Cross-chain Intent Settlement Layer: Solving the Blockchain Liquidity Fragmentation Problem

With the rapid development of the blockchain ecosystem, the number of active first-layer blockchains has reached dozens, and the number of second-layer scaling solutions has also exploded. This multi-chain environment brings new challenges, especially in cross-chain asset transfers. To facilitate the growth of users, applications, and protocols across chains, it is urgent to reduce the barriers to cross-chain transfers, unlock value for all chains, improve user experience, and provide users with better spreads.

Currently, cross-chain bridging faces a trilemma of speed, cost, and permissionlessness. Existing cross-chain bridging solutions include custodial bridges, permissionless bridges, and intent bridges, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. While intent bridges are hoped to address this dilemma, they still face issues such as liquidity fragmentation, lack of standardization, and rebalancing costs.

In this context, a clearing layer called Everclear has emerged, aimed at addressing these issues, significantly reducing the friction of cross-chain transfers, lowering costs for application developers and users, and simplifying the experience for developers and users.

The Principle of Intent Settlement

Research shows that about 80% of the funds in cross-chain transactions will "flow back to the network" within 24 hours. This means that while funds continuously move in and out of various chains, most will ultimately return to the original chain. The intent protocol aims to achieve profitability by exchanging liquidity across chains rather than direct bridging.

For example, if a certain DEX has one user transferring 100 dollars from Arbitrum to Polygon, while another user transfers 100 dollars from Polygon to Arbitrum, that DEX can support both users to directly transfer tokens to each other locally, which is more economical than traditional bridging methods.

However, such a perfect matching situation is not common. When a perfect match cannot be achieved, the protocol must slowly transfer balances through traditional custodial or permissionless bridges to perform "rebalancing". This process is often time-consuming, complex, and costly.

Everclear's Solution

Everclear standardizes this process for all parties involved. It deploys standardized contracts on each chain, allowing users to generate the "invoices" they intend, and market makers can "balance" with each other. If no one claims this invoice after a period of time, a Dutch auction will begin for the invoice.

For example, suppose a user wants to transfer 10 ETH from Arbitrum to Polygon. If there is initially no market maker to execute the request, the intention will be to gradually lower the price, starting from 9.99 ETH, until a market maker claims the invoice.

This standardized mechanism benefits all stakeholders, creating a permissionless system that can aggregate the order flow of applications, providing market makers with more order flow to maximize profits, and supporting any chain with this standard set of smart contracts.

Partnership

Everclear's goal is to benefit all participants. It provides a standardized system for existing stakeholders, effectively ensuring that intentions will ultimately be executed. This intensifies the competition for capturing user order flow, thereby lowering prices. At the same time, the more stakeholders involved, the higher the market efficiency.

Based on this concept, Everclear has established partnerships with multiple industry participants, including rebalancers, L2 liquidity staking and staking applications, liquidity re-staking platforms, and more.

Mainnet Launch

As the first clearing layer to coordinate global settlement of cross-chain order flows, Everclear addresses the issue of liquidity fragmentation in modular blockchains. The project's mainnet was officially launched on September 18, marking the arrival of a new era in cross-chain interactions.