What are Cross-chain Intents?

What are Intents?

An intent is a type of order where a user specifies an outcome instead of an execution path. Intents can be single-chain, or cross-chain where the user's desired outcomes is on a different chain than input assets. EcoCross is only focused on cross-chain intents.

We see the progression of cross-chain intents in the following way:

Phase 1: Users' intent specifies moving the same asset from Chain A to Chain B

• This is what EcoCross started with and has been supporting since 2021.

Phase 2: Users' intent specifies moving the same asset from Chain A to Chain B and then executing a transaction on Chain B

• This is enabled in EcoCross by new functionality to embed instructions on the origin deposit to be executed on the destination.

Phase 3: Users' intent specifies swapping asset X on Chain A for a minimum amount of asset Y on Chain B and then executing a transaction on Chain B

• EcoCross Settlement supports these types of orders now. See Intent Structure in EcoCross.

• EcoCross Bridge dApp will soon add support for these types of orders.

To grow the adoption of interoperability solutions powered by intents, EcoCross is working on defining a cross-chain intent order standard, based on the concepts outlined in Phase 3 above. This will enable a unified way to ingest, bid on, escrow and settle user intents.