Wasm IBC hooks

Overview

The Wasm hook is an IBC middleware which is used to allow ICS20 token transfers to initiate contract calls. This allows cross-chain contract calls, that involve token movement. This is useful for a variety of usecases. One of primary importance is cross-chain swaps, which is an extremely powerful primitive.

The mechanism enabling this is a memo field on every ICS20 or ICS721 transfer packet as of IBC v3.4.0. Wasm hooks is an IBC middleware that parses an ICS20 transfer, and if the memo field is of a particular form, executes a wasm contract call. We now detail the memo format for wasm contract calls, and the execution guarantees provided.

Cosmwasm Contract Execution Format

Before we dive into the IBC metadata format, we show the CosmWasm execute message format, so the reader has a sense of what are the fields we need to be setting in. The CosmWasm MsgExecuteContract is defined here as the following type:

// HookData defines a wrapper for wasm execute message
// and async callback.
type HookData struct {
 // Message is a wasm execute message which will be executed
 // at `OnRecvPacket` of receiver chain.
 Message *wasmtypes.MsgExecuteContract `json:"message,omitempty"`

 // AsyncCallback is a contract address
 AsyncCallback string `json:"async_callback,omitempty"`
}

type MsgExecuteContract struct {
 // Sender is the actor that committed the message in the sender chain
 Sender string
 // Contract is the address of the smart contract
 Contract string
 // Msg json encoded message to be passed to the contract
 Msg RawContractMessage
 // Funds coins that are transferred to the contract on execution
 Funds sdk.Coins
}

So we detail where we want to get each of these fields from:

• Sender: We cannot trust the sender of an IBC packet, the counterparty chain has full ability to lie about it. We cannot risk this sender being confused for a particular user or module address on Osmosis. So we replace the sender with an account to represent the sender prefixed by the channel and a wasm module prefix. This is done by setting the sender to Bech32(Hash("ibc-wasm-hook-intermediary" || channelID || sender)), where the channelId is the channel id on the local chain.

• Contract: This field should be directly obtained from the ICS-20 packet metadata

• Msg: This field should be directly obtained from the ICS-20 packet metadata.

• Funds: This field is set to the amount of funds being sent over in the ICS 20 packet. One detail is that the denom in the packet is the counterparty chains representation of the denom, so we have to translate it to Osmosis' representation.

Due to a bug in the packet forward middleware, we cannot trust the sender from chains that use PFM. Until that is fixed, we recommend chains to not trust the sender on contracts executed via IBC hooks.

So our constructed CosmWasm message that we execute will look like:

msg := MsgExecuteContract{
 // Sender is the that actor that signed the messages
 Sender: "init1-hash-of-channel-and-sender",
 // Contract is the address of the smart contract
 Contract: packet.data.memo["wasm"]["contract"],
 // Msg json encoded message to be passed to the contract
 Msg: packet.data.memo["wasm"]["msg"],
 // Funds coins that are transferred to the contract on execution
 Funds: sdk.NewCoin{Denom: ibc.ConvertSenderDenomToLocalDenom(packet.data.Denom), Amount: packet.data.Amount}
}

ICS20 packet structure

So given the details above, we propagate the implied ICS20 packet data structure. ICS20 is JSON native, so we use JSON for the memo format.

{
    //... other ibc fields that we don't care about
    "data":{
     "denom": "denom on counterparty chain (e.g. uatom)",  // will be transformed to the local denom (ibc/...)
        "amount": "1000",
        "sender": "addr on counterparty chain", // will be transformed
        "receiver": "contract addr or blank",
        "memo": {
           "wasm": {
              "contract": "init1contractAddr",
              "msg": {
                "raw_message_fields": "raw_message_data",
              },
              "funds": [
                {"denom": "ibc/denom", "amount": "100"}
              ]
            }
        }
    }
}

An ICS20 packet is formatted correctly for wasmhooks iff the following all hold:

• memo is not blank

• memo is valid JSON

• memo has at least one key, with value "wasm"

• memo["wasm"]["message"] has exactly two entries, "contract", "msg" and "fund"

• memo["wasm"]["message"]["msg"] is a valid JSON object

• receiver == "" || receiver == memo["wasm"]["contract"]

We consider an ICS20 packet as directed towards wasmhooks iff all of the following hold:

• memo is not blank

• memo is valid JSON

• memo has at least one key, with name "wasm"

If an ICS20 packet is not directed towards wasmhooks, wasmhooks doesn't do anything. If an ICS20 packet is directed towards wasmhooks, and is formatted incorrectly, then wasmhooks returns an error.

Execution flow

Pre wasm hooks:

• Ensure the incoming IBC packet is cryptographically valid

• Ensure the incoming IBC packet is not timed out.

In Wasm hooks, pre packet execution:

• Ensure the packet is correctly formatted (as defined above)

• Edit the receiver to be the hardcoded IBC module account

In wasm hooks, post packet execution:

• Construct wasm message as defined before

• Execute wasm message

• if wasm message has error, return ErrAck

• otherwise continue through middleware

Ack callbacks

A contract that sends an IBC transfer, may need to listen for the ACK from that packet. To allow contracts to listen on the ack of specific packets, we provide Ack callbacks.

Design

The sender of an IBC transfer packet may specify a callback for when the ack of that packet is received in the memo field of the transfer packet.

Crucially, only the IBC packet sender can set the callback.

Use case

The crosschain swaps implementation sends an IBC transfer. If the transfer were to fail, we want to allow the sender to be able to retrieve their funds (which would otherwise be stuck in the contract). To do this, we allow users to retrieve the funds after the timeout has passed, but without the ack information, we cannot guarantee that the send hasn't failed (i.e.: returned an error ack notifying that the receiving change didn't accept it)

Implementation

Callback information in memo

For the callback to be processed, the transfer packet's memo should contain the following in its JSON:

{
  "wasm": {
    "async_callback": "init1contractAddr"
  }
}

When an ack is received, it will notify the specified contract via a sudo message.

Interface for receiving the Acks and Timeouts

The contract that awaits the callback should implement the following interface for a sudo message:

#[cw_serde]
pub enum IBCLifecycleComplete {
    #[serde(rename = "ibc_ack")]
    IBCAck {
        /// The source channel (miniwasm side) of the IBC packet
        channel: String,
        /// The sequence number that the packet was sent with
        sequence: u64,
        /// String encoded version of the ack as seen by OnAcknowledgementPacket(..)
        ack: String,
        /// Weather an ack is a success of failure according to the transfer spec
        success: bool,
    },
    #[serde(rename = "ibc_timeout")]
    IBCTimeout {
        /// The source channel (miniwasm side) of the IBC packet
        channel: String,
        /// The sequence number that the packet was sent with
        sequence: u64,
    },
}

/// Message type for `sudo` entry_point
#[cw_serde]
pub enum SudoMsg {
    #[serde(rename = "ibc_lifecycle_complete")]
    IBCLifecycleComplete(IBCLifecycleComplete),
}

Conclusion

The Wasm hook represents an advancement in interoperability, enabling seamless cross-chain functionalities and enhancing the utility of token transfers. By leveraging the Wasm hook, developers can initiate complex contract interactions across different chains, fostering new use cases and applications. This development not only simplifies the technical barriers previously associated with cross-chain communications but also paves the way for more integrated and efficient blockchain ecosystems. As this technology matures, it will undoubtedly unlock further potential for decentralized applications, contributing to the broader adoption and operational effectiveness of blockchain technologies.