In this article, we give the ELI5 (explain it like I’m 5) breakdown to explain Mantis in the most basic terms possible:

First and foremost, Mantis is a solver network powering chain-abstraction. What does this actually mean?

• Cross-chain RFQs

• Single Chain RFQs

• CoWs

• Generalized Intents

With these mechanisms, Mantis primarily services the Ethereum, Solana, and Cosmos Ecosystems - all the while giving users native yield for their accounts on Mantis.

This is the future for how users will interact and curate on-chain experiences.

Solving Crypto UX through Intents and Native Yield

Intents

An intent is an expression of what a user wants to achieve whenever they interact with a blockchain protocol, for instance “transfer X asset from blockchain A to blockchain B” or “trade X asset for Y asset”. Practically, an intent is an off-chain signed message that encodes which state transitions a user wants to achieve.

Unlike transactions, intents are partial. Thus, one can think of intents as parts of transactions that require other direct or indirect parts as complements in order to form a final balanced transaction that satisfies all of a user's constraints.

Intents are another new area of development in the DeFi space that are positioned to further assist in resolving cross-chain operational issues. For instance, as of June 2024, UniswapX has processed over $10 billion in notional volume, and CowProtocol has processed over $2 billion. This demonstrates the significant impact and adoption of intents in the market.

However, many existing intents solutions are not cross-chain interoperable and are not vertically integrated with execution and settlement solutions. Mantis is unique in that it provides a complete framework for intents, from submission through settlement over IBC.

In the first version (V1) of Mantis, swaps will be available between Ethereum and Solana, along with intent fulfillment on each chain.

This means Mantis will:

1. FIll cross-chain orders such as limit orders, market orders, DCA, etc.

2. Fill single-chain orders on Solana, Ethereum, and the broader IBC ecosystem. This is particularly interesting on Solana, where the solver/intent based trading landscape is still quite nascent with Jupiter being the only real solution for aggregation/best execution.

3. Offer a variety of solutions for intents. This includes RFQs, CoWs, routes to different protocols, collaborative solving, and cross-pollination within these solution types:

4. Access crypto beyond swaps. Mantis users will be able to tap into lending protocols, NFT platforms, and the broader crypto space.

How intents are resolved:

To solve these orders, Mantis creates a competitive solver market that lives on the Mantis rollup. Here, solvers are able to query aggregated intents from multiple chains.

The Mantis rollup can be thought of as an application-specific execution environment for the submission and resolution of intents. dApps will be able to interact with the Mantis rollup by deploying SVM-compatible contracts on Mantis, and utilizing the Mantis SDK to hook into the intents infrastructure.

Some key features of intents resolution on Mantis are:

1. Intents can be submitted from any chain.

2. Solutions can be filled on any chain.

3. Settlement occurs over IBC.

Native Yield

One of the greatest things about crypto is the fact that we can earn yield from securing protocols. Yet, a multitude of CEX and DEX solutions don't actually let you tap into this yield, neglecting capital efficiency.

This is why the Mantis rollup was architected with native yield directly embedded.  Mantis acts as an on-chain account with native yield, helping to maximize the potential of the assets a user already holds.

Initially, users must be on the Mantis rollup to earn this native yield. However, our plan is to expand the "Mantis Account" to tap into various yield sources on different chains, to ensure no matter where users are interacting with Mantis, they are earning native yield.

Putting it All Together

Combining native yield with optimized chain-agnostic intent settlement provides users with a yield-bearing way to interact with the entirety of the crypto space. Users simply load their accounts on Mantis, submit any intents they want (which are then optimally settled via our solver network), and earn yield on their assets in the process:

Through this architecture, key benefits to users are:

1. Native yield

2. Best execution of intents

3. A simplified, abstracted cross-chain DeFi