Messari: Learn about DeFAI protocol Orbit in one article

Author: Sam Ruskin, Messari Research Analyst; Translation: Golden Finance xiaozou

DeFAI protocol Orbit (GRIFT) connects key encryption fields such as interoperability and intent, but is still only seen as a DeFAI platform. Its agent-solver network developed by SphereOne may become an important competitive moat.

Currently valued at $70 million, up 63% this week, Orbit meets the needs of the DeFAI, intent and interoperability fields, but it seems that people only see it as a DeFAI platform.

Sphere Labs is the design company of Orbit (GRIFT), which has recently become popular due to the DeFAI trend, but they have been developing the DeFAI infrastructure for more than a year.

The intention is to allow users to conduct transactions without smart contracts, such as swap transactions, staking, or managing liquidity, which are all executed by solvers. The intention is to abstract on-chain operations and bridge complexity across chains such as Solana and Ethereum.

Intentions can power DeFi in a world of chain abstraction, but there are some risks:

• Order Flow: Exclusive control over Ethereum order flow centralizes power, enabling censorship, rent-seeking, and MEV attacks, undermining decentralization and fairness.

• Trust: Dependence on intermediaries sets a high barrier to entry for new intention architectures, limiting the innovation and competition needed to improve execution quality.

• Opacity: Intent architectures often require users to give up control of their on-chain assets, and permissioned memory pools add a layer of opacity. The risk of doing so is to create a system where user expectations are unclear, while potential threats to the ecosystem go unnoticed.

SphereOne came along at the right time: they created a multi-agent solver network with all the features of a typical solver network, but with much less baggage.

Proxy solvers typically have the following characteristics:

- Nearly infinite scalability

- Can be seamlessly automated

- Not inclined to participate in MEV

- Ability to more optimally and transparently balance token liquidity

- More cost-effective and resource-efficient

Intent is perhaps the most practical DeFAI use case.

First-mover advantage is critical for DeFAI. We have seen griffain and Hey Anon maintain a lead over other tokens. DeFAI has done little innovation beyond its basic natural language interface product and seems ready to be disrupted.

With major tech/AI companies like OpenAI, Google, and Amazon all pursuing their own proxy explorations, I don’t see any natural language interface/chatbot as a viable moat. Choosing a successful DeFAI protocol will require a deeper dive into specific tooling, deep DeFi integration, and developer velocity.

Proxy solver networks are not without risks, such as:

- Low initial latency and poor reasoning capabilities.

- A certain level of trust is still required given the opacity of general intent.

- There are security risks if malicious actors flood the network with false intent.

These risks (low latency, poor reasoning, trust requirements, security risks, etc.) are common to most AI projects. So, I hope that some projects that provide solutions for mainstream frameworks can have a trickle-down effect on smaller platforms like Orbit.

Orbit and SphereOne aim to cover the entire intent and transaction stack, integrating cross-role agent frameworks such as CoW DAO, Across, and solver networks (e.g., 1inch, Fractal, Rizzolver).

As more and more agents start to manage funds and on-chain transactions in a year or two, deeper DeFi integration and more powerful on-chain infrastructure will be critical. Orbit is leading in both aspects and is almost unrivaled in on-chain infrastructure.