Minting Cycles in Motoko

This repository provides an example of how to programmatically mint cycles in Motoko by interacting with the ICP Ledger and the Cycles Minting Canister (CMC).

Overview

To mint cycles for a canister, the process involves two main steps:

1. Send ICP to the CMC canister via an icrc1_transfer transaction on the ICP ledger.
2. Notify the CMC with the block index and canister ID to convert the ICP into cycles for the target canister.

Process Flow

sequenceDiagram
    User->>Ledger: Send ICP to CMC via Ledger
    Ledger-->>User: Return block index
    User->>CMC: Send block index and canister ID
    CMC->>Canister: Mint cycles
    CMC-->>User: Confirm cycles minted

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Project Structure

/minting_cycles
│── src/minting_cycles_backend
│   ├── utils/
│   │   ├── types/
│   ├── main.mo  # Main Motoko file handling cycle minting
│── README.md    # Project documentation

How It Works

1. Transfers ICP to the CMC canister.
2. Retrieves the block index from the transfer.
3. Calls notify_top_up with the block index and target canister ID.
4. The CMC converts ICP into cycles and credits them to the specified canister.