In the rapidly changing world of cryptocurrency, smart contracts play a pivotal role in facilitating transactions and automating processes. However, with great power comes great responsibility, these contracts often require extensive permissions to access your tokens. This can expose you to significant risks if a contract is malicious, poorly coded, or compromised. Fraud developers always build backdoors into smart contracts to get access to the funds of unaware users who interact with smart contracts.
Revoking access to smart contracts is a crucial step in safeguarding your assets and maintaining control over your cryptocurrency holdings. In this article, we will explore the importance of revoking smart contract access, the steps involved in the process, and best practices to ensure your digital assets remain secure. By understanding how to manage these permissions effectively, you can protect yourself from potential threats in the decentralized finance landscape.
What is Meant by Revoking Smart Contract?
Revoking smart contracts means deactivating or terminating their functionality on a blockchain network. Revoking restricts access to the user’s crypto wallet and ability to transfer tokens. It also restricts permission to view a user’s token balance or public address.
An individual can revoke a smart contract for several reasons, such as not wanting to purchase, sell, or transfer a digital asset or use the smart contract in the future. In other cases, fraud developers create backdoors into smart contracts to gain unauthorized access to unknown user’s funds.
Similar to any other contract, smart contracts are unchangeable. Once the parties have agreed on certain contract terms, they are written on the blockchain, which makes them irreversible.
Updating the contract is the only way to change its terms. Upgrading means swapping the underlying smart contract of a decentralized app (dApp) for another. Another way is that the parties can opt for an upgradable contract from the beginning, allowing them to modify the smart contract whenever they want.
No one controls smart contracts. The code written to the blockchain will be executed when a predefined condition is met. The activities include upgrading the blockchain and transferring notifications. Only the parties involved in the contract have access to the transaction details.
Revoking Smart Contracts via Token Block Explorer
Block explorers like Polygonscan and Etherscan have a token approval tool, which can be used to revoke permissions and approvals. Let’s look at the steps to use this tool to revoke smart contracts. Kindly note that only the address owner will be able to revoke the smart contract.
- Go to the token approval page.
- In the search bar, enter your address and click on the ‘search’ button.
- If there are any smart contracts associated with the address, it will be shown in the upcoming list.
- Click on the ‘connect to Web3; button to connect to the wallet.
- After successfully connecting the wallet, click on the ‘revoke’ button to revoke the smart contract.
How to Revoke Smart Contract Access to Your Cryptocurrency
Let’s look at the steps needed when revoking smart contracts on the Ethereum mainnet.
Revoke Access Tools
There are numerous third-party revoke access tools available that can be used by users to track and revoke smart contracts connected to their addresses. To commence the process, you can connect to any of the following websites:
- approved.zone: Ethereum
- Revoke: multiple networks
- EverRise: multiple networks
- Ethallowance: Ethereum
- Unrekt: multiple networks
- Beefy.finance: BNB Smart Chain
- Etherscan: Ethereum
- Cointool: multiple networks
Connect the Wallet
After connecting to the website, click on the ‘connect wallet’ button. You should ensure that you are on the same network when connecting the website to your wallet, as revoke access tools only work in one kind of chain.
For example, you will not be able to revoke a Polygon smart contract if you connect your website to the Ethereum mainnet.
Choose Smart Contract
The smart contract tool will list out all the supported smart contracts, showing their access and spending limits. You have to choose the one that you want to revoke.
Revoke Access
Once you have selected the one that you want to revoke, click on the ‘revoke’ button, pay for the transaction, and wait a few minutes to complete the transaction. To confirm the revoked transaction is successful, just log out and log back into the website. If the revoke is successful, the smart contract will not be on the list.
Does Revoking Token Access Terminates DeFi Strategies?
The answer is no. Users will be able to retain their positions in DeFi strategies like pooling, staking, and lending, allowing them to receive rewards. However, revoking smart contracts will affect them, depending on the context and how the strategy is formed.
The the DeFi ecosystem, users can allow smart contracts to access their digital assets for several functions like trading, lending, and staking. Once the smart contract is revoked, it can no longer access the user’s tokens on their behalf, restricting them from moving or managing the tokens.
Conclusion
Revoking access to smart contracts is an essential practice for anyone involved in cryptocurrency. As the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem continues to grow, so do the potential risks associated with smart contracts. By regularly reviewing and managing the permissions granted to these contracts, you can significantly enhance the security of your digital assets.
The process of revocation is straightforward and can be accomplished using various tools, ensuring that you maintain control over your tokens. Remember, the key to protecting your cryptocurrency lies in vigilance and proactive management. By adopting best practices, such as limiting access and conducting regular audits of your permissions, you can protect your investments against unauthorized access and potential losses.