A guide to Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC)

Overview of IBC

Figure 4: IBC Module Overview
Figure 5: IBC Module Internal

Foundations of IBC

Light Client

Figure 1: Merkle Proof (source)

Relayers

Figure 2: IBC high-level architecture (source)

Connection

interface ConnectionEnd {    state: ConnectionState    counterpartyConnectionIdentifier: Identifier    counterpartyPrefix: CommitmentPrefix    clientIdentifier: Identifier    counterpartyClientIdentifier: Identifier 

version: string
}

Channel

enum ChannelState {    INIT,    TRYOPEN,    OPEN,    CLOSED,}

Packet

interface Packet {    sequence: uint64    timeoutHeight: uint64    timeoutTimestamp: uint64    sourcePort: Identifier    sourceChannel: Identifier    destPort: Identifier     destChannel: Identifier    data: bytes}

The IBC Flow

Figure 3: IBC packet flow (source)

IBC Applications

Interchain Accounts

Figure 6: Interchain Accounts

Interchain Queries

Figure 7: Interchain Queries

Cross Chain Validation

Polymer scales IBC to all chains

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Polymer is building a universal IBC router to connect all chains.

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Polymer is building a universal IBC router to connect all chains.