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Synopsis

Learn about what the Interchain Accounts module is

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What is the Interchain Accounts module?

Interchain Accounts is the Cosmos SDK implementation of the ICS-27 protocol, which enables cross-chain account management built upon IBC.
  • How does an interchain account differ from a regular account?
Regular accounts use a private key to sign transactions. Interchain Accounts are instead controlled programmatically by counterparty chains via IBC packets.

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Concepts

Host Chain: The chain where the interchain account is registered. The host chain listens for IBC packets from a controller chain which should contain instructions (e.g. Cosmos SDK messages) for which the interchain account will execute. Controller Chain: The chain registering and controlling an account on a host chain. The controller chain sends IBC packets to the host chain to control the account. Interchain Account: An account on a host chain created using the ICS-27 protocol. An interchain account has all the capabilities of a normal account. However, rather than signing transactions with a private key, a controller chain will send IBC packets to the host chain which signals what transactions the interchain account should execute. Authentication Module: A custom application module on the controller chain that uses the Interchain Accounts module to build custom logic for the creation & management of interchain accounts. It can be either an IBC application module using the legacy API, or a regular Cosmos SDK application module sending messages to the controller submodule’s MsgServer (this is the recommended approach from ibc-go v6 if access to packet callbacks is not needed). Please note that the legacy API will eventually be removed and IBC applications will not be able to use them in later releases.

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SDK security model

SDK modules on a chain are assumed to be trustworthy. For example, there are no checks to prevent an untrustworthy module from accessing the bank keeper. The implementation of ICS-27 in ibc-go uses this assumption in its security considerations. The implementation assumes other IBC application modules will not bind to ports within the ICS-27 namespace.