Core Concepts

This section highlights some conceptual topics that will be discussed throughout the docs.

Intents and Fillers

Intents allow users to express what they want to achieve on-chain without specifying the exact steps, leaving the execution to be handled by others. Fillers are entities that match these intents with the appropriate actions. Intents allow users to delegate the complexities of transaction assembly and execution by specifying the desired result in a signed set of declarative constraints. Learn More.

ELI5 Intents

Imagine you wanted to order a burger. Instead of receiving a ready-made burger, you’re given all the ingredients and asked to assemble it yourself—this reflects the standard transaction model used in most applications that interact with blockchains today. In this model, users and application developers have to navigate the complexities of the EVM, creating and signing transactions on their own. This approach is far from ideal, as it forces both applications and users to deal with intricate processes of creating state transitions and executing them without the necessarily having the expertise or enough information, leading to poor User and Developer experience—essentially asking someone to make a burger without providing a kitchen.

Now, imagine if you ordered a burger and it arrived fully assembled, just as you wanted it. You don’t concern yourself with who made it or how it was made; you only care that you got exactly what you asked for. This represents the intent-based model. In this paradigm, users simply define the outcome they want, and the system takes care of the rest, handling the construction and execution of the transaction. Intents allow users to delegate the complexities of transaction assembly and execution by specifying the desired result in a signed set of declarative constraints.

Account Abstraction

Account Abstraction is critical for making blockchain applications that can scale to the next billion users. It separates user accounts from the traditional Ethereum model, enabling more flexible and secure user interactions. This concept is crucial for improving user onboarding and interaction by allowing features like flexible key management, batching transactions, multi-signature wallets, gas abstraction, and social recovery. Learn more.

Rollups (L2 & L3):

Rollups are a category which include a specific set of scaling solutions for Ethereum. They are designed to increase the transaction throughput of the Ethereum network while reducing costs. Put simply it's a way to scale Ethereum. It does so by performing execution of transactions off-chain and batching them in blocks to save on execution costs. An L2 rollup posts the proof that it performed the off-chain execution correctly to Ethereum mainnet and must also post the data required to reconstruct the state of the chain to Ethereum or another Data Availability Layer. In doing so they inherit the security of Ethereum at a fraction of the cost. L3 rollups extend this concept further, creating additional layers to handle more complex operations. Learn more.

Message Bridges

Bridges enable blockchain networks to pass data and transfer assets between each other. Message Bridges are a specfic type of bridge that can transfer messages and arbitrary date between two blockchains. Although message bridges unlock numerous use cases within applications that integrate them, they are also one the biggest security risk in the space. Bridges as a whole account for some of the biggest hacks in the space and very major bridge hack has involved a failure of it's messaging layer in some capacity. Therefore message verification is probably the most critical part of bridges that needs to be trust-minimized. Learn more.