Field note · 18 June 2026
What an approval prompt is asking you to allow
A transfer moves a stated amount once. An approval, or a delegate on a token account, gives another program permission to move tokens later, up to a ceiling you set at signing time. Visitors mix the two because both arrive as a wallet pop-up with a confirm button. The words above that button are the difference.
In the workshop we lay two printed previews side by side. The transfer names a recipient and an amount. The approval names a delegate and an amount that may be spent afterward, sometimes the entire balance of that token account. If the amount is described as unlimited, or the number is larger than anything you meant to pay, you are not looking at a one-time bill. You are opening a standing permission.
Ask which program is requesting it. A swap you chose on purpose will ask for authority over the token you are swapping, in an amount that matches the trade. A page you reached from a short link, a comment, or an unexpected airdrop will often ask for a signature before it has shown you a trade. Decline those. You can close the tab. Nothing in a careful visit requires you to sign in order to “see” a balance you can already see in your own wallet.
Permissions linger. Revoking a delegate is its own transaction, with its own fee, and it has to be signed by you later. People forget which sites they approved in a busy week. A useful Saturday task is to open the wallet’s token list and review delegates while nothing is urging you to mint. Bring that screen to a private session if you want a reader beside you; we will not revoke anything ourselves.
Signatures that “only prove you own the wallet” still deserve a full read. Some of them are harmless off-chain messages. Some previews hide a transaction inside a friendly sentence. If the preview shows account keys, a program id, and writable accounts, you are not looking at a greeting. Read it as a transaction.