How to revoke token approvals?

Smart contract/token allowances, often known as approvals, require you to grant permission to decentralized applications (dApps) to access and transfer tokens from your wallet on your behalf. For example, when you use a DEX (decentralized exchange), you’ll need to sign an approval that allows its smart contract to take tokens to complete your requested trades. While this may sound inherently risky, it's crucial to understand that providing dApps with some level of allowance is always a requirement. If you want to use Web3, such allowances are unavoidable.

Why revoking approval and disconnecting Apps are fundamentally different?

Disconnecting your wallet from a dApp involves canceling permission to see your public address and your token balances and, depending on what you originally consented to, stopping it from initiating transactions (although not executing them) and viewing past activity.

Revoking an approval/allowance means a dApp can no longer access the contents of your wallet and move them around.

Why do you need to revoke permissions and token approvals?

Many crisis cases tell us that decentralized dApps come with their own set of problems — the first being the high tendency of being hacked. The nascency of smart contract-enabled applications, coupled with the lack of industry standards, makes it a lot easier for hackers to capitalize on security loopholes.

In light of this existing threat, it is imperative to occasionally review the smart contracts or dApps that have been authorized to conduct sensitive transactions on your behalf. You need to revoke the permissions granted to dApps you no longer trust or those undergoing smart contract upgrades. Also, it is always advisable to do the same to dApps that you have not used in a while. You can easily re-sign the permissions whenever you want to start using them again. Ultimately, this will limit the risks your wallet is exposed to at each given time.

How to revoke token approvals on Halo Wallet?

There're many ways for you to revoke tokens approvals, with common ones listed below.

1) Revoke on block explorer

Open the Halo Wallet App and head to the 'approval checker' section of the block explorer for the network you're using on the browser page.

For example, visit Etherscan, BscScan and Polygonscan and connect your wallet. Click to revoke any token approvals on the page.

2) Revoke via other tools:

• Open the Halo Wallet App and visit the website of the following tools on the browser page.

- Revoke (Many networks)

- Cointool (multiple networks)

- Unrekt (multiple networks)

- EverRevoke (multiple networks)

• On the approve checker page, click [Connect Wallet] button to connect your wallet to the portal.

• For each token on your wallet, you will be able to see the smart contracts that have the approval to either access it or submit transactions on your behalf. You can select the specific approval you want to cancel from here.

• Next, click on [Revoke] to cancel the token approval. By doing so, you will trigger a signature request in your wallet. Approve this request and pay the appropriate gas fee to complete the process.

You can try to switch to a different smart chain and repeat the above operation.

👉 For Android users, you can directly head to the [Discover More] section and click the [Tools] tab. Choose a platform such as Cointool, EverRevoke, or Unrekt that support multiple networks to revoke the token approvals.

After all these steps, you’ve successfully revoked smart contract allowances/token approvals! 🎉

We strongly recommend that our users get into the habit of regularly checking your token approvals. Halo Wallet will always help users to protect your on-chain assets.