Launch App
/Ecosystem. · 02.

Why Waku for the RFQ

A central quote server would have been easier. It would also have been a single point of failure, censorship and front-running. What Waku gives us instead.

iLayer.io~5 min4 chapters
Wakupub/subdecentralization
/Central server./Waku pub/sub./A.Central serverOne operator, one point of failure.KYCcan censorcan go down/B.WakuRelayed by nodes, anyone can join.decentralizedscalableprivate topics/rfq.The rfq topicRequests fan out, quotes come back one to one.iLayer runs nodesblockchain agnostic
/Central server./Waku pub/sub.Central serverWakuKYCcan censordecentralizedcan go downscalableprivate topics/rfq.The rfq topicRequests fan out, quotescome back one to one.iLayer runs nodesblockchain agnostic

When a new intent is generated it needs to reach every solver. The obvious design is an API: users post requests, solvers poll. We did not build that. Requests are broadcast over Waku, a censorship-resistant communication protocol anyone can access, and that choice shapes who gets to participate in iLayer.

/01 · Chapter.

What Waku is

Waku is a decentralised messaging protocol derived from Ethereum’s Whisper and rebuilt for scale. It runs on publish/subscribe: nodes relay messages on topics, and any application can publish or subscribe without a central server. Three properties matter to us: no single point of failure, high message throughput, and the ability to direct responses to specific recipients.

/02 · Chapter.

How the RFQ uses it

  • Requests are published on the rfq topic. Every solver subscribes once and receives everything.
  • Each solver replies on a topic named after the user’s public address. Only that user receives the quotes, and competitors do not see each other’s prices.

Two topics, one public and one per user, replace the whole request/response API and its operator.

/03 · Chapter.

What we gain

  • Decentralised: nobody can take the RFQ offline or decide who may quote.
  • Scalable: many RFQs and many solver responses in flight at once.
  • Private: quotes reach the intended recipient only, limiting data leakage.
  • Trusted: iLayer runs its own Waku nodes, so propagation does not depend on third-party networks, while the network remains open.
  • Interoperable: Waku is blockchain agnostic, which fits a protocol whose Order uses bytes32 addresses to reach non-EVM chains.
/04 · Chapter.

What it means for participation

Anyone can run a solver: subscribe to the topic, start quoting. No account, no KYC, no allowlist. That is the same openness the contracts have (whitelisting exists only on the Router, to protect the messaging path), extended to the off-chain half of the protocol.

/Read next.

DeFi protocols, wallets and AI agents.

Next: the three industries we build for and what each one gets from a single intent.

All posts