By Alex Liu, Foresight News
The Dilemma of the Intent Paradigm and the Open Intents Framework
As Ethereum moves towards a multi-chain future, users shuttle between Layer2 networks such as Arbitrum, Base, and Mode to interact with DeFi, social, AI, and other use cases, but they are also plagued by the complexity and inefficiency of cross-chain operations. This fragmented experience has given rise to the rise of the "Intents" paradigm - users only need to declare their goals (such as "exchange 100 USDC on the Base chain for 100 USDT on the Arbitrum chain"), and professional solvers will automatically complete complex processes such as path planning and transaction settlement. However, the high technical threshold for building an intent system, difficult liquidity management, and weak ecological collaboration have always restricted the scale of this paradigm.
The birth of the Open Intents Framework is the collective response of the Ethereum community to this challenge. This open source framework jointly initiated by the Ethereum Foundation, Hyperlane and Bootnode, with "modularity" and "community co-construction" as its core, attempts to transform the intent infrastructure from a closed "island" to an open "Lego building block".
Deconstructing the Intention Stack: From Reinventing the Wheel to Plug and Play
Traditional intent protocols require building a full stack of technologies, including smart contracts, solvers, and settlement layers, from scratch, and developers often fall into the quagmire of repeated development. The Open Intents Framework breaks the deadlock through three modular tools:
ERC-7683 Standard Reference Implementation
As a universal language for cross-chain intents, ERC-7683 defines a standardized interface for intent creation, execution, and settlement, and has been supported by community leaders such as Vitalik Buterin. The framework not only provides open source reference code for ERC-7683, but also complements Across Protocol's mainnet contract, ensuring that developers can innovate flexibly under unified standards.
Programmable solver
The built-in TypeScript solver in the framework provides cross-protocol common indexing, transaction submission, and liquidity rebalancing functions, based on which developers can quickly customize their own solving logic. For example, Eco Protocol is adapting it as the official solver of Eco Routes, while Everclear is injecting automated rebalancing capabilities into it to reduce liquidity management costs.
Smart Contracts
From basic limit order exchanges to settlement mechanisms that support Hyperlane ISM, the framework's pre-built smart contract library allows developers to combine them as needed. In the future, Arbitrum broadcast standards, RRC-7755 storage proofs and other solutions can be connected as modules to achieve diversified evolution of the intent settlement layer.
Intent Framework Front-end UI Example
Community resonance: co-evolution from tools to ecosystem
The ambition of the Open Intents Framework is not limited to technical tools. It attempts to activate a "collective experiment in the intent ecosystem":
Open collaboration of solver networks
Platforms such as Khalani plan to connect decentralized solvers into a shared network, while Uniswap's The Compact protocol explores the combination of intent and resource locking. These innovations can be quickly integrated through the framework to form a solving capability covering the entire chain.
Diversity Experiments in the Settlement Layer
Developers can freely choose Hashi's oracle aggregator, Espresso's confirmation layer, or Optimism's native interoperability solution as the settlement module to seek the optimal solution between security and efficiency.
Seamless user experience
Applications such as Superbridge have tried to embed framework modules into the front-end interface. In the future, wallets and DApps will only need to call standardized interfaces to provide users with a smooth "one-click cross-chain" experience.
Co-builder Declaration: Stitching a multi-chain world with open protocols
When Arbitrum launched the universal intent engine, the Base experimental RRC-7755 standard, and the Open Intents Framework open source modular tool, the Ethereum community is responding to the biggest proposition of the multi-chain era with "open collaboration": how to make users unaware of the existence of the chain?
The answer to this question may be hidden in the underlying design of the framework - it does not attempt to define a single technical path, but reduces the cost of collaboration through standardized interfaces, allowing developers to focus on differentiated innovation. As its manifesto says: "If we build together, we win together."
Currently, the code base of the Open Intents Framework is open on GitHub, and the audit work will be completed in the first quarter of 2025. Whether exploring new order logic (such as cross-chain Dutch auctions), trying liquidity management solutions, or adding intent functions to existing protocols, developers can join this open source experiment and weave a seamless future for Ethereum with more than 30 ecosystem teams.
There is no lone hero on the road to the "single-chain experience", but the power of open protocols will eventually lead the multi-chain world to the same destination.
