Intent-Based Architectures

The Old Way: You Pick the Path

Traditional DeFi swaps work like this: your wallet decides which DEX to use, which path through which pools, what the slippage tolerance should be, and submits a transaction with all of that hardcoded. If a better path emerges before your transaction lands, you don't benefit. If MEV bots see your transaction in the mempool, they can sandwich it. The user (or their wallet's router) is making every decision before submitting, then committing to it.

The New Way: You Sign What You Want

Intent-based architectures invert this. You sign a message saying 'I want at least 1.95 ETH for my 5,000 USDC, by [deadline].' The intent doesn't specify the path. Off-chain solvers compete to fulfill it — finding the best route through DEXes, bridges, AMMs, private quoter pools, even matching against opposite intents — and submit the winning execution on-chain. You get a price at least as good as your intent demanded, and often much better.

Where You Already Use It

CoW Swap was first to popularise this in production (since 2021). UniswapX (2023) brought it to Uniswap. 1inch Fusion (2022) brought it to 1inch. Across uses intent-based bridging. If you've used any of these, you've signed an intent. The user experience often looks identical to a regular swap — same wallet flow, same confirmation — but the on-chain settlement is different.

• Old: sign a transaction with a specific route, slippage, deadline
• New: sign an intent saying 'fulfill these conditions by this time'
• Solvers compete off-chain to find the best execution
• Used by: CoW Swap, UniswapX, 1inch Fusion, Across, many more