What is Eco?

Eco provides developer tools and smart contracts for moving stablecoins and programming onchain actions. You can build transfers between blockchains, deposit and payout flows, or programs that make payments, swap tokens and interact with lending protocols. A stablecoin, such as USDC, is a token designed to track the value of a reference asset such as the US dollar. Onchain means that an action or record exists on a blockchain. A smart contract is a program that runs there. For example, your customer may hold USDC on Base while your application accepts it on another blockchain. Eco’s transfer tools let you request that destination outcome and track delivery. Your application can also run a program on one chain to check a balance, choose a swap or deposit funds into a lending market.

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What you can build

Availability depends on the capability, supported assets and your integration requirements. Each guide explains its scope.

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Choose your developer tools

The platform has two main developer entry points:

• Routes API + CLI gives your application transfer quotes, funding instructions and status tracking. An API lets your application request those services in code; the CLI lets you try transfers from a terminal.
• Sauce SDK gives you tools to write, compile, simulate and run onchain programs. Use its TypeScript library, command-line tools or coding-agent tools.

You can use the Sauce SDK for a standalone workflow. When a transfer also needs program logic at its destination, you can combine the tools. Deposit-address services have their own supported flows and API requirements.

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How a transfer works

An intent describes an outcome you want, such as delivering USDC to a recipient on another chain, and the reward offered for delivering it. For a transfer fulfilled by a solver, a participant that supplies the destination funds, the lifecycle is:

1. Get a quote. Request the source token, destination token, amount and recipient. Review the expected output and fees.
2. Fund the intent. Verify the quote and authorize the source-chain transaction. The source funds are held in a contract called a vault.
3. Receive the funds. A solver fulfills the intent on the destination chain.
4. Settle the reward. A prover reports that fulfillment happened so the solver can claim the source-chain reward.

Funding, delivery and reward settlement happen separately. If the intent remains unfulfilled, its funds can be refunded subject to the contract’s conditions. A refund requires a separate transaction. Other routes can involve multiple intents or bridge-specific steps. Read Intents for the lifecycle and Vaults for the refund conditions.

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How onchain programs work

With the Sauce SDK, you write a Sauce program that reads onchain state, checks conditions and calls contracts. For example, a program can check its USDC balance before making a payment, compare swap prices, or supply tokens to a lending protocol. The program’s steps execute within one transaction on one chain. An unhandled failure reverts that transaction’s changes. This does not make a transfer across separate blockchains one transaction. Your application can submit programs as part of an automated workflow, but the program itself does not schedule future transactions. Start with the Sauce SDK overview to choose development tools, or Introduction to Sauce to learn how programs run.

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Next steps