Field note · 3 April 2026
How to read a Solana transfer before you sign
A transfer preview is a short list with a large consequence. In the reading room we read it from top to bottom, out loud, before anyone’s thumb goes near the confirm control. The habit sounds slow. It is the whole skill.
Start with the signer. The address that must approve the transaction should be the account you meant to spend from. If a second account is listed as a signer and you do not recognise it, stop. You are being asked to authorise more than a simple send.
Then the recipient. The first four and last four characters are only a glance. Compare the full string with the address you copied from the person or the exchange deposit page, character by character, in a large type size. Attackers still register lookalike addresses that match the head and the tail. If the wallet preview hides the middle of the address, decline and ask for a preview that shows the full string.
Read the amount in the unit you think you are sending. A SOL amount and an SPL token amount are different lines. The token also has a mint address: the identifier of that token. A token with a familiar ticker and an unfamiliar mint is a different asset. The workshop binder includes one preview where the ticker looks ordinary and the mint does not. Most tables catch it only when they are told to read the mint line on purpose.
Note who pays the fee. On Solana the fee payer is often the signer, and the fee is a separate lamport amount from the transfer. If the fee line is wildly larger than the transfer you intended, treat that as a reason to cancel, not as a suggestion to hurry.
A recent blockhash means the unsigned transaction expires. If you left the preview open through lunch and the wallet now warns that it is stale, do not sign a refreshed copy without reading it again. The new copy can carry a new recipient. Simulation, when the wallet shows one, is a rehearsal of the account changes. Read the simulated balance change. If the simulation fails and a banner insists you must raise the fee and sign anyway, close it and come back with the transaction written down.