Getting Started with IMA

The IMA bridge between SKALE and Ethereum allows users to transfer tokens and messages across chains. The SKALE IMA bridge supports ETH, ERC20, ERC721, and ERC1155 out of the box. IMA can be expanded to any arbitrary message or token standard using MessageProxy.

IMA consists of three parts:

  1. IMA contracts on Ethereum.

  2. IMA contracts pre-deployed on SKALE Chains.

  3. IMA Agent - a containerized service on each SKALE Chain node that relays messages between Ethereum and SKALE Chains.

Developing with IMA is easy. You will only need to interact with the IMA contracts on Ethereum and your SKALE Chain using Web3. The IMA Agent works behind the scenes to relay messages between Ethereum and SKALE.

The high-level flow between Ethereum and SKALE Chains consists of the following:

  • Tokens that leave Ethereum are locked, and the same number of tokens are minted on a SKALE Chain.

  • Tokens that leave SKALE are burned, and then unlocked on Ethereum to complete the transfer.

Deposits and withdraws take only seconds, and are secured using BLS Threshold signatures and secure enclaves from the 16 validator-nodes that support the SKALE Chain.

Key Concepts for the SKALE IMA Bridge

  • Token contracts on Ethereum are deployed and registered on SKALE chains.

  • In order for an Ethereum Mainnet token contract to work with IMA on your SKALE Chain, the token contract copy deployed on SKALE may need to be modified to include MINTABLE and BURNABLE functions. SKALE Chain IMA contracts need to mint and burn the token on SKALE chains to maintain the 1:1 peg with Ethereum. If the token is already using OpenZeppelin’s framework, you can do this by importing Mintable and Burnable contracts that extend the functionality to include mintable and burnable functions. You can also do this by manually modifying the contract by adding mintable and burnable functions.

  • The SKALE Chain contracts "TokenManager.." must be assigned the minter role for your modified token contract. This enables IMA to mint token clones as the tokens are Locked on mainnet contracts.

  • When using ERC721s, be careful with MINT_ID. This is the mapping between Mainnet and SKALE Chain ERC721s. Improper or corrupt mapping may cause loss of ERC721.

  • Be sure to use Web3.js 1.3.5. Don’t use any Web3.js 2.x.x

Troubleshooting

  • When attempting a transaction on the SKALE Chain, why do I receive an error message about balance and gas?

Ensure that the msg.sender has sufficient sFUEL on the SKALE Chain. Users attempting transactions on the SKALE Chain will need some sFUEL to conduct transactions. Remember sFUEL has no value, and is distributed by the SKALE Chain owner to permit users to conduct transactions. When transactions are "mined" by users, the sFUEL gets redistributed to the SKALE Chain owner account. Conducting a getBalance call on the SKALE chain endpoint user’s account will return the sFUEL balance. To display locked ETH, use one of the Informational Ports of the endpoint to return a user’s ETH.

  • I can’t seem to conduct an exit, and I receive a "Recipient must be active" revert message.

Ensure that the end user has provided ETH to the CommunityPool contract. This is used to pay for transactions to execute the exit on Ethereum.

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