During the Paris Blockchain Week held in April, 1inch co-founder Sergej Kunz delivered a keynote address called "Intents: The Future of DeFi." In his presentation, Sergej discussed the concept of intents, highlighting its significance in the evolution of the DeFi space.

Intents refer to planned actions that aim to achieve specific goals. Unlike traditional transactions where users define strategies and execute transactions themselves, under the intent-based approach, users simply submit a request detailing their desired outcome. Professional market participants then create a strategy and execute the necessary transactions on behalf of the user.

This approach allows users to focus on what they want to achieve rather than how to achieve it, eliminating concerns about transaction failure, gas fees, and token requirements. Sergej provided an example of exchanging USDC for ETH and setting a minimum return, with professional market makers handling the execution.

Benefits of the intent-based approach include automation of DeFi, improved risk management through protection from MEV, and enhanced user experience. Use cases include limit orders, swaps, liquidity provision, and cross-chain swaps.

1inch Fusion utilizes the intent-based approach to offer MEV protection, gasless swaps, and access to liquidity across the crypto space. Sergej emphasized 1inch's commitment to further integrating intent-driven DeFi, with plans to introduce atomic cross-chain swaps for token exchanges between different blockchains.

The future of DeFi, according to Sergej, lies in an intent-driven approach, emphasizing the importance of focusing on user goals rather than transaction mechanics. Keep an eye out for more updates on 1inch developments!