In 2024, the blockchain industry experienced a surge in on-chain activity, indicating a growing interest among users. However, challenges such as congestion, fragmentation, and the centralization of layer-2 solutions continue to hinder the technology’s progress. With the anticipation of favorable regulations and increased institutional involvement following Donald Trump’s inauguration, it is crucial to address these obstacles to prepare for the upcoming wave of adoption.
Highlighted in the 2025 Annual Crypto Theses by Messari, intent-centric approaches are emerging as a significant evolutionary shift that will enhance accessibility and efficiency for users.
Understanding Intent-Centric Infrastructure
Intents are a declarative tool that operates within a decentralized peer-to-peer network to identify and fulfill counterparties. They enable users to state their desired outcomes without the need to specify the steps to achieve them. This simplifies interactions, offering a user experience similar to web2 applications like Uber while harnessing the automation benefits of AI without compromising decentralization and privacy. Intents play a vital role in unlocking AI’s full potential and are already gaining traction in various AI applications.
With intent-centric DeFi, users can set complex goals, such as trading one cryptocurrency for another at the best rate over a specific timeframe, without having to manually configure parameters like routing or gas fees. The system takes care of the intricate details, such as identifying optimal liquidity pools, securing the best rates, and determining the most efficient execution path. This goal-oriented, automated approach significantly enhances the user experience.
Intent-centric infrastructure also improves scalability by shifting most computation and data storage to users’ edge devices, reducing network congestion on platforms like Ethereum. In 2024, escalating transaction fees prompted many users to avoid on-chain operations, underscoring the need for scalable solutions that reduce costs and enhance blockchain interactions. Furthermore, generalized intents can address fragmentation in the multichain ecosystem, enabling applications to seamlessly function across different networks without users needing to navigate the complexities of various chains and protocols.
Intents Will Unlock the Next Wave of dApp Innovation
While users currently engage with a myriad of applications, decentralized web3 applications built on blockchain infrastructure represent only a fraction of these interactions. This disparity is primarily due to the limitations of existing blockchain infrastructure, where dApps built on virtual machines require step-by-step instructions and cannot support complex applications like those in web2.
Generalized intents offer a solution to this challenge, enabling a new generation of dApps that can rival and even surpass the sophistication and user experience of web2 applications while remaining true to the principles of web3. For instance, generalized intents can power a fully decentralized messaging platform with advanced privacy features and cross-domain interoperability. In the realm of ride-hailing services, generalized intents can aggregate multiple providers into a single interface, streamlining the user experience and eliminating the need to switch between different apps. Builders are already leveraging generalized intents to create innovative dating apps that match users based on shared interests without the need for traditional swiping.
In the DeFi space, generalized intents open up possibilities for novel applications and reduce reliance on centralized infrastructure. For example, decentralized, multi-dimensional order book DEXs can leverage generalized intents to enable trading based on additional dimensions like time preferences or yield opportunities, offering a more comprehensive trading experience in a decentralized manner.
The Industry’s Next Steps
To onboard web2 users into web3 successfully, the industry must prioritize user experience and ease of use. Users should be able to interact with web3 applications intuitively, without needing to understand the underlying blockchain technology. By facilitating simple, automated experiences, integrating crypto rails, prioritizing privacy, giving users control over their data, ensuring full decentralization, and promoting interoperability, web3 can surpass the capabilities of web2.
Generalized intents are uniquely positioned to drive this evolution by bridging the gap between web2 and web3, enabling users to focus on their desired outcomes rather than the technical intricacies of blockchain technology. By offering a seamless and user-friendly experience, generalized intents empower the industry to compete with the user experience of web2 applications while upholding the core tenets of decentralization, resilience, verifiability, and user sovereignty.
In conclusion, intent-centric approaches represent a significant step forward for the blockchain industry, offering a pathway to enhanced user experiences, improved scalability, and innovative dApp development. By embracing intent-centric infrastructure and leveraging generalized intents, the industry can overcome current challenges and unlock the full potential of blockchain technology in the years to come.