The Owl Explains Hootenanny Ava Labs x CBER Ep 8: Decentralized Exchange (DEX) Aggregators and Solvers
Mallesh Pai (Rice University) covers DEX Aggregators and Solvers. In more detail, DEXs are not isolated entities. Rather, a variety of "intents markets" have arisen (e.g., Uniswap X, CoW Swap) where users can express "intents" to trade and then these markets execute the intents by relying on DEX liquidity and also potentially other sources of liquidity (e.g., fillers). Intents markets are generally classified as aggregators or solvers, and this podcast explains the space of intent markets, clarifying the distinction between aggregators and solvers. The podcast particularly focuses on economic implications of intents markets. An important point is that assertions that these markets are likely to entail favorable outcomes for traders are not necessarily correct due to the underlying economic structure.