Reading token approvals (and revoking them safely)

Every time you approved a token to trade, mint or stake, you left a standing permission. Most of those permissions are still active. None of them expire on their own.

Why old approvals matter

An approval is a signed permission slip addressed to a contract. If that contract is exploited later, your old approval is the attack path - no fresh signature needed from you.

The five-minute audit

• Open a reputable revocation dashboard and connect read-only.
• Sort by unlimited allowances first - those are the expensive ones.
• Revoke anything you do not recognize. Revoking costs a small gas fee and breaks nothing you still use; the app will simply ask again next time.

Habits that prevent the pile-up

Prefer exact-amount approvals over unlimited when the option exists, and make the audit a monthly ritual - same day you check your portfolio anyway.