This post has moved to https://docs.tokenbridge.net/amb-bridge/how-to-develop-xchain-apps-by-amb
In this post I’ll show an example of the considerations needed to develop a cross-blockchain application by interacting with the arbitrary message bridge.
The complete AMB bridge interface can be found here, let’s see how can we use the exposed methods.
Call a method in another chain using the AMB bridge
AMB is about invocation of a contract’s method in another chain. So a contract on one side must know a method of a contract on another side. The method name and parameters are encoded and passed to requireToPassMessage method of the bridge contract.
function requireToPassMessage(address _contract, bytes _data, uint256 _gas) external;
-
address _contractrefers to the address of the contract on the other network. -
bytes _dataIt’s the encoded bytes of the method selector and the parameters that will be called in the contract on the other network. In theCode examplessection there is an example of how to generate this parameter. -
uint256 _gasThe gas to be provided in execution of the method call in contract on the other network. To generate this parameter you need to measure the gas usage of the method to be executed. It can be done by manual invocation of the method in a dev environment or by using a tool like eth-gas-reporter to get the gas usage of the methods from the unit tests.
The AMB bridge provides a maximum gas value to be provided in the execution of the method, so the provided gas value must not exceed this limit. To get this limit, you can call the method:
function maxGasPerTx() external view returns (uint256);
Receive a method call from the AMB bridge
In case the contract that is going to receive a method call from the AMB bridge needs to perform some critical actions, it will be good to take the following security considerations:
- Check that the
msg.senderis the address of the bridge. - Check the address of the invoking contract from the other side. To do this, the contract can call the method
messageSender()from the AMB bridge to know who generated the message that is defined as:
function messageSender() external view returns (address);
Another useful method from the AMB Bridge is the transactionHash() method. It returns the hash of the transaction that caused the invocation of requireToPassMessage on the other network.
function transactionHash() external view returns (bytes32);
Security
Every time requireToPassMessage is called, the AMB bridge validators will listen to the generated event and provide their signature to bridge the message. Once enough signatures are collected, the message is marked as processed and then proceed with the execution of the method call. So it’s guaranteed that the message will be executed only one time.
Handling failed messages
It could be the case that the call execution of message relayed by the bridge could fail. The reasons could be related to some specific logic of the invoked method, to insufficient gas limit provided to the method call or invalid data.
The AMB bridge exposes methods to help getting information related to the failed message.
function messageCallStatus(bytes32 _txHash) external view returns (bool);
function failedMessageReceiver(bytes32 _txHash) external view returns (address);
function failedMessageSender(bytes32 _txHash) external view returns (address);
function failedMessageDataHash(bytes32 _txHash) external view returns (bytes32);
All the methods accept as parameter the hash of the transaction that originated the message on the other network.
-
messageCallStatusreturns the result of the message call execution. -
failedMessageReceiverreturns the address that received the call execution of the message. -
failedMessageSenderreturn the address that generated the message on the other network. -
failedMessageDataHashreturn the hashkeccak256(data)associated to the originating transaction hash. The contract-sender is responsible for providing unique sequence as part of thedata. Wheredatarefers to thedataparameter inrequireToPassMessagemethod.
Example of ERC677 to ERC677 using AMB bridge
We can use AMB to move ERC677 tokens between two chains. To do this, we’ll have two contracts that communicate with each other: contract A receives tokens, locks them and instructs contract B to mint the same number of tokens in the other chain. In the inverse case, contract B receives tokens, burns them and instructs contract A to unlock the burned amount in the other chain.
The implementation of the contracts for this ERC677-TO-ERC677 built on top of the AMB bridge can be found here.
In this implementation we have:
- A Token Management contract on Foreign side that will lock/unlock transferred tokens and send requests to Mint tokens on Home side.
- A Token Management contract on Home side that will Mint/Burn transferred tokens and send requests to Unlock tokens on Foreign side.
Example of Home Token Management contract tested in Sokol:
Example of Foreign Token Management contract tested in Kovan
Deployed bridges contracts you can find here.
Token transfer flow
In the case when a user has Tokens on the Foreign side and wants to bridge them to the Home network:
- The user calls the method
transferAndCallof the token contract with the value and the foreign token management contract address as target. - The tokens are transferred and the token contract calls
onTokenTransfermethod of the token management contract. - In
onTokenTransfermethod, the token management contract callsrequireToPassMessagemethod of Foreign AMB bridge contract with parameters indicating that methodhandleBridgedTokensof the Home token management contract should be called with the recipient and value parameters of the token transfer.
Then, when the AMB bridge process the message, on Home network:
- The AMB Oracle will call Home AMB bridge contract.
- Home AMB bridge will call
handleBridgedTokensmethod of the Home Token Management contract. -
handleBridgedTokensmethod will Mint the Tokens.
Here is a representation of the steps explained above:
Transferring tokens from Home network to the Foreign network works in a similar way. The only difference is that Home Token Management contract will Burn the transferred tokens, and Foreign Token Management contract will unlock the tokens.
Code examples
Taking in consideration that the token contract address, the AMB bridge contract address, the token management contract address of the other network and the execution gas limit were stored in the contract on the initialization of it, this is an example of onTokenTransfer implementation:
function onTokenTransfer(address _from, uint256 _value, bytes /*_data*/) external returns (bool) {
require(msg.sender == erc677token());
...
bytes4 methodSelector = ITokenManagement(address(0)).handleBridgedTokens.selector;
bytes memory data = abi.encodeWithSelector(methodSelector, _from, _value, uniqueSecuence);
bridgeContract().requireToPassMessage(tokenManagementContractOnOtherSide(), data, executionGasLimit());
// Save value and from related to the data hash in case the message fails on the other side
bytes32 dataHash = keccak256(data);
setMessageHashValue(dataHash, _value);
setMessageHashRecipient(dataHash, _from);
return true;
}
Here is the example implementation of the method handleBridgedTokens on Home network:
function handleBridgedTokens(address _recipient, uint256 _value, bytes32 /* uniqueSecuence */) external {
require(msg.sender == address(bridgeContract()));
require(bridgeContract().messageSender() == tokenManagementContract());
...
erc677token().mint(_recipient, _value);
}
In case the execution of handleBridgedTokens fails, any user could call the following method in Home Network to request a fix for the transfer performed previously on the Foreign Network.
function requestFailedMessageFix(bytes32 _txHash) external {
require(!bridgeContract().messageCallStatus(_txHash));
require(bridgeContract().failedMessageReceiver(_txHash) == address(this));
require(bridgeContract().failedMessageSender(_txHash) == tokenManagementContractOnOtherSide());
// Get the data hash related to the message
bytes32 dataHash = bridgeContract().failedMessageDataHash(_txHash);
bytes4 methodSelector = ITokenManagement(address(0)).fixFailedMessage.selector;
bytes memory data = abi.encodeWithSelector(methodSelector, dataHash);
bridgeContract().requireToPassMessage(mediatorContractOnOtherSide(), data, requestGasLimit());
}
Here is the example implementation of the method in Foreign Network that will unlock the transferred tokens after the request to fix a failed message from the Home Network.
function fixFailedMessage(bytes32 _dataHash) external {
require(msg.sender == address(bridgeContract()));
require(messageSender() == tokenManagementContractOnOtherSide());
require(!messageHashFixed(_dataHash));
// Get values stored in onTokenTransfer method
address recipient = messageHashRecipient(_dataHash);
uint256 value = messageHashValue(_dataHash);
// Mark hash as fixed to avoid fixing it twice
setMessageHashFixed(_dataHash);
token().transfer(_recipient, _value);
}
