract code and backend infrastructure, giving too much power to decentralized applications and their creators.

• Lack of readability—transaction models force users to consider low-level details such as random numbers, gas fees, and other blockchain mysteries. Transactions provide users with limited capabilities to express intentions in simple terms that map to their mental models.

• Lack of flexibility—transactions offer little built-in support for cross-domain composability, privacy, and other progressive features.

• Centralization risks—transactions grant miners, validators, and relayers a high degree of freedom, allowing them to easily extract value through reordering, censorship, and other techniques. The lack of visibility into execution exacerbates users' vulnerability to MEV exploitation.

2. Advantages and Importance of Intention-Based Transactions:

• Increased user control—constraints can be set by users rather than relinquishing all permissions.

• Personalized customization options—users can decide on personalized parameters such as privacy, atomicity, counterparties, and fees when expressing intentions.

• Flexible cross-domain composability—intentions seamlessly specify outcomes across applications, protocols, and blockchains, increasing transaction possibilities and maximizing user benefits.

• Mitigating MEV—encryption and programmability hinder solvers from extracting value.

• Enhanced outcomes—professional solvers compete to optimize intention realization.

• Readability—intentions are closer to users' mental models of transactions.

Thus, the emergence of the new narrative of intention aims to transform the blockchain experience from a manual, step-by-step process into a more intuitive, outcome-centered approach. This can lead to smoother transactions, faster execution, and a more user-centric experience, giving it the potential to change blockchain and Web3.

Highlight Project Sharing

1. DappOS

dappOS is an intention-centric protocol that helps users manage Dapp operations. As a unified operating protocol for Web3, dappOS adds a layer between users and public chains, cross-chain bridges, and other crypto infrastructures, virtualizing public chains to provide users with a one-click friendly interaction experience.

For project teams, this platform is like an App Store; projects only need to deploy once to cover traffic across all chains. For users, using dappOS to access different Web3 applications is as convenient as calling mini-programs in WeChat, requiring only a wallet account on one chain to access various chain applications seamlessly.

Its main features include:

• Increased account security and accessibility: recovery of mistakenly deleted mnemonic phrases and the ability to reset accounts through other devices or third-party KYC services.

• Simple operation verification and authorization processes: users can complete various operational processes with just one click, without cumbersome steps or multiple confirmations. This efficiency provides great convenience to users and reduces potential troubles when using Dapps.

• High openness and user-friendliness: dappOS simplifies complex Dapp operation processes to the extreme, making it easy for anyone to access decentralized applications, regardless of their depth of crypto knowledge. This accessibility is expected to attract more people to participate in the blockchain and decentralized world.

• Autonomy: dappOS allows users to control and manage their data and assets independently, without third-party intervention and restrictions.

The core technologies of dappOS include dappOS Account and dappOS Network, which realize the functions of virtual wallets and cross-chain services, respectively. The product features of dappOS include dappOS SDK and mini-program platform, providing multi-chain deployment and access solutions for both B-end and C-end users.

In terms of financing, dappOS was selected for Binance Labs' fifth incubation program in November 2022 and received Pre-Seed round financing from Binance Labs on June 20, 2023, although the specific amount was not disclosed. On July 21, 2023, the Web3 operating protocol dappOS announced the completion of its seed round financing at a valuation of $50 million, led by IDG Capital and Sequoia China, with participation from OKX Ventures, HashKey Capital, KuCoin Ventures, and others.

Related link: https://app.vedao.com/projects/2a536b2f8c7eab79bffe4be2a3fe8e203d6ee5b445029333f438f7ac07622011

2. Anoma Network

Anoma Network is an intention-centric, privacy-preserving protocol for decentralized counterparty discovery, negotiation, and multi-chain atomic settlement. Through smart contracts or protocols, Anoma Network can automatically find the best trading solutions for users while ensuring the reliability and privacy of transactions. The core transaction process of its intention interaction is:

• User interaction: Users can send transparent, private, or protected intentions to the Anoma network through Anoma's intention gossip layer.

• Intention collection and matching: Anoma's solver is responsible for collecting intentions and performing balanced state transitions to match counterparties. The solver is a smart contract that can identify the optimal trading solutions based on user intentions and network status, generating the corresponding transaction data.

• Transaction processing: Matched transactions are submitted to an encrypted mempool, where validators package the blocks proposed by proposers into the execution environment, completing execution and verifying validity, ultimately updating the state root. The execution environment is a secure and reliable platform that supports transparent, secret, and encrypted data types, as well as cross-application data interactions.

The team behind Anoma is impressive, co-founded by Brink, Awa Sun Yin, and Christopher Goes, who met while working at the blockchain technology company All in Bits (also known as Tendermint), which established the Cosmos network. All three are co-founders of the Anoma project.

Anoma also possesses a strong R&D team, having independently developed core technologies such as Taiga, Typhon, MASP, Vamp-IR, and Juvix, covering various aspects like privacy computing, cross-chain communication, and circuit programming, demonstrating Anoma's deep accumulation in distributed systems and cryptography. Furthermore, Anoma's product iteration speed is rapid, allowing it to quickly respond to market demands and continuously launch new products, such as the privacy partitioned ledger Namada, which will be compatible with Ethereum and IBC chains, providing asset-free inter-chain privacy communication. Anoma has formed a complete technical system, building a solid technological foundation that ensures its continued leadership in cutting-edge areas like intention computing.

In terms of financing, Anoma completed a $6.75 million private placement led by Polychain Capital in 2021, followed by another $26 million financing also led by Polychain Capital that same year, and a $25 million financing led by CMCC Global in May 2023.

Related link: https://app.vedao.com/projects/f302cd856f1618d2915225261fd95a17192dfed8396db86d696c861d320a91b2

3. Bob the Solver

Bob the Solver is middleware for intention-based transactions, integrated into wallets and applications to achieve an intention-centric user experience. Bob the Solver consists of two parts:

Interaction Layer:

This layer accurately identifies and understands user intentions through a combination of AI chatbots, intent classifiers, and transaction optimizers. When users express their intentions, the Solver determines the best path to realize that intention based on user needs.

• The AI chatbot engages in conversation with users, listening to their needs and questions to discern their intentions. This allows users to interact with the blockchain in a more natural and intuitive way. The operation of the AI chatbot is similar to a conversation between people, helping users better express their intentions.

• To better serve users, the intent classifier is a key technical component. It categorizes user intentions, grouping different types of user needs. Through classification, the intent classifier can more accurately determine user intentions and relay them to the transaction optimizer.

• The transaction optimizer is the final step in the interaction layer. Once the user's intention is recognized and the best execution path is determined, the transaction optimizer constructs a set of transactions and sends them to the AA (Automated Agent) wallet.

Execution Layer:

This layer consists of the AA wallet system, bundler (transaction batching smart contract), and LianGuaiymaster (Gas fee management smart contract).

• The AA wallet system is based on the EIP-4337 standard and aims to execute transactions. It is a powerful and efficient wallet system that provides users with a convenient trading environment.

• Within the AA wallet system, the bundler is an important component responsible for collecting and organizing transactions sent by the Solver. The bundler packages these transactions into a batch to improve transaction efficiency and speed. This batch processing method is similar to grouping multiple packages together for faster delivery. By batching transactions, the bundler effectively optimizes the transaction execution process.

• Another key component is LianGuaiymaster, a Gas fee management smart contract. In the blockchain, every transaction requires a certain Gas fee. LianGuaiymaster manages the Gas fees associated with these transactions. By effectively managing Gas fees, LianGuaiymaster enhances the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of transaction execution.

Bob the Solver gained significant attention at the EthCC conference for its intent-centric approach, leveraging AI as a third-party collaborator to expand the future development space of the Solver, showcasing a new paradigm of collaboration between AI and blockchain.

Related link: https://app.vedao.com/projects/3dac1ff297ba52bf4597d1e032a9decd5d0d13d177a4a7e05c90c35cf07478c2

4. Essential

Essential is building infrastructure and tools based on intention to accelerate the transition from value extraction to intention fulfillment, mitigating the centralization threats posed by the existence of MEV and enhancing user satisfaction. The project aims to minimize extraction behaviors, meaning users can better protect their interests and reduce the risk of being unfairly deprived of value. Its goal is to accelerate the transition from value extraction to intention fulfillment, contributing to the efficiency and sustainability of blockchain systems.

In terms of financing, Essential completed a $5.15 million seed round in September 2023, led by Maven11, with participation from Robot Ventures, Karatage, Batuhan Dasgin, Skip, James Prestwich, Brandon Curtis, and Neel Somani, founder of Eclipse. By reducing extraction behaviors, the Essential project is expected to promote the development of a fairer and more sustainable blockchain ecosystem.

Related link: https://app.vedao.com/projects/bf7bb96aa69a261d62af3bcc5fd58cb0e5e5a1c6aeafe751fb578b5937b06a3e

[1] References for this article: MarsBit. Revealing the Advantages and Use Cases of Intention-Driven Transactions[OL]. (2023-08-18)

Link: https://www.bitget.com/zh-CN/news/detail/12560603803380

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