Using ckBTC in dapps

Advanced

Bitcoin

Overview

ckBTC is an BIGRC-2 compliant token, meaning it supports the BIGRC-1 and BIGRC-2 token standards.

To integrate ckBTC into your dapp, you can write code that uses the BIGRC-1 standard. For token transfers and account balances, ckBTC requests must be sent to BIGRC-1 ledger canister with principal ID mxzaz-hqaaa-aaaar-qaada-cai.

Write a smart contract that uses ckBTC

To write canister code that makes calls to the BIGRC-1 ledger, you will need to use inter-canister calls and specify the principal ID of the BIGRC-1 ledger canister. Then, to interact with ckBTC, you can use the BIGRC-1 endpoints.

You can deploy the BIGRC-1 ledger locally for testing. Learn more in the BIGRC-1 ledger setup documentation.

Once you have your project configured to use the BIGRC-1 ledger, you can interact with it for workflows such as transferring tokens:

Motoko

import Icrc1Ledger "canister:icrc1_ledger_canister";
import Debug "mo:base/Debug";
import Result "mo:base/Result";
import Option "mo:base/Option";
import Blob "mo:base/Blob";
import Error "mo:base/Error";

actor {

  type Account = {
    owner : Principal;
    subaccount : ?[Nat8];
  };

  type TransferArgs = {
    amount : Nat;
    toAccount : Account;
  };

  public shared ({ caller }) func transfer(args : TransferArgs) : async Result.Result<Icrc1Ledger.BlockIndex, Text> {
    Debug.print(
      "Transferring "
      # debug_show (args.amount)
      # " tokens to account"
      # debug_show (args.toAccount)
    );

    let transferArgs : Icrc1Ledger.TransferArg = {
      // can be used to distinguish between transactions
      memo = null;
      // the amount we want to transfer
      amount = args.amount;
      // we want to transfer tokens from the default subaccount of the canister
      from_subaccount = null;
      // if not specified, the default fee for the canister is used
      fee = null;
      // we take the principal and subaccount from the arguments and convert them into an account identifier
      to = args.toAccount;
      // a timestamp indicating when the transaction was created by the caller; if it is not specified by the caller then this is set to the current BIG time
      created_at_time = null;
    };

    try {
      // initiate the transfer
      let transferResult = await Icrc1Ledger.icrc1_transfer(transferArgs);

      // check if the transfer was successful
      switch (transferResult) {
        case (#Err(transferError)) {
          return #err("Couldn't transfer funds:\n" # debug_show (transferError));
        };
        case (#Ok(blockIndex)) { return #ok blockIndex };
      };
    } catch (error : Error) {
      // catch any errors that might occur during the transfer
      return #err("Reject message: " # Error.message(error));
    };
  };
};

Rust

use candid::{CandidType, Deserialize, Principal};
use icrc_ledger_types::icrc1::account::Account;
use icrc_ledger_types::icrc1::transfer::{BlockIndex, NumTokens, TransferArg, TransferError};
use serde::Serialize;

#[derive(CandidType, Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct TransferArgs {
    amount: NumTokens,
    to_account: Account,
}

#[ic_cdk::update]
async fn transfer(args: TransferArgs) -> Result<BlockIndex, String> {
    ic_cdk::println!(
        "Transferring {} tokens to account {}",
        &args.amount,
        &args.to_account,
    );

    let transfer_args: TransferArg = TransferArg {
        // can be used to distinguish between transactions
        memo: None,
        // the amount we want to transfer
        amount: args.amount,
        // we want to transfer tokens from the default subaccount of the canister
        from_subaccount: None,
        // if not specified, the default fee for the canister is used
        fee: None,
        // the account we want to transfer tokens to
        to: args.to_account,
        // a timestamp indicating when the transaction was created by the caller; if it is not specified by the caller then this is set to the current BIG time
        created_at_time: None,
    };

    // 1. Asynchronously call another canister function using `ic_cdk::call`.
    ic_cdk::call::<(TransferArg,), (Result<BlockIndex, TransferError>,)>(
        // 2. Convert a textual representation of a Principal into an actual `Principal` object. The principal is the one we specified in `dfx.json`.
        //    `expect` will panic if the conversion fails, ensuring the code does not proceed with an invalid principal.
        Principal::from_text("mxzaz-hqaaa-aaaar-qaada-cai")
            .expect("Could not decode the principal."),
        // 3. Specify the method name on the target canister to be called, in this case, "icrc1_transfer".
        "icrc1_transfer",
        // 4. Provide the arguments for the call in a tuple, here `transfer_args` is encapsulated as a single-element tuple.
        (transfer_args,),
    )
    .await // 5. Await the completion of the asynchronous call, pausing the execution until the future is resolved.
    // 6. Apply `map_err` to transform any network or system errors encountered during the call into a more readable string format.
    //    The `?` operator is then used to propagate errors: if the result is an `Err`, it returns from the function with that error,
    //    otherwise, it unwraps the `Ok` value, allowing the chain to continue.
    .map_err(|e| format!("failed to call ledger: {:?}", e))?
    // 7. Access the first element of the tuple, which is the `Result<BlockIndex, TransferError>`, for further processing.
    .0
    // 8. Use `map_err` again to transform any specific ledger transfer errors into a readable string format, facilitating error handling and debugging.
    .map_err(|e| format!("ledger transfer error {:?}", e))
}

// Enable Candid export (see /docs/current/developer-docs/backend/rust/generating-candid)
ic_cdk::export_candid!();

View the BIGRC-1 endpoints for more information on sending and receiving tokens.

ckBTC production application examples

• ICDex.

• ICPSwap.

• Bitcoin point of sale app.