What are Intents Actually Solving? with Declan Hannon (Aurora Labs)

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