Are Intents Even Real? Deep Dive into Across Protocol & Prime

Composable: Exploring Crypto’s Building Blocks (an Espresso Pod)

In this episode, Ellie and Alysia dive deep into intent-based bridges, specifically exploring Across Protocol and their proposed Across Prime upgrade. They examine how intent bridges work, their advantages over traditional bridges, and the capital efficiency improvements that Across Prime aims to deliver for solvers (i.e., the liquidity providers that fulfill user intents).

Key Topics Covered

• What are intents and intent bridges - Definition and distinction from traditional bridges, focusing on how users can move assets cross-chain without worrying about underlying mechanisms
• Intent bridge mechanics - How liquidity bridges work with solvers fronting funds on destination chains rather than actually moving tokens crosschain
• Benefits for users - Native tokens (no wrapped assets), no slippage concerns, fast transactions, and simplified user experience compared to canonical bridges
• Intent lifecycle walkthrough - Three-step process: initiate transaction, fill by solver, and settlement verification using UMA's optimistic oracle
• Solver risks and challenges - Blockchain reorganization risks, sequencer confirmation dependencies, and capital lock-up issues during settlement periods
• Across Prime proposal - New bonding mechanism that allows solvers to get paid immediately and reuse capital, dramatically improving capital efficiency
• Capital efficiency explained - How solvers can potentially earn 50+ transaction fees per hour on the same liquidity instead of just one fee per settlement period
• Technical implementation details - Merkle tree systems for tracking in-flight transactions and user-enforced verification mechanisms
• Solver rebalancing challenges - Why relayers need better native bridging options to move funds between chains efficiently
• ERC-7683 standard - Crosschain intent standardization for interoperability between different solver networks
• NFT bridging limitations - Why liquidity bridges cannot support NFT transfers due to uniqueness constraints
• Fair exchange problem - Distributed systems challenge of ensuring trustless exchanges and how Across addresses it theoretically and practically
• Future outlook debate - Whether intents represent the future of crosschain interactions or merely a stopgap until better native interoperability emerges

Composable is a bi-weekly podcast exploring crypto's building blocks. Hosted by Alysia and Ellie, and brought to you by Espresso.

Find us on X:
Composable — @composablepod
Alysia — @alysiatech
Ellie — @ellierdavidson