Cross-Chain Intent Clearing Layer: The Innovation and Impact of Everclear

In the current cryptocurrency ecosystem, there are numerous active L1 chains, and with the development of rollup technology, L2 networks are also experiencing explosive growth. In this multi-chain environment, how to achieve efficient and low-cost cross-chain asset transfers has become an urgent issue that needs to be addressed. Cross-chain bridging is currently the main method for users to achieve cross-chain asset and liquidity transfers, but existing bridging solutions often face the dilemma of balancing speed, cost, and decentralization.

The existing cross-chain bridges are mainly divided into three categories:

1. Custodial bridge: Conducted through centralized exchanges, it offers fast speed and low costs, but lacks decentralization features.
2. Permissionless bridges: such as Hyperlane, Portal, etc., are faster but more expensive.
3. Intention Bridge: Although it is highly decentralized, the speed is usually slow and the costs are not low due to the rebalancing mechanism.

While the Intent Bridge is expected to address the aforementioned three challenges, it still faces issues such as fragmented liquidity, lack of standardization, and high rebalancing costs. Against this backdrop, Everclear has proposed the innovative Clearing layer concept, aimed at comprehensively solving these problems, significantly reducing the friction of cross-chain transfers, and providing application developers and users with lower costs and a better experience.

Everclear has noted that approximately 80% of funds in cross-chain transactions "flow back to the original network" within 24 hours. Based on this observation, Everclear has proposed an innovative clearing mechanism. For example, when one user needs to transfer $100 from Arbitrum to Polygon, and another user needs to transfer $100 from Polygon to Arbitrum, Everclear can support both users to locally transfer tokens on their respective chains, which is much more economical than traditional bridging methods.

However, perfect matches are relatively rare. To address this, Everclear has designed a standardized contract system. Users can generate an "invoice" of their intent, and market makers (Solvers) can "balance" these invoices with each other. If an invoice is not claimed within a certain period, the system will initiate a Dutch auction mechanism, gradually lowering the price until a market maker accepts it.

This standardized approach allows all parties involved to benefit:

• The blockchain network can integrate bridging solutions more quickly.
• The protocol can aggregate more order flow.
• Market makers have gained more arbitrage opportunities.

Everclear has established partnerships with several collaborators, including aori, StaFi Protocol, Tokka Labs, and others. These collaborations not only aid in the expansion of the Everclear ecosystem but also bring greater efficiency and liquidity to the entire cryptocurrency market.

As the first clearing layer to coordinate cross-chain order flow for global settlement, Everclear's mainnet officially launched on September 18. This marks an important breakthrough in the modular blockchain liquidity fragmentation issue, which is expected to have a profound impact on the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem.