Overview

Learn about what the Interchain Accounts module is

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.

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.

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.