Open Intents: Can ERC-7683 Become the "Walmart" of Ethereum Inter-chain Intent Coordination?
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
Open Intents: Can ERC-7683 Become the "Walmart" of Ethereum Inter-chain Intent Coordination?
ERC-7683 aims to provide a unified, standardized framework for Ethereum and other blockchains to express and execute cross-chain operations, especially between multiple L2 solutions and sidechains.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: YBB Capital Researcher Ac-Core
1. How to Solve Ethereum Fragmentation
Image source: @ethereumfndn
With the rise of various L2s and DeFi applications, liquidity fragmentation on Ethereum has become increasingly evident. This mainly manifests as difficulties in unifying asset liquidity across the ecosystem, which is instead fragmented across L1 and multiple L2s. Competition among different L2s for TVL leads to assets and trades being scattered across numerous decentralized platforms and protocols that lack effective connectivity and interoperability. Liquidity on each chain can only operate within its own isolated "bubble," exacerbating the overall fragmentation cost of the Ethereum network.
In 2024 alone, over 100 new Ethereum chains launched—similar to entering a mall where every product requires payment in a different national currency. On February 20 this year, the Ethereum Foundation announced the Open Intents Framework, akin to "Qin Shi Huang standardizing weights and measures," enabling Ethereum to deliver a seamless, single-chain-like trading experience. Within days, it gained support from over 50 protocols.
According to openintents.xyz, the Open Intents Framework consists of three core components (see extended link 1):
1. Open-Source Solvers: The framework provides an open-source solver written in TypeScript capable of monitoring on-chain events and processing intents. Unlike solvers relying on specific infrastructure, this shared reference solver is protocol-independent and supports indexing, transaction submission, rebalancing, and more, allowing developers to customize and adjust according to their needs;
2. Composable Smart Contracts: The framework offers a set of pre-built smart contracts based on the ERC-7683 standard, which defines the logic for interpreting, executing, and settling intents. It natively supports limit order trading and Hyperlane ISM settlement;
3. UI Templates: The framework also includes a pre-built, customizable user interface template designed to make intent-based products more accessible to end users.
2. The Core of Open Intents Framework: ERC-7683
Image source: @KanishkKhurana_
ERC-7683 is a universal standard for cross-chain intents on Ethereum, co-led by Across (@AcrossProtocol) and Uniswap Labs (@Uniswap). It enables intent-based operations through standardized cross-chain interactions, aiming to provide a unified, standardized framework for expressing and executing cross-chain operations—especially between multiple L2 solutions and sidechains.
Core Components of ERC-7683:
1. Cross-Chain Order Structure: Defines the format of cross-chain orders to ensure consistency across different blockchains and platforms. It standardizes how cross-chain transactions are structured, enabling interoperability between operations on different chains;
2. ISettlementContract Interface: Standardizes the settlement process. ERC-7683 uses this interface to define how transaction settlements are handled across chains, allowing flexible execution of settlements across platforms and supporting customized transaction flows;
3. Fulfil: ERC-7683 introduces the "Fulfil" mechanism, allowing participants to compete within a shared network to complete cross-chain intents. Participants reduce costs and improve efficiency by providing services (e.g., order execution) in these networks, enabling more efficient cross-chain transactions and optimizing user experience;
4. Fill Deadline: A Unix timestamp marking the expiration time of a cross-chain intent. If the intent is not fulfilled within the specified timeframe, it becomes invalid, preventing indefinite waiting for transactions;
5. Order Data Type (orderDataType): Uses EIP-712 type hashing to specify the structure and format of intent data. This type hash allows developers and platforms to clearly understand how data should be formatted for transmission and interpretation across chains;
6. Order Data (orderData): Contains core parameters of the cross-chain transaction (such as token, amount, chain, recipient), defining the desired outcome. It ensures all parties involved can accurately interpret and execute the cross-chain operation.
One of ERC-7683's greatest advantages is enabling seamless cross-chain interaction. By standardizing how cross-chain intents are expressed, users can perform operations across different blockchains—like token swaps or NFT transfers—without complex configurations. This simplifies workflows via a standardized framework, significantly lowering the technical barrier for cross-chain operations and making them more accessible.
Secondly, ERC-7683 enhances governance capabilities. It streamlines governance processes across different blockchains, especially for decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), enabling easier management of proposals and decisions across multiple chains. The uniformity of ERC-7683 makes cross-chain governance more efficient, improving flexibility and transparency.
3. Where Do Intent and DeFAI Reach Their Limits of Abstraction?
Image source: Self-made
Whether Intent or DeFAI, both are essentially financial derivatives of DeFi. However, DeFi truly needs to solve only two issues: scalability and liquidity. Using UNI and ERC-7683 to consolidate liquidity appears more practical for Intent, while DeFAI becomes more intriguing by riding the AI narrative wave and leveraging Hey Anon (@HeyAnonai)'s automated AI trading. While both Intent and DeFAI aim to enhance DeFi user experience, optimize trade execution, and strengthen protocol stability and security, they differ in approach:
Intent's core goal is to simplify user interaction through an "intent-driven trading" mechanism. Users define their trading intent and strategy, and the system automatically executes without requiring manual intervention at each step. This improves DeFi usability, optimizes strategy execution, and increases trading efficiency. Additionally, Intent may address DeFi’s liquidity bottlenecks through cross-chain technology. By enhancing cross-chain liquidity, Intent helps break down barriers between chains, optimize liquidity pools, and improve market depth and trading efficiency on decentralized exchanges.
DeFAI, as an AI-powered decentralized finance protocol, primarily addresses compliance and risk control in DeFi. DeFAI leverages AI to analyze and predict market trends, helping protocols identify potential risks, thereby reducing operational risks while maintaining protocol stability. AI can process vast amounts of market data, offering users more precise decision-making support and optimizing market operations and risk management.
To solve liquidity fragmentation, we’ve progressed from account abstraction to chain abstraction, then to Intent and DeFAI. Ultimately, abstraction knows no bounds—driven by technological evolution and market demand, more layers of abstraction continue to emerge. We need abstraction, but must apply it judiciously. Liquidity fragmentation is fundamentally an “ecosystem integration problem.” It depends not merely on adding more abstraction layers, but more importantly on optimizing existing protocols.
4. Why Only Uniswap Can Truly Drive the Development of ERC-7683
Image source: @Uniswap
While "intent" is a grand narrative concept, in my personal view, the core support for ERC-7683 can only be driven by Uniswap. The reason lies in the fact that both Intent and DeFAI fundamentally exist to better serve DeFi, and the key element sustaining healthy DeFi development is market liquidity—a relationship dependent on two conditions: “efficient liquidity supply” and “deeply integrated liquidity.”
1. Uniswap V4’s Liquidity Advantage
Uniswap V4 introduces more flexible and efficient liquidity pool management, particularly with concentrated liquidity provision across varying price ranges. This mechanism improves capital efficiency, making cross-chain transactions smoother. In V3, each new pool required deploying a separate smart contract, resulting in high gas fees. V4 replaces this with a single PoolManager contract, centralizing all pools and reducing deployment costs by 99%, while also lowering swap costs. Furthermore, Hooks allow developers to create customized AMM pools, enabling ERC-7683 protocols to adapt to diverse market demands and better match different trading pairs and asset liquidity.
2. The Potential of Uniswap X
Uni X is expected to further enhance cross-chain interoperability, possibly introducing new cross-chain bridging mechanisms or deeply integrating with ERC-7683 to offer more efficient channels for cross-chain asset exchange. If Uni X can provide cross-chain liquidity solutions, it will become a critical platform for executing ERC-7683 cross-chain intents. Thus, by leveraging Uni X’s liquidity pools and technical optimizations, ERC-7683 can achieve seamless cross-chain transactions at scale.
3. Dependence on Cross-Chain Protocol Implementation
Since ERC-7683 relies on standardized cross-chain transaction structures and settlement mechanisms, and given Uniswap’s pivotal role in decentralized exchanges, the protocol will likely depend heavily on Uniswap’s liquidity pools, automated market making, and cross-chain trading capabilities—especially with support from Uniswap X and Unichain. Uniswap not only enables efficient execution of ERC-7683 but, most crucially, ensures stability and security for its cross-chain and multi-asset transactions.
5. What Is the Practical Significance of Intent?
When we move beyond the abstract definition of "intent," it can be understood practically as a clear trading objective or driving force. The concept traces back to Paradigm’s June 1, 2023 article, “Intent-Based Architectures and Their Risks,” which explained the idea of intent. However, it remained largely conceptual, with unresolved issues around fragmented liquidity and solver pathfinding—until the introduction of ERC-7683, which now offers a promising solution to the liquidity fragmentation challenge.
The ultimate goal is to inject new vitality into Uniswap and spark a new wave of DeFi enthusiasm. Therefore, Intent and ERC-7683 are not merely about continuing L2 scaling; rather, they aim to enable more efficient trading, richer functionality, and stronger cross-chain interoperability through Uniswap—even introducing new incentive mechanisms or trading models to attract more users and liquidity.
If Uniswap V4 or Uniswap X introduces novel smart contract logic or trading models at the protocol level, ERC-7683 can build upon the existing AMM model to further enhance cross-chain liquidity, reduce transaction costs, and expand available trading pairs and liquidity pools. This would transform Uniswap from just another fragmented AMM into something greater—these improvements themselves becoming a vital part of the "intent" vision.
Extended Links:
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
@YBBCapital
