Author: Velora Growth Committee (VGC)

By now, you’ve probably heard of “intents” or “intents-based” protocols. What does that mean in practice, and how does it affect you, the end user? This article aims to break it down and give you a better understanding of why the migration to intents is so important for DeFi.

DeFi’s Paradigm Shift

Intents-based architecture aims to bridge the user-experience gap in crypto by letting users state what they want while the system handles the complexity behind the scenes. This outcome-driven model shifts the focus to user goals, lowering barriers for everyday users and opening the door to more mainstream adoption. The emerging shift from manual, smart contract-driven transactions to intents-based execution (what we call the “intent migration”) represents a fundamental change in how we interact with DeFi.

Under the old model, using DeFi could get relatively tedious. Imagine you want to trade assets across two chains:

1. Go to a bridge, connect your wallet, and transfer your tokens from Chain A to Chain B.

2. Pay gas fees on Chain A to initiate the transfer.

3. Wait for confirmations, then switch your wallet to Chain B.

4. Make sure you have gas on Chain B, often requiring a separate transfer or faucet step.

5. Use a DEX on Chain B to swap for the token you actually want.

6. Perhaps move those tokens into a lending protocol or yield farm.

Does that work? Yes. But it’s a multi-step, fragmented, and often frustrating process. It’s easy to get wrong and hard to optimize.

Intents-based architecture flips this around. Instead of micromanaging each action, you simply declare your desired outcome and let the system handle the execution details. It’s like saying, “I want to swap my Token A on Ethereum for Token B on Base at the best rate,” and having a program automatically take care of bridging, swapping, and anything else that’s needed. You focus on the what, and the intent engine figures out the how.

Intents Sound Cool, But So What?

Moving to an intents-based approach directly benefits users and developers by addressing many pain points of today’s landscape. Intents enable:

• Seamless Cross-Chain Actions: A user can express a goal that spans multiple networks without manually bridging or paying gas on the destination chain. The intent system abstracts the complexity of navigating multiple chains away, making cross-chain use-cases as simple as a single-chain swap.

• Gasless Execution: One of the most tangible benefits is gas abstraction. With intents-based trading on Velora, users don’t need to pay blockchain gas fees to execute their trades. You authorize the intent, and the rest is handled by offchain agents who compete to execute your request.

• MEV Protection: Intents can help mitigate MEV. In a traditional trade, when you submit a transaction to the blockchain, arbitrage bots can see it and exploit it before confirmation. Velora’s architecture avoids exposing a raw transaction in the public mempool. Instead, your intent is matched and executed by a selected agent through a coordination network (called Portikus) that conducts a private auction for your order. Only the winning agent’s settlement transaction hits the blockchain. The result: you dodge many MEV vulnerabilities and often get a better price for your swap.

• Better Prices via Competition: With intents-based systems, multiple independent solvers or agents can compete to fulfill your request. Velora’s Delta protocol uses an auction mechanism where agents bid to provide you the best outcome. Competition incentivizes them to find the most efficient route. Over time, as more agents join, this leads to more competitive pricing and improved swap rates for users.

• New Composable Actions: With traditional transactions, you were limited to what one contract or one atomic transaction can do. Now, because an intent can encapsulate a sequence of actions, composability goes through the roof. Velora’s introduction of Super Hooks is a great example. Super Hooks allow developers and users to string together multiple operations (swaps, transfers, deposits into other protocols, etc.) into one “hook” that executes all at once. For instance, an intent could swap an asset and then use the output to automatically provide liquidity or repay a loan in one go. This opens the door to one-click strategies that previously would require complex manual steps or simply weren’t feasible in a single user transaction.

Velora is Pioneering the Intents-Based Architecture Landscape

Gone are the days when simple crypto transactions forced users to juggle wallet extensions, network settings, gas fees, and bridging assets across chains, and repeating steps if transactions get stuck or fail. As DeFi’s scope and user base broadens, the way we interact with it must evolve too. Velora’s intents-centric approach represents a new era of DeFi, turning what used to be fragmented, manual processes into a unified, goal-driven experience. Intents represent a flexible, user-focused, and modular way to interact with DeFi.

Stay tuned for more updates on Velora’s packed roadmap and rollout of new features, integration partners, and intents-related infrastructure.

Start trading: velora.xyz
Follow Velora on X (Twitter): @VeloraDEX
Join the Velora Discord: velora.xyz/discord

Author: Velora Growth Committee (VGC)

By now, you’ve probably heard of “intents” or “intents-based” protocols. What does that mean in practice, and how does it affect you, the end user? This article aims to break it down and give you a better understanding of why the migration to intents is so important for DeFi.

DeFi’s Paradigm Shift

Intents-based architecture aims to bridge the user-experience gap in crypto by letting users state what they want while the system handles the complexity behind the scenes. This outcome-driven model shifts the focus to user goals, lowering barriers for everyday users and opening the door to more mainstream adoption. The emerging shift from manual, smart contract-driven transactions to intents-based execution (what we call the “intent migration”) represents a fundamental change in how we interact with DeFi.

Under the old model, using DeFi could get relatively tedious. Imagine you want to trade assets across two chains:

1. Go to a bridge, connect your wallet, and transfer your tokens from Chain A to Chain B.

2. Pay gas fees on Chain A to initiate the transfer.

3. Wait for confirmations, then switch your wallet to Chain B.

4. Make sure you have gas on Chain B, often requiring a separate transfer or faucet step.

5. Use a DEX on Chain B to swap for the token you actually want.

6. Perhaps move those tokens into a lending protocol or yield farm.

Does that work? Yes. But it’s a multi-step, fragmented, and often frustrating process. It’s easy to get wrong and hard to optimize.

Intents-based architecture flips this around. Instead of micromanaging each action, you simply declare your desired outcome and let the system handle the execution details. It’s like saying, “I want to swap my Token A on Ethereum for Token B on Base at the best rate,” and having a program automatically take care of bridging, swapping, and anything else that’s needed. You focus on the what, and the intent engine figures out the how.

Intents Sound Cool, But So What?

Moving to an intents-based approach directly benefits users and developers by addressing many pain points of today’s landscape. Intents enable:

• Seamless Cross-Chain Actions: A user can express a goal that spans multiple networks without manually bridging or paying gas on the destination chain. The intent system abstracts the complexity of navigating multiple chains away, making cross-chain use-cases as simple as a single-chain swap.

• Gasless Execution: One of the most tangible benefits is gas abstraction. With intents-based trading on Velora, users don’t need to pay blockchain gas fees to execute their trades. You authorize the intent, and the rest is handled by offchain agents who compete to execute your request.

• MEV Protection: Intents can help mitigate MEV. In a traditional trade, when you submit a transaction to the blockchain, arbitrage bots can see it and exploit it before confirmation. Velora’s architecture avoids exposing a raw transaction in the public mempool. Instead, your intent is matched and executed by a selected agent through a coordination network (called Portikus) that conducts a private auction for your order. Only the winning agent’s settlement transaction hits the blockchain. The result: you dodge many MEV vulnerabilities and often get a better price for your swap.

• Better Prices via Competition: With intents-based systems, multiple independent solvers or agents can compete to fulfill your request. Velora’s Delta protocol uses an auction mechanism where agents bid to provide you the best outcome. Competition incentivizes them to find the most efficient route. Over time, as more agents join, this leads to more competitive pricing and improved swap rates for users.

• New Composable Actions: With traditional transactions, you were limited to what one contract or one atomic transaction can do. Now, because an intent can encapsulate a sequence of actions, composability goes through the roof. Velora’s introduction of Super Hooks is a great example. Super Hooks allow developers and users to string together multiple operations (swaps, transfers, deposits into other protocols, etc.) into one “hook” that executes all at once. For instance, an intent could swap an asset and then use the output to automatically provide liquidity or repay a loan in one go. This opens the door to one-click strategies that previously would require complex manual steps or simply weren’t feasible in a single user transaction.

Velora is Pioneering the Intents-Based Architecture Landscape

Gone are the days when simple crypto transactions forced users to juggle wallet extensions, network settings, gas fees, and bridging assets across chains, and repeating steps if transactions get stuck or fail. As DeFi’s scope and user base broadens, the way we interact with it must evolve too. Velora’s intents-centric approach represents a new era of DeFi, turning what used to be fragmented, manual processes into a unified, goal-driven experience. Intents represent a flexible, user-focused, and modular way to interact with DeFi.

Stay tuned for more updates on Velora’s packed roadmap and rollout of new features, integration partners, and intents-related infrastructure.

Start trading: velora.xyz
Follow Velora on X (Twitter): @VeloraDEX
Join the Velora Discord: velora.xyz/discord