This article will combine the understanding of intent opening with Anoma and TG Bot, and trace the AI paradigm shift behind the intent, deeply understand the evolution, interaction paradigm, current situation, trends of intent concepts, and finally look forward to the challenges and future of Web3 interactive intelligence.

Author: Xuan Rui | 0xDragon888

Abstract (TL;DR)

‍‍‍‍‍(1) Understanding Intent: Anoma from top to bottom and TG Bot from bottom to top

(2) In-depth Intent: AI is the New UI: Complex Commands vs. Simple Intent

(3) Navigating Intent: Evolution of the concept of Intent, interaction paradigm, current situation, trends

(4) Guiding Intent: Challenges and prospects of Web3 interactive intelligence

In June, Paradigm's official website published an article "Intent-Based Architectures and Their Risks," which brought the concept of Intent to the public for the first time. The development of protocols and infrastructure related to intent has been rapid, and it became an unavoidable topic in the crypto world at the ETHCC conference in July.

Intent is not a new concept, as DForce founder Mindao said: "The trend in the currency circle has always been to abstract and automate operations to the extreme. Aggregators, CEX, contract wallets, cross-chain DeFi, and even Chainlink and recent automated middleware are all doing this work, and now there is Telegram bot."

However, intent brings about new changes. In the past, the core was product interaction, but in the AGI era, the core is human-machine interaction. AI/LLM (large language models) holds more potential for enhancing Crypo interactions.

01 Anoma from Top to Bottom and Unibot from Bottom to Top

In the past six months, there has been a surge in protocols, projects, and infrastructure related to intent. Instead of explaining the concepts, two excellent examples are presented here.

Among the projects related to intent, the most dazzling is the Anoma Foundation, which completed its third round of financing of $25 million at the end of May 2023. In the context of severe homogenization in Layer1, Anoma Foundation, with its intent-centric architecture Anoma (Dapp full-stack architecture) and Namada (privacy Layer1), has received a total of $57.8 million in investment from institutions, ranking 7th in the amount of financing for Layer1/Layer2 projects that have not yet issued coins.

Looking back at Anoma's public speech at EthCC, founder Adrian Brink stated that the magic of Anoma lies in: all interactions start with intent, and user-expressed intent is processed through the Balck-box Architecture (Anoma black box architecture, also known as Magic Happens), which implements the core transaction process based on intent interaction:

• User Interaction: Users can send transparent, private, or protected intents to Anoma's Anoma black box architecture (intent gossip Layer).

• Intent Collection and Matching: The solver in Anoma's black box architecture collects intents, performs balanced state transitions to match transaction counterparts.

• Transaction Processing: Matched transactions are submitted to the encrypted mempool, and validators send proposer-packaged blocks to the execution layer, complete execution, and verify validity, ultimately updating the state root.

Behind the new form of interaction, the Anoma team has insight into the pain points of the underlying blockchain protocols and points out that from the first generation of scriptable settlement in Bitcoin to the second generation of programmable settlement in Ethereum, the architecture limitations have led to current application protocols having at least one Web2 component, making it impossible to discover and resolve transaction counterparts. They also state that the intent-centric Anoma architecture is the third-generation Dapp architecture of blockchain protocols, allowing users to define the desired result state, achieving efficient and customizable privacy transactions at the intent level. The intent-centric Dapp architecture will usher in a new era.

Despite the high financing and new technological architecture of Anoma, which is currently being developed by a team of 37 interdisciplinary members at Heliax, the progress of the Heliax development team has been slow. However, they have already formed a complete innovative ecosystem:

• Anoma: A general Dapp architecture centered on intent, which can be modularly deployed to L1, L1.5, L2, and embedded in various EVM frameworks using modular components.

• Namada: A privacy settlement Layer1 in the Anoma ecosystem, using PoS mechanism and used for asset-independent cross-chain privacy, which will be compatible with Ethereum and IBC chains in the future.

• AnomaVM: Simplifies DApp application development on Anoma, using Juvix (intent-centric programming language) and VampIR (circuit programming language).

• Typhon: A Cosmos-based Tendermint improved Typhon consensus.

• Taiga: Provides a unified execution environment for composable privacy. Taiga defines three types of intents: transparent intent, shielded intent, and private intent.

Although many institutions such as CMCC Global, Electric Capital, and Delphi Digital are enthusiastic about Anoma and express that the intent-centric architecture has unlimited potential in the future, currently, Anoma from top to bottom has only laid a good technical foundation, but has not yet seen exciting practical applications. On the other hand, TG Bot opens up the imagination of landing scenarios for Intent segmentation with on-chain automated trading tools.

Unibot is a Telegram-based trading bot (TG Bot) that allows users to automate DEX trading through Telegram and provides sniper purchases, copy trading, DEX limit orders, privacy, anti-MEV, and other functions. Unibot replaces the cumbersome interaction of Uniswap with Intent and provides a convenient DeFi interaction experience. Unibot has also spawned a batch of TG Bot imitations, and the total market value of the TG Bot track is close to $200 million.

Anoma from top to bottom is innovation, while TG Bot from bottom to top is change; Anoma from top to bottom starts with an intent-based underlying architecture, but the team's progress has been slow; although TG Bot brings users a new on-chain interaction interface, it is not intelligent and has many security risks.

Both of these divergent paths have the same purpose—simplifying user interaction and introducing a new programmable, customizable user interaction interface—User Intent Layer, allowing users to skip complex on-chain interactions and define transaction states based on user intent.

02 AI is the New UI: Command Interaction vs. Intent Interaction

The above two use cases have provided a basic understanding of intent, and now it is time to explore the fundamental changes AI brings to the lowest level of the crypto world—changes in user interaction interfaces.

The AI paradigm is introducing the third user interface paradigm in the history of computing, shifting to a new interaction mechanism where users tell the computer what they want, rather than how to do it.

• Paradigm one: Batch processing.

• Paradigm two: Command-based interaction design.

• Paradigm three: Result specification based on intent.

In history, each revolutionary interaction mode has produced entirely new business models. Generative AI based on LLM has brought disruptive changes to human-machine interaction, directly transforming the original human-machine interaction with various software UIs into interaction with Chatgpt chat windows, which is an unprecedented interaction experience. LLM+crypto brings a new proposition of intent-based interaction to the crypto world, and LLM has the potential to make blockchain interactions more intelligent by discovering and describing user intent.

03 Evolution of the Concept of Intent, Interaction Paradigm, Current Situation, Trends

After a deep understanding of the trend of AI intelligence behind intent, we further explore the evolution of the concept of intent. Intent is not a new concept, but has been present since the Web2 era. With the rise of search engines like Google, users can input intent, and the search engine provides relevant search results to satisfy that intent.

With the rise of e-commerce platforms like Amazon and eBay, there has been a significant shift in intent-based architecture. Users can now express the intent to purchase products, and the platform is responsible for logistics. In early 2017, Gartner released a report "Innovation Insight: Intent-Based Networking Systems," formally proposing the concept of Intent-based Networking, where the key is to present users with an interface where they only need to express what they want, and the platform handles the business details.

Intent-based networking is the development trend of network automation and intelligence in the Web2 era, and Gartner's research vice president Andrew Lerner pointed out in 2017 that intent-based networking would be the next milestone in the networking field.

Evolution from Web2 to Web3, the concept of intent in Web3 is not yet clear, but there are some consensus:

• Definition given by Paradigm: Intent is a set of declarative constraints that allow users to delegate transaction creation to a specialized third-party participant network while retaining complete control over the process.

• Definition given by Anoma, the underlying Dapp architecture based on intent: Intent is a message sent by the user to express custom preferences. Intent is the user-defined constraint on what the system can do, rather than the specific execution path.

• Definition given by Propellerheads, the intent-based transaction infrastructure: Intent is the part of a transaction that requires assistance from others. It simplifies complex transactions by outsourcing the difficult parts to third parties.

In real-world use cases of intent-based transactions in Web3, users create intent off-chain, outsource it to a solver off-chain, encapsulate the complexity of blockchain interaction to the solver, while retaining complete control over the process on-chain, reducing the barriers to on-chain interaction.

Intent also brings the concept of LLM architecture—intent-centric—architecture centered on user intent. Currently, intent-centric related crypto protocols and infrastructure are embedded in the interaction layer between users and Crypto, leveraging LLM to provide a better on-chain interaction experience.

LLM+Crypto brings a new human-machine interaction paradigm, directly converting user intent into smart contract calls. Users only need to express intent, like using Apple's Siri, and the robot/AI Agent/third-party solver helps complete complex on-chain operations. In the future, intent-based Web3 interactive intelligence has the potential to significantly reduce the complexity of user on-chain interactions.

AI is the New UI, and more and more Web3 projects are exploring the power of intent. Whether it's intent-based Dapps or intent-based underlying architecture, they unleash the potential of intent from different perspectives. We attempt to categorize this rapidly developing field and track the latest trends and developments from an interaction perspective, dividing it into four major categories:

Infrastructure: (Intent-centric intent architecture layer)

• DappOS: The first intent-centric Web3 operating protocol, building an intermediate layer between users and encrypted infrastructure such as public chains, cross-chain bridges, allowing Web3 users to interact seamlessly and seamlessly. DappOS recently released version 2.

• Flash 2.0 SUAVE: SUAVE is an independent plug-and-play modular MEV full-chain sorting layer. Preferences (the core concept of SUAVE) are similar to the concept of Intent, both providing a way for ordinary users to customize transactions and ultimately help users achieve optimal execution. Flashbots plans to launch SUAVE Centauri in 2023Q4.

• Anoma: A general Dapp architecture centered on intent, which can be modularly deployed to L1, L1.5, L2, and embedded in various EVM frameworks using modular components. The latest development in the Anoma ecosystem is that the Anoma privacy settlement Layer1—Namada is about to release v0.22.0 testnet.

• Cow Protocol: CoW Protocol builds a foundational settlement network for traders and solvers, and in July released Cow Hooks, a new intent system to achieve custom DeFi operations. In August, CoW Protocol processed a total transaction volume of 1.05B and generated a profit of 5.3M.

Supporting Facilities: (Supporting infrastructure related to intent, and account abstract wallet)

• ERC 4337: ERC 4337's User Operation layer captures the user's intent, including paying gas tokens, payment choices, login methods, replacing the current transaction mempool, achieving account abstraction, and improving wallet interaction experience.

• Supporting infrastructure related to account abstraction: Bundler infrastructure (StackUp, Blocknative, Alchemy Rundler, AA-Bundler, infinitism Bundler), wallet SDK (Safe, ZeroDev, Biconomy).

• Supporting infrastructure related to intent: Juvix (intent-based programming language), Seaport (open-source NFT trading protocol), Gelato (Web3 automated execution layer providing automated services for smart contracts), okcontract (low-level intent automation tool), Delegatable (smart contract authorization proxy tool), Hyper Oracle (off-chain automation service), symmio (intent-based on-chain derivative trading framework).

Enterprise Applications: (Integrated Dapp intent infrastructure, API, modular intent layer, domain-specific solvers)

• Transaction Solver API: PropelleHeads.

• Intent API: EnsoFinance.

• Intent transaction infrastructure: Bob the Solver, Brink.

• Composable intent tools: Essential.

Consumer Applications: (Intelligent user interface for user interaction such as Wallets, Dex, Web3 Ai Agents, intelligent search engines)

• Wallets: Safe, Bitconomy, Argent, Ambire, Sequence, Versa, A3SProtocol.

• Dex: CowSwap, Paraswap, Uniswap, 1inch, BananaHq, basedmarkets.

• Intelligent front-end: Unibot, Dora, Web3 Analytics, kaito.ai.

Based on intent-based architecture, supporting facilities, enterprise-side applications (due to space constraints, only listed without elaboration), attempts to solve the underlying challenges of intent implementation, but infrastructure cannot be built in a day. The trend of intent consumer application layer is what truly excites, showing the potential for intelligent interaction in wallet, Dex, and other entry points.

Intelligent Wallets: ERC-4337 introduces a new UserOps layer, where users express intent, and then the Bundler converts these intents into executable signed transactions. In recent months, the number of ERC4337 users has increased significantly. ZeroDev, Biconomy, and Safe modular intelligent accounts are the most motivated to promote AA + intent, which has the potential to give rise to the arrival of intelligent wallet (SCW).

Dex Architecture Transformation: Intent-based trading aims to improve capital efficiency and user interaction experience. CoW Hooks connects complex actions such as trading, bridging, staking, and depositing. UniswapX already allows users to sign intent off-chain matching and on-chain settlement. The number of intent-based DEX such as BananaHq, Brink, basedmarkets is gradually increasing. New Intent-based RFQ narrative (SYMMIO) is unfolding. With more and more DEX and aggregators transitioning to intent-based architecture, the landscape of DEX is undergoing significant changes.

Intelligent Entry Points: Similar to TG Bot's transformation of Web3 front-end interaction interfaces, entry points focus on understanding user intent and systematically converting it into automated, actionable tasks. Not only trading bots like TG Bot, but also Web3 Ai Agents, Web3 intelligent search engines are making Web3 interactions more intelligent.

Challenges and Prospects of Intelligent Web3 Interaction

In the past, the interaction experience of Web3 products has indeed hindered widespread adoption, and the wealth effect on-chain has obscured many product issues. Now, liquidity and user attention are both scattered, and on-chain liquidity is scarce.

At the ETHCC conference in July, developers extensively discussed the future of intent-centric, how it can help users achieve more intelligent DAPP interactions in Web3. However, the application of intent-centric still faces many challenges due to space constraints.

• Lack of intent-related programming languages (similar to Juvix)

• Lack of suitable intent architecture (similar to Anoma)

• Lack of domain-specific solvers (similar to Bob The Solver)

• Centralized and closed intent implementation (similar to CowSwap)

• Lack of front-end intent recognition solvers (similar to Unibot)

• Lack of composable intent implementation (similar to Brink)

• Intent security risks (mentioned in the Paradigm article)

There are challenges and hopes. With the emergence of intent-centric protocols, the future of Web3 has the potential to evolve into a more user-friendly intelligent interaction interface. Users can interact with mainstream applications such as Uniswap, Blur, AAVE in a one-stop manner, making interaction as simple as hailing an Uber. This is the real opportunity for Web3 Dapps to surpass Web2 in terms of user experience.

More importantly, with the vision of Anoma, Flashbots SUAVE, and DappOS for the future intent-centric, on-chain interactions in Web3 will become more intelligent, customizable, and fair. By centering around intent, the power will be back in the hands of users, allowing ordinary users to empower third-party robots/solvers to complete customized transactions (fees, slippage, privacy, cross-chain, MEV, or other intents). In the future, users will no longer be passive participants on-chain or the victims of MEV searchers and validators, but the true masters of on-chain activities.

Looking forward to the future of intelligent Web3 interactions, whether it's account abstraction, chain abstraction, or intent, Web3 is finally focusing on user experience, and the dawn of intelligent interaction is about to illuminate the dark forest.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Web3 Analytics, Crypto V, Haotian, Jason Chen, Luke, Grace Deng, SixSix.eth, POOR DAO, #017, armonio.eth, Kiwibig.eth for their valuable discussions, feedback, and opinions on this article.

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