📄️ Intents
Rather than placing orders by signing a raw transaction**_ that executes directly on-chain (i.e. as happens on Uniswap or SushiSwap), CoW Protocol users place orders by signing an "intent to trade" message_ that specifies parameters like the assets and amounts they would like to trade.
📄️ Solvers
CoW Protocol delivers optimal price outcomes by leveraging an open solver competition for order matching.
📄️ Fair Combinatorial Batch Auction
CoW Protocol collects and aggregates intents off-chain and auctions them off to solvers. The auction is combinatorial because each solver can submit multiple bids. A solver can submit multiple bids on individual orders, in which case each "bid" represents the best price this solver can provide to an individual order. However, a solver can also submit "batched" bids, that is, bids on groups of orders.