Original - Odaily

Author - 0x Sekiro

As the cornerstone of the blockchain world, DeFi has always given us the impression of being serious and professional. Only Smart Money and experienced on-chain players can obtain fruits in the cold but prosperous code forest through complex interactive processes and formula calculations. However, the emergence of AI has made interaction artistic and will profoundly change the paradigm of DeFi and even Web3.

As Onekey founder Wang Yishi said, the narrative of Web3 has shifted from cryptocurrency to AI. It is not only AIGC that promotes the free creation atmosphere of Web3. More importantly, the intent-centric trend brought by AI is in turn driving changes in DeFi.

Whether it is Bots that integrate DeFi products into Telegram through API interfaces, or platforms like Dune and Nansen that access AI services on their respective platforms, or Anoma, an ecosystem with intent recognition as its core. We can broadly regard it as an intention to promote the Web3 ecosystem.

The emphasis on intent has given DeFi new front-end requirements and provided a new battlefield.Under the premise that Web3 traffic has peaked, whoever can capture user intentions more efficiently means that there is more possibility of breaking through the circle and gaining incremental gains.

Intent is not a new concept

In the context of Web3, the early multi-DEX aggregation of 1inch compared to Uniswap falls into the category of intention interpretation. For example, in the early days of DeFi, if there was no front-end, then if users wanted to buy an ETH on DEX with maximum effectiveness, they would need to manually find the exchange prices of different exchanges and split them according to the depth of different pools. Divide your own transactions.

But in fact, on 1inch, we don’t actually need to care about Uniswap’s transaction path. The intervention of 1inch - a DEX aggregator will split transactions to multiple exchanges to obtain the best results.

This is because 1inch understands the most basic intentions of mass users and optimizes them based on DEX functions.

Broadly speaking, the smart voice assistants we use in our daily lives, such as Siri or other Bixby, are the most intuitive embodiment of Intent in the traditional world. Although they are not fully intelligent, they can clarify the schedule based on a piece of voice input. Behavior has become an example of Intent.

Hey, Siri, remind me to close the BTC contract at 10 a.m. tomorrow. In this behavior, Siri acts as an intent interpreter. By interpreting the users words, it pulls the relevant mobile applications and replaces the user. Enter the command. Except it cant be traded.

Translating this paradigm into the context of Web3, we will find that many current Web3 products are still not as smart as Siri, and when it comes to the complex logic of on-chain transactions, Siri and the traditional world have not provided us with it. More path references.

The prerequisite for Siri to be able to interpret the users intent efficiently is the strong integration of the IOS port, terabytes of data and continuous training with billions of applications, which can give Siri a lot of room to play. This condition was not available in the Web3 industry before.

Intentions are complex, and there are still misjudgments in the interaction of intentions between people. The misjudgments between machines and people may be even deeper.butThe popularity of AI and large language models has made it possible to accurately identify intentions, which is why intention recognition has recently been valued in Web3.

three levels of intention

Let AI understand your intentions, which will bring changes to your Web3 trading behavior.

In an article about AI Intent-Based Architectures and Their Risks by Paradigm, there are different explanations of transaction methods, which we can expand into three levels. We can also have an intuitive understanding through the classification of DeFi projects in the current industry.

The first level, self-execution of trading strategies:

That is, the user completes the entire transaction process manually. If you want to quickly buy some LINK with USDC in Metamask, you currently have two options: the first method is to manually open the wallet, select the currency, add Gas, and click Swap.

This level is basically represented by most products before AI became widely popularized.

The second level, the intention assistance of the trading strategy:

This is the current mainstream idea in the industry, based on limited intention assistance, allowing users to obtain the required information or transaction results more easily.

Divided into three major categories:One type is a trading robot that is connected to different DEX interfaces and integrated into Telegram.Representatives of this category are currently mainly UniBot, Banana Gun and Maestro. They generally provide users with basic functions such as token sniping, copy trading, and limit order trading. Its essence is based on the logic of conventional DEX to provide users with a more convenient DeFi interactive experience.

UniBot operation interface

The second category is based on the original functions of the project, expanding AI, adding or further optimizing intent interpretation products.Representatives of this category include:

Uniswap X: Uniswap X is a permissionless protocol using a Dutch auction approach. By focusing on intent and focusing on solving the problem of liquidity dispersion, helping users provide the best asset prices, and by wrapping gas fees in transaction prices and allowing fillers (the actual traders and liquidity providers of user transactions) Provides gas-free transactions to users in a borne manner.

How Uniswap X works

Essential: Essential is an intent-based infrastructure that aims to build a unified processor network through a modular intent layer to capture user intent, thereby reducing user transaction costs.

Cowswap: CowSwap is a DEX developed by the Cow Protocol team. It uses a batch auction price discovery mechanism, that is, processors compete with each other to provide users with the best trading solutions to reduce users transaction costs.

Soul wallet: It is a smart and friendly wallet that uses account abstraction technology to improve the flexibility of gas fee payment and sponsorship. Its most commendable feature is the social recovery function, that is, no mnemonic words are required, and wallet recovery is signed by trusted members related to the account. As long as the agreement is approved by the majority, the identity of the visitor can be determined. In addition to this, Soul Wallet also offers two-factor authentication, whereby users can use another wallet to approve transactions.

Similar to Soul Wallet, there is Argent Wallet, and Unipass, which implements wallet recovery based on email.

Anoma: Anoma is a multi-purpose intent solution that also enables users to seek lower transaction costs by allowing processors to compete with each other.

The capture of intentions by the above two types of products is somewhat similar to the struggle between WeChat and Alipay in the payment field.Although Alipay has sufficient first-mover advantage, it was unparalleled in the payment field in its early days.

But WeChat, which entered the market later, is based on social platforms and has an astonishing 1.34 billion monthly active users. Such a huge number of users provides rich soil for WeChat payment. So much so that WeChat Pay’s penetration rate of 87.9% will overtake Alipay’s 85.3% in 2022.

Changes in market share of WeChat Pay and Alipay. The picture comes from http://www.199it.com/archives/1550306.html

In Web3, Bots headed by UniBot, relying on Telegrams huge data of 700 million monthly active users, are challenging the classic DEXs through the construction of Bots with different functions.

The classic DEX represented by Uniswap is also rebuilding the moat of intention in its own way.

The two are different. Bots place more emphasis on convenience. By aggregating different DEXs and integrating them into Telegram, the complexity of DeFi transactions is simplified to attract more users. However, in terms of transaction costs, due to Bot transaction procedures With the existence of fees (UniBot 1%, Banana Gun 0.5%), users will not feel a significant cost reduction. Uniswap X will take the lead in considering users’ transaction costs.

In an ACCapital article “Intent: The starting point of Web3 interactive intelligence》, Anoma is regarded as a top-down iteration, and Bot is regarded as a bottom-up revolution. This view also illustrates the current phenomenon.

But in the end, they all go in the same direction, and even the Banana Gun block vote buying system and the processor competition scheme have similarities.

That is, with the help of AI, the gap in intention between products and users will be narrowed or even eliminated.This brings us to the third level described in the Paradigm article:

The third level: AI automatic execution of trading strategies:

Users no longer need concrete description instructions, but are given an abstract answer.：I want to buy some LINK quickly, and the system can automatically identify the users needs and provide them. This level is the goal that no project has emerged in the current Web3 industry, but everyone is working hard.

Perhaps with the arrival of the third level, you can complete complex DeFi operations by simply saying a word while eating breakfast.

Currently, some technology providers are exploring new paths for human-computer interaction based on Web3. For example, Hummingbot, 3 Commas, HaasOnline, Gekko, etc. are dedicated to assisting users in transactions. These products are dedicated to helping users automatically execute trading strategies and support multiple DEX platforms currently on the market.

Or Nuo Network and Dharma Protocol, which have intelligent credit rating functions and may solve the problem of cryptocurrency credit lending.

In addition, there are Kaito AI, Messari, Nansen AI, etc. that assist users in decision-making and provide users with investment ideas.

The future of Intent+Web3

Every iteration of user experience on the Internet is actually an improvement in the way the back-end code is encapsulated into the front-end. As mentioned above, 1inchs DEX aggregation function allows users to automatically split your transactions into various liquidity pools with just a simple click, without having to worry about the execution logic behind the product.

Then as the product captures intentions to a higher degree, the corresponding front-end performance will be more intelligent. For example, Cow Protocols Cow Hooks aggregates a variety of complex actions such as transactions, cross-chains, pledges, and deposits. As long as the user is willing, the Approve, Swap, and cross-chain functions of the token can be realized with one click.

In addition, ChatGPTs conversational interaction method has been widely used in many Web3 projects, although currently this conversation does not involve specific transaction behaviors.We can make an outlook. When the intent of the project is captured comprehensively and the front-end is intelligent enough, it will not be difficult to see transaction behaviors based on dialogue or even language patterns in the future.Perhaps in the future, dialog boxes with transaction functions will become a standard feature of every DeFi project.

In this way, serious DeFi will no longer become aloof. Ordinary users, even novice users, who want to participate in DeFi products with complex rules such as Curve and GMX, no longer need to be familiar with the cumbersome interaction process, nor do they need to go to Calculate complex formulas and just state your needs to complete the transaction.

To a certain extent, this has also become an important path to break the circle in the Web3 field.