---
title: Introduction
sidebar_label: Introduction
sidebar_position: 1
slug: /how-it-works/introduction
---

# How it works?

:::info

[ICS-27](https://github.com/cosmos/ibc/tree/main/spec/app/ics-027-interchain-accounts) is an interchain standard
that specifies packet data structure, state machine handling logic, and encoding details for the account management
system over an IBC channel between separate chains.

:::

CosmWasm provides native entry points for IBC channel and packet semantics (known as [ICS-4](https://github.com/cosmos/ibc/tree/main/spec/core/ics-004-channel-and-packet-semantics)).
This allows CosmWasm contracts to implement interchain specifications for IBC applications. Some notable examples are:

- [`cw20-ics20`](https://github.com/CosmWasm/cw-plus/tree/main/contracts/cw20-ics20) contract which implements the [ICS-20](https://github.com/cosmos/ibc/tree/main/spec/app/ics-020-fungible-token-transfer) fungible token transfer standard.
- [`cw-ics721`](https://github.com/public-awesome/cw-ics721) contract which implements the [ICS-721](https://github.com/cosmos/ibc/tree/main/spec/app/ics-721-nft-transfer) non-fungible token transfer standard.

CosmWasm ICA Controller is a contract that implements the [ICS-27](https://github.com/cosmos/ibc/tree/main/spec/app/ics-027-interchain-accounts) interchain accounts standard. It allows this contract to manage accounts an another chain.
This means that this contract doesn't rely on the golang implementation of the ICS-27, but rather implements it in Rust and provides a CosmWasm native API for managing accounts on another chain.

It is important to note that this contract is not a full implementation of the ICS-27 standard. It only implements the
controller contract, which is responsible for creating and managing accounts on another chain. The contract does not
implement the ICA host module, which is responsible for executing the ICA transactions sent by the controller contract.

Most IBC enabled chains do have the golang implementation of the ICS-27 standard, so you can use the CosmWasm ICA
Controller contract to manage accounts on those chains, the Cosmos Hub, Osmosis, etc.

In this section, we will go over the following topics:

- ⚔️ [Golang ICA Controller vs CosmWasm ICA Controller](./02-go-vs-cosmwasm.mdx)
- 🤝 [Channel Opening Handshake](./03-channel-handshake.mdx)
- ✉️ [Packet Data Structure](./04-packet-data.mdx)