openzeppelin-contracts/contracts/introspection

sections
{title Local} {contracts [IERC165 ERC165 ERC165Checker]}] [{title Global} {contracts [IERC1820Registry IERC1820Implementer ERC1820Implementer]}

This set of interfaces and contracts deal with type introspection of contracts, that is, examining which functions can be called on them. This is usually referred to as a contract's interface.

Ethereum contracts have no native concept of an interface, so applications must usually simply trust they are not making an incorrect call. For trusted setups this is a non-issue, but often unknown and untrusted third-party addresses need to be interacted with. There may even not be any direct calls to them! (e.g. ERC20 tokens may be sent to a contract that lacks a way to transfer them out of it, locking them forever). In these cases, a contract declaring its interface can be very helpful in preventing errors.

There are two main ways to approach this.

• Locally, where a contract implements IERC165 and declares an interface, and a second one queries it directly via ERC165Checker.
• Globally, where a global and unique registry (IERC1820Registry) is used to register implementers of a certain interface (IERC1820Implementer). It is then the registry that is queried, which allows for more complex setups, like contracts implementing interfaces for externally-owned accounts.

Note that, in all cases, accounts simply declare their interfaces, but they are not required to actually implement them. This mechanism can therefore be used to both prevent errors and allow for complex interactions (see ERC777), but it must not be relied on for security.