OGGlossary OSSolana vocabulary rebuilt for builders.
ENPT-BRES
Web3

Token Approval

The permission granted to a program or delegate address to spend a specified amount of tokens from your account on your behalf. Token approvals are necessary for DeFi interactions like swapping or depositing into liquidity pools. On Solana, the SPL Token program's approve instruction sets a delegate and approved amount on a token account. Approvals should be set to the minimum needed and revoked when no longer required to limit exposure to potential exploits.

IDtoken-approval
Plain meaning

Plain meaning

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The permission granted to a program or delegate address to spend a specified amount of tokens from your account on your behalf. Token approvals are necessary for DeFi interactions like swapping or depositing into liquidity pools. On Solana, the SPL Token program's approve instruction sets a delegate and approved amount on a token account. Approvals should be set to the minimum needed and revoked when no longer required to limit exposure to potential exploits.

Mental model

Mental model

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Technical context

Technical context

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Wallets, signing flows, dApps, and key management concepts.

Why builders care

Why builders care

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Token Approval (token-approval)
Category: Web3
Definition: The permission granted to a program or delegate address to spend a specified amount of tokens from your account on your behalf. Token approvals are necessary for DeFi interactions like swapping or depositing into liquidity pools. On Solana, the SPL Token program's approve instruction sets a delegate and approved amount on a token account. Approvals should be set to the minimum needed and revoked when no longer required to limit exposure to potential exploits.
Related: Revoke Approval, SPL Token Program, Authority
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Concept graph

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Branch

Revoke Approval

The act of removing a previously granted token spending permission from a program or delegate, preventing it from transferring your tokens in the future. Revoking approvals is an important security practice after interacting with DeFi protocols, especially unfamiliar ones, because outstanding approvals could be exploited if the approved program is compromised. On Solana, tools like Revoke.cash and wallet-built-in features allow users to view and revoke active token approvals.

Self-CustodySmart Contract Risk
Open term
Branch

SPL Token Program

The original Solana Program Library token program (TokenkegQfeZyiNwAJbNbGKPFXCWuBvf9Ss623VQ5DA) that implements fungible and non-fungible token operations. It manages mints (token definitions) and token accounts (balances). Core instructions include InitializeMint, MintTo, Transfer, Burn, Approve (delegation), and Revoke. All SPL tokens on mainnet before Token-2022 use this program.

MintToken Account
Open term
Branch

Authority

A pubkey with administrative privileges over a resource—such as the mint authority (can mint tokens), freeze authority (can freeze accounts), upgrade authority (can upgrade a program), or the signer authorized to perform operations on a PDA-controlled account. Authority is a convention, not a runtime concept.

Owner (Account)Signer
Open term
Next concepts to explore

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Web3

Revoke Approval

The act of removing a previously granted token spending permission from a program or delegate, preventing it from transferring your tokens in the future. Revoking approvals is an important security practice after interacting with DeFi protocols, especially unfamiliar ones, because outstanding approvals could be exploited if the approved program is compromised. On Solana, tools like Revoke.cash and wallet-built-in features allow users to view and revoke active token approvals.

Open term
Token Ecosystem

SPL Token Program

The original Solana Program Library token program (TokenkegQfeZyiNwAJbNbGKPFXCWuBvf9Ss623VQ5DA) that implements fungible and non-fungible token operations. It manages mints (token definitions) and token accounts (balances). Core instructions include InitializeMint, MintTo, Transfer, Burn, Approve (delegation), and Revoke. All SPL tokens on mainnet before Token-2022 use this program.

Open term
Programming Model

Authority

A pubkey with administrative privileges over a resource—such as the mint authority (can mint tokens), freeze authority (can freeze accounts), upgrade authority (can upgrade a program), or the signer authorized to perform operations on a PDA-controlled account. Authority is a convention, not a runtime concept.

Open term
Web3

Token Standard

A specification defining how tokens are created and managed on a blockchain. Ethereum: ERC-20 (fungible), ERC-721 (NFT), ERC-1155 (multi-token). Solana: SPL Token (fungible/NFT), Token-2022 (extended features), Metaplex standards (NFT metadata). Standards ensure wallet/marketplace interoperability and composability across the ecosystem.

Open term
Commonly confused with

Terms nearby in vocabulary, acronym, or conceptual neighborhood.

These entries are easy to mix up when you are reading quickly, prompting an LLM, or onboarding into a new layer of Solana.

Web3token-standard

Token Standard

A specification defining how tokens are created and managed on a blockchain. Ethereum: ERC-20 (fungible), ERC-721 (NFT), ERC-1155 (multi-token). Solana: SPL Token (fungible/NFT), Token-2022 (extended features), Metaplex standards (NFT metadata). Standards ensure wallet/marketplace interoperability and composability across the ecosystem.

Open term
Web3revoke-approval

Revoke Approval

The act of removing a previously granted token spending permission from a program or delegate, preventing it from transferring your tokens in the future. Revoking approvals is an important security practice after interacting with DeFi protocols, especially unfamiliar ones, because outstanding approvals could be exploited if the approved program is compromised. On Solana, tools like Revoke.cash and wallet-built-in features allow users to view and revoke active token approvals.

Open term
Related terms

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Web3revoke-approval

Revoke Approval

The act of removing a previously granted token spending permission from a program or delegate, preventing it from transferring your tokens in the future. Revoking approvals is an important security practice after interacting with DeFi protocols, especially unfamiliar ones, because outstanding approvals could be exploited if the approved program is compromised. On Solana, tools like Revoke.cash and wallet-built-in features allow users to view and revoke active token approvals.

Open term
Token Ecosystemspl-token

SPL Token Program

The original Solana Program Library token program (TokenkegQfeZyiNwAJbNbGKPFXCWuBvf9Ss623VQ5DA) that implements fungible and non-fungible token operations. It manages mints (token definitions) and token accounts (balances). Core instructions include InitializeMint, MintTo, Transfer, Burn, Approve (delegation), and Revoke. All SPL tokens on mainnet before Token-2022 use this program.

Open term
Programming Modelauthority

Authority

A pubkey with administrative privileges over a resource—such as the mint authority (can mint tokens), freeze authority (can freeze accounts), upgrade authority (can upgrade a program), or the signer authorized to perform operations on a PDA-controlled account. Authority is a convention, not a runtime concept.

Open term
More in category

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These entries live beside the current term and help the page feel like part of a larger knowledge graph instead of a dead end.

Web3

Web3

The vision of a decentralized internet built on blockchain technology, where users own their data, identity, and digital assets. Web1 was read-only (static pages), Web2 is read-write (platforms like social media), Web3 is read-write-own (permissionless, user-sovereign). Web3 applications use wallets instead of logins and smart contracts instead of centralized servers.

Open term
Web3

dApp (Decentralized Application)

An application with its backend logic running on a blockchain as smart contracts rather than centralized servers. dApps typically have a traditional web frontend that interacts with on-chain programs via RPC. Users authenticate with wallets instead of username/password. Examples: Uniswap (Ethereum DEX), Jupiter (Solana DEX), Magic Eden (NFT marketplace).

Open term
Web3

Wallet

Software or hardware that manages cryptographic keys and enables users to sign transactions, view balances, and interact with dApps. Hot wallets (Phantom, Solflare, Backpack) are internet-connected for convenience. Cold wallets (Ledger, Trezor) store keys offline for security. Wallets don't actually 'hold' tokens—they hold the private keys that control on-chain accounts.

Open term
Web3

Seed Phrase (Mnemonic)

A 12 or 24-word human-readable backup of a wallet's master private key, generated using BIP-39 standard. The seed phrase can deterministically regenerate all derived keypairs (BIP-44 derivation paths). Losing the seed phrase means permanently losing access to all associated accounts. Never share, photograph, or store seed phrases digitally in plain text.

Open term