In this episode, Austin chats with Declan from Aurora Labs about building on NEAR’s Intents architecture. Declan explains why intents go beyond “a better bridge UI" and how Aurora Intents actually work, enabling one-click cross-chain journeys. They discuss how the protocol helps create liquidity, adoption metrics (over $21B lifetime volume, about $1B monthly), and use cases across wallets, neobanks, payments, RWAs, and more. The conversation also explores inherent cross-chain risks, as highlighted by a Litecoin reorg double-spend incident, and the need for insurance-like protections for onchain products.
0:00 - Aurora Intents Overview
02:57 - Intents vs Bridges
05:21- Solver Network Explained
06:23 - Aurora Intents’ Behind the Scenes Flow
07:43 - Liquidity and Market Making
08:55 - Real World Use Cases
11:25 - Confidential Intents
16:11 - Intents’ Speed Tradeoffs and Risks
17:30 - Litecoin Incident Earlier This Year
19:51 - Liability and Insurance
26:08 - Future Verticals for Intents
28:36 - Where to Learn More
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