Intent Narratives: The New Phase of the Web3 Revolution

Original author: Kyle Liu, investment manager at Bing Ventures
Original title: Intents: A Revolution to the Next Stage of Web3
Original translation: zhouzhou, BlockBeats

Editor's note: Today, due to the obstacles that users still face when using dApps and the fragmentation between different blockchains and dApps, the number of users who actually use crypto assets has not increased significantly. This article uses dappOS as an example to lead everyone to explore how intents can change this situation.

Users still face significant obstacles when using decentralized applications (dApps), and the flow of users' assets, data, and tokens is scattered between different public blockchains and dApps, which hinders the explosive growth of the crypto user base and limits the potential of the Web3 industry.

Intents is an emerging field that promises to revolutionize the Web3 user experience and unleash its true potential. In this article, we will take a deep dive into this new space, using dappOS as an example.

The approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs has ushered in a new era for the crypto and blockchain industry, accompanied by a surge in the number of people holding crypto assets directly and indirectly. However, there has not been a corresponding increase in the number of users actually using crypto assets.

Users still face significant barriers when using decentralized applications (dApps), and users' assets, data, and token flows are fragmented across different public blockchains and dApps, which hinders the explosive growth of the crypto user base and limits the potential of the Web3 industry.

Intents is an emerging field that promises to revolutionize the Web3 user experience and unlock its true potential. In this article, we will take a deep dive into this new space, using dappOS as an example.

Decoding Intent: A Paradigm Shift in the Blockchain World

Intent refers to the user's desired outcome, regardless of the specific execution steps. For example, the traditional Ethereum transaction method requires users to clearly define each step of the transaction, including interacting with smart contracts, managing randomness, and paying gas fees, which is complex and inefficient. The concept of intent aims to reduce the burden on users, allowing them to outsource the transaction creation process to a third party while maintaining control over the transaction.

By abstracting the technical complexity of blockchain transactions and focusing on user-defined goals, the intent-driven model seeks to make blockchain technology as simple and intuitive as traditional web browsing. The ultimate goal is to ensure that users' interactions with blockchains and decentralized applications (dApps) are as seamless as any traditional Web2 service, thereby driving wider adoption of these technologies.

In essence, the intent-centric model is a technological innovation and a reshaping of the philosophy of the blockchain field that aims to empower and include users. By emphasizing the consistency between the Web3 experience and the simplicity of Web2, it aims to lower the barrier to entry and lay the foundation for the exponential growth of Web3 users.

Technical Pillars and Implementation Path

Implementing an intent-centric system enables users to define the transaction outcomes and actions they expect without specifying the execution steps. Through some mechanism, users delegate the execution of the intent to the system, smart contracts, or third-party service providers. Whether it is done automatically or manually, the execution process should reflect the user's original intention while leaving enough flexibility and room for optimization.

We will take the technical architecture of dappOS as an example to illustrate the intent transaction mechanism:

Open Market Mechanism:

dappOS adopts an open market mechanism that allows service providers to pledge when providing intent execution services. Service providers register as service nodes by staking tokens and choosing the services they are willing to provide. This mechanism ensures dynamic allocation of services and efficient use of resources.

Optimistic Minimum Staking (OMS) Mechanism:

The OMS mechanism allows service providers to execute tasks first and then verify the results. This "execute first, verify later" approach greatly speeds up task execution. Intent tasks are value-specific, meaning that the user agrees to pay a predetermined compensation in the event of a task failure, and the service provider only needs to stake a collateral slightly higher than the total value of the current intent task.

Service Providers:

Service providers are a core component of the dappOS Intent Execution Network. The first step to becoming a service node is to register, and a predetermined number of tokens must be staked in the RegisterManager contract. The staked tokens serve as collateral, and the node's task processing capacity is proportional to the value of the staked collateral.

DappOS’s flexible architecture allows service providers to support a variety of value-specific tasks, which are based on templates and include the following necessary elements:

A comprehensive task description: Outlines the end user’s goals and the conditions for task completion.

Completion criteria: Determines the criteria for the execution verifier to verify the status of the task.

Required collateral amount: The collateral required to complete the task, the task scheduler uses this information to evaluate the current collateral situation of each service node and exclude nodes with insufficient collateral.

Execution verifier:

Execution verifiers play a key role in the network and are responsible for verifying the execution of tasks. If the task execution fails, the verifier has the right to vote to punish the service node to ensure that users are compensated.

Through the Proof of Stake (POS) network mechanism, the verifier stakes tokens to maintain the security and integrity of the network. Active and diligent validators are rewarded, incentivizing them to continue participating and maintaining the network.

Task Framework:

To facilitate pricing and verification of intent tasks, dappOS organizes tasks into different frameworks. Each framework can be custom designed to meet specific needs, including pricing, verification, and compensation mechanisms.

Summary:

dappOS enables users to create transactions and delegate them to a network of professional third-party participants while maintaining full control over the entire process. In simple terms, if a transaction specifies "how" to perform an action, then an intent defines the expected result of that action. Through intents, users can easily express their desired results. This is in stark contrast to current mandatory transactions, which require users to explicitly specify each parameter.

Since the release of the dappOS V2 beta, dappOS has been integrated with more than 15 decentralized applications (dApps), including GMX, Stader, KyberSwap, Equilibia, BENQI, and SyncSwap.

GMX

dappOS’s unified account feature enables traders and liquidity providers to seamlessly access Avalanche and Arbitrum-based GMX from other chains, without the need to manually bridge assets. Thanks to the solution provided by dappOS V2, users can trade and purchase GLP or GM (GMX’s liquidity provision token) through an intent-centric user experience. The optimized workflow improves execution time by 90% and reduces execution costs by up to 20%. Users can deploy all their asset balances, no matter how they are allocated, and confirm complex, interdependent transactions across different chains with a single signature, paying fees in any token.

Stader

dappOS’s unified account feature allows users to directly manage their total asset balance. Whether sequentially or in parallel, users can confirm complex, interdependent transactions across different chains with a single signature. With the support of dappOS, Stader users can stake ETH and receive ETHx, deposit ETHx and ETH into the Curve pool to obtain LP tokens, and continue to stake in Convex Finance to earn CRV and CVX income, completing 15 complex steps with just one click. dappOS supports the use of ETHx to pay gas fees, facilitating seamless use in multi-chain applications. The income generated by staking and farming is collected by dappOS, and users can claim their rewards with one click without having to go to Curve and Convex separately.

KyberSwap

dappOS's unified account feature enables users to trade directly on KyberSwap without manually bridging assets, thereby enhancing the composability of assets. For example, Ethereum users can directly borrow assets from BENQI, an Avalanche-based lending protocol, and use them seamlessly on KyberSwap. It also supports paying gas fees with any token and executing task dependencies with a single signature.

BENQI

BENQI has partnered with dappOS to enhance the DeFi user experience by integrating the Avalanche-based BENQI DeFi protocol with dappOS's user-friendly interface. BENQI unlocks liquidity for assets such as BTC, ETH, AVAX, and stablecoins, while dappOS simplifies typically complex Web3 operations such as wallet setup and gas fee management. By providing a single cross-chain transaction interface and supporting the use of any token to pay for gas fees, dappOS significantly reduces the steps required, making DeFi more accessible and intuitive.

Equilibria

dappOS’s unified account feature allows users to seamlessly interact with the Equilibria high-yield pool deployed on Arbitrum without manually bridging assets. Powered by dappOS V2, users can easily deposit aUSDC and rETH pools from any chain, increasing yields up to 28% annualized yield (APR) through an intent-centric user experience. Users can deposit ETH directly into the rETH pool without minting or purchasing rETH on a decentralized exchange. PENDLE rewards can be claimed with a single click and converted to mainstream tokens such as USDT, USDC, ETH, and DAI. dappOS users can deploy all their asset balances between different chains, confirm complex, interdependent cross-chain transactions with a single signature, and pay fees with any token.

Intent Assets: Revolutionizing Crypto Asset Utilization

dappOS Launches Intent Assets

dappOS launches a new type of asset - intent assets, which are always available on the chain at any time while providing high returns.

Intent assets leverage the unique ability of the dappOS execution network to handle complex settlements in a variety of scenarios in a cost-effective manner, minimizing the complexity and operational burden on users. When users use intent assets, they can provide regular or intent assets as input to the network and outsource settlement tasks to service providers, expecting to achieve specific results, such as earning returns, completing interactions with dApps, and withdrawing assets to centralized exchanges (CEX). The complex process of how these assets are transformed and managed to achieve the expected results is handled by service providers within the network, ensuring that users are protected from these complexities.

The first batch of intent assets include intent BTC, intent ETH, and intent USD. For example, holding intent USD allows users to earn yield based on USDT while maintaining full flexibility. Users can withdraw it from exchanges as USDT in real time, or use it immediately as USDC to replenish margin on GMX on Arbitrum, and the only additional loss incurred by using these assets is gas fees.

Ecosystem Synergy: The Ripple Effect of Intent-Driven Architecture

dappOS's collaboration with the five protocols mentioned above demonstrates the expected benefits that the intent-driven system brings to dApps:

1. Unified Account Management: dappOS's unified account feature allows users to directly manage their total asset balances, which can be used in any dApp on different chains. This centralized management approach significantly simplifies asset management and improves liquidity and utilization efficiency.

2. Seamless cross-chain operation: Whether working with GMX, Stader, KyberSwap, BENQI or Equilibria, dappOS's seamless cross-chain function enables users to operate directly on different chains without manually bridging assets. This seamless experience reduces the number of operation steps, saving time and costs.

3. Simplify complex operations: dappOS allows users to confirm complex, interdependent cross-chain transactions with a single signature, whether these transactions are carried out sequentially or in parallel. This feature significantly improves transaction security and efficiency and reduces the operational burden on users.

4. Flexible fee payment: Users can use any token to pay gas fees without holding specific tokens on a specific chain. This flexibility improves the convenience of operation and gives users greater freedom when conducting cross-chain transactions.

5. Reward Management and Conversion: dappOS enables users to claim rewards for staking and liquidity mining with one click and convert them into mainstream tokens such as USDT, USDC, ETH, and DAI. This feature simplifies the reward management process and improves the convenience and efficiency of operations.

The intention-driven system is quietly triggering a revolution. This new concept is not only a tool to simplify user operations, but also a catalyst for reshaping the interaction and value flow of the entire Web3 ecosystem. We believe that the ripple effect of the intention-driven system representing dappOS will be manifested in several key dimensions:

· A new frontier of financial innovation: Intent-driven systems and intentional assets are opening up new frontiers for financial innovation. Imagine a derivatives market based on user intent: traders can speculate or hedge on intentions such as "users will transfer more than $1 million across chains in the next 30 days." This not only provides investors with new risk management tools, but also may give birth to a whole new prediction market ecosystem.

· A new engine for the data economy: Intent data is becoming one of the most valuable assets in the Web3 world. By deeply analyzing user intent data, we can gain insight into market sentiment, predict capital flows, and even identify emerging DeFi trends. These insights are of great strategic value to DeFi protocols, decentralized exchanges (DEX), and centralized exchanges (CEX).

· Super glue for cross-chain ecosystems: Intent-driven architectures and intent assets will become the key glue connecting different blockchains. Users can seamlessly perform complex cross-chain operations through standardized intent protocols without worrying about the underlying technical details. This improves capital efficiency and paves the way for true cross-chain DeFi applications. We expect that the volume of cross-chain transactions processed through intent protocols will become mainstream.

Conclusion

"Intent" is still an early concept full of potential, and building an intent layer in a fully intent-driven world faces major challenges, not only in terms of system complexity. As the underlying blockchain technology develops and projects mature, the focus will shift from infrastructure to applications and user-friendliness, and intent-driven projects will become the focus of the development of the entire industry.

The key lies in the network effect of the intent infrastructure: as the number of DeFi protocols connected to the intent network increases, the improvement in user experience will grow exponentially. Our model predicts that when the number of connected protocols reaches critical mass (estimated to be 50-100 mainstream DeFi protocols), the user growth rate will experience a significant inflection point. Based on the current growth trend, we expect this inflection point to occur in the third quarter of 2025. More importantly, intent assets create a whole new value layer: the intent data layer. This layer connects different blockchains and deeply integrates on-chain and off-chain data, which will provide good investment opportunities for market makers, traders, and DeFi protocols.

From a technical perspective, AI-based intent parsing and execution will be the next breakthrough. By the next bull market, we expect simple cross-chain operations to be mainly handled automatically by AI systems, greatly reducing the difficulty of operation and transaction costs for users. This will drive the activity of existing crypto users and attract a large number of Web2 users to the Web3 world.

Overall, intents represent the next evolutionary stage of Web3. They simplify the user experience and, more importantly, create an entirely new value capture model. For investors, early participation in the intent-driven ecosystem will be key to capturing this massive opportunity. We strongly recommend keeping a close eye on developments in this space, especially projects that are leading the way in cross-chain operations, AI-based execution, and intent data analysis.

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