Friends who often follow my articles on intent should have noticed it. Today I will expand on some of my past views. I hope this article can help you understand the concept of [intent] from theory to practice, as well as a tutorial on how to use the current popular intent application DappOS.

1. About intention 🔻

In our traditional on-chain application access, there are relatively complex interaction steps. For example, if I want to use an interest-bearing product on the chain, I have to go through:

(1) Prepare enough GAS and then transfer assets to the chain

(2) Find the corresponding application on the wallet software

(3) Authorization + asset injection

(4) Wait for the redemption period to end before withdrawing assets

The premise of these steps is a single-chain scenario. If you need to complete cross-chain operation access, you also need to consider finding a cross-chain bridge application and preparing GAS for multiple chains.

Intention itself is most commonly used in the DEX field. The simplest example is that during the meme season, we used a certain TG BOT to send a message to the other party: I need to buy xx tokens on xx chain. The other party automatically executed this intention and fed back the final result to us.

Applying it to other fields, let’s take an easier-to-understand example. For example, when I booked a flight last month, I sent out my demand intention through WeChat, and then WeChat’s search gave me the following feedback:

This is the application scenario of intent. To sum it up in one sentence, it simplifies some processes that our users need to explore by automating the execution.

2. Build with intent 🔻

Applying intent-based design has two main benefits:

(1) User experience: smooth and efficient

Users only need to express their intentions, and the protocol will then solve all other problems behind the user's intentions. Because of the application of instant liquidity, the transaction process does not need to wait for several minutes to complete a transaction like normal on-chain interactions;

Overall, intents further lower the barrier to understanding for users (whether incremental or existing), creating the “one-click” feeling that most Web2 applications can give to users.

(2) Professional execution - the protocol builders are usually professional market makers

Demand vertical solvers are better able to facilitate trades for best execution on-chain. Other features such as trade batching and order matching make intent execution more capital efficient.

- For users: avoid common sense errors, waste of resources and difficult to understand on-chain experience
-For applications: complex transaction paths no longer rely on simple, GAS-inefficient contracts

In this field, some well-known projects include DappOS, COW Protocol and Cashmere, all of which focus on transactions.

The way these protocols are intended to be constructed relies primarily on three aspects:

(1) Intent expression - the user specifies the desired outcome on the application. For example, on the bridge, a user might say they want to exchange 1 ETH on Arbitrum for 1 ETH on Optimism.

(2) Intent Execution — Solvers compete in an auction to determine the most efficient way to execute the user’s intent. The winner (e.g., a relayer in Across) fulfills the request (sending 1 ETH to the Optimism user).

(3) Intent Settlement - Solvers are paid for their services (e.g., receiving 1 ETH from a user + a small fee on Arbitrum). The Intent Protocol proves that the intent has been satisfied. However, this is only one side of the solution.

On a bigger picture note, intention settlement also helps solvers rebalance capital between chains and assets.

This involves a concept - [solver]. In the last part, I will focus on describing it in detail for friends who are more interested in the underlying logic.

However, the execution process is completed through competition among various solving nodes, which is the opposite of the supply and demand of our ordinary transaction chain requests:

(1) Blockchain nodes will prioritize transaction batches with higher transaction fee quotes

(2) Through competition, solver nodes may reduce your transaction fee expenditure.

This is why I said at the beginning: The narrative of intention reconstructs the interaction logic between users, applications and even the underlying chain.

3. Detailed explanation of DappOS🔻

The above picture shows the protocols with intention concepts that I have counted before, and this article mainly introduces the only protocol with a green LOGO - DappOS.

It is currently one of the most active and influential intention protocols in the market. In its Series A financing in March this year, it raised US$15.3 million, mainly from Polychain, at a valuation of US$300 million. In the previous two rounds of seed rounds, it received support from Binance Labs and Sequoia.

As an intent execution network, DappOS packages specific intents into products and puts them on the front end for users to choose. The solver provides the required results to the visiting users through staking. In particular, the innovative introduction of the concept of [intention assets] simplifies the details that users need to execute and provides a smoother way to earn assets.

The most important thing is that this interest is automatically executed and is current. For example, in daily transactions, we always have two different account states: holding coins and holding U

(1) Holding coins: For example, DappOS allows you to obtain interest income from some on-chain income agreements or even staking nodes while holding ETH.

(2) Holding U: Similarly, you can earn interest while holding U, and the U can still be used normally.

The reason why these two examples are given is that the logic of the products here is actually similar to the [current financial management] products provided by the exchanges, but DappOS currently seems to offer a relatively high interest rate and can also serve as a cross-chain transit station like exchanges.

- Usage Tutorial🔻

I made a simple tutorial and I happened to have some change left in my Web3 wallet:

(1) Search for [DappOS] in the [Discover] function column of the wallet or directly access it from the wallet discovery page or home page (①)

(2) After linking your wallet (②), click on the earning interface (③), which can be accessed through the two places indicated by the arrows in the above picture. You can select the corresponding asset according to the interest rate (④)

(3) After the interaction is completed, ordinary assets can be encapsulated as [intent assets]

(4) You can then extract this [intent asset] to any other supported chain

(5) You can also directly deposit coins into the payment address in the app: Video tutorial jump 🗝️

For example, if I deposit assets through BNB Chain, and after they become intended assets, I need to use USDT on the ARB chain, then I can choose to directly transfer this intended asset USDT to the ARB chain, without the need to redeem-wait and other operations like other protocols, and withdraw with one click.

Most importantly, I don’t need to prepare GAS separately. It can be deducted directly from the transaction request amount. I also compared it with the cost of using a normal cross-chain bridge from BNB Chain to Arbitrum, which is about 0.5U. Using DappOS as a transfer is relatively cheap~(⑤vs⑥)

4. Some potential challenges with intent 🔻

Every once in a while, a new idea that dares to change the status quo of the industry will appear in the market. The intention is not a recent one, but it is a concept that has been gradually realized after a period of time. The bottom layer of the intention is a node called a solver, which is also the facility that handles the actual execution of users. There are thirty or forty such facilities in DappOS.

In an ideal world, solving a practical intent is a competitive environment where providers of these services strive to fulfill the intent at the cheapest price. However, there are certain barriers to entry to becoming a solver:

(1) Staking requirements - For example, becoming a solver for DappOS requires certain staking requirements, and the same is true for other protocols

These staking requirements exist to discourage malicious behavior, which is a good thing. But the problem is that staking can become the biggest barrier to participation, especially for smaller players who may not have deep pockets.

dappOS proposes a scheme called Optimistic Minimum Staking (OMS), which is a design that is very suitable for intention protocols. OMS requires that each task is associated with a predefined value and potential compensation in case of failure, allowing tasks to be executed before the results are verified. If the task fails, the network punishes the responsible service provider through a consensus process to ensure that either the task submitted by the user is successfully executed or the user receives a pre-defined compensation.

For DappOS service nodes, they only need to pledge a minimum deposit slightly higher than the total value of unfinished intended tasks to participate in the competition. This design enhances the efficiency and security of the network in handling diverse use cases.

(2) Centralization problem - Many intent-based protocols require permission from the subject, which means that the system has a subject that can decide who can participate. These are usually in the form of a whitelist, but according to the DappOS documentation, they themselves do not participate in the competition for service nodes.

In addition to considering interests, the influence of the subject also prioritizes the quality of execution, ensuring that only reliable solvers can participate. This approach helps the protocol provide a smooth and trustworthy user experience and guarantees the quality of execution for users. However, while the centralized permission design has its benefits, it also restricts more external solvers from participating in the bidding.

(3) The cost of complexity - constant updates are required to achieve the latest cross-chain intentions

As the number of chains continues to grow, it becomes difficult for solvers to respond to chains that become popular overnight. Intent-based protocols are a relatively new solution in the market and need to continuously evolve as new narratives emerge, which requires frequent updates on the solver side, adding another layer of complexity.

(4) High fixed costs - writing complex code, managing custom integrations for each intent-based protocol, maintaining cross-chain asset inventories, handling RPC costs, and maintaining specialized hardware to gain performance advantages

(5) Incentives - From a rational perspective, solvers do not participate in a system for charity. They need to see a return on investment to prove that their participation is reasonable. In other words, some protocols need a sufficient user market to attract solvers to join. However, there is actually a logical paradox here. However, it seems that most protocols have solved this problem with the support of airdrop expectations.

It’s still early days for the concept of intent, and only time will tell if intent-based design will take off. But one thing is clear: with intent, solutions will continue to move vertically toward the user.

Thank you for reading. I hope this article can help you understand the concept of intention.