Review a transaction
Intended reader: anyone about to approve anything. Goal: understanding what you are authorizing before you authorize it. Prerequisites: a pending approval on screen. Safety: this is the last point at which the outcome is still up to you.
The approval screen is stacked in a fixed order, and the order is deliberate. Read it from the top.
Blocking problems come first, then what actually happens to your money, then the overall status, then non-blocking warnings, then the full detail. Reject sits beside Approve at the same size.
The four lines that matter most
Section titled “The four lines that matter most”Even in a hurry, read these four.
- Leaves your wallet
- 0.03450000 BTC
- Comes back to you
- 0.01446152 BTC
- Network fee
- 0.00003848 BTC at 18.5 sat/vB
- Assets touched
- None
- What leaves. Not what you typed. What the transaction actually spends.
- What comes back. Your change. If this is missing or much smaller than you expected, the difference went to the fee.
- The fee. Stated once, in one place, as an amount and a rate.
- Assets touched. If this is not “none” on a payment you intended to be plain money, stop.
Reading it in full
Section titled “Reading it in full”Blocking
Section titled “Blocking”A check that failed hard. Approve stays disabled and you cannot click through it. This is not advice; it is a refusal.
Impact
Section titled “Impact”What leaves, what returns, the net change, and any assets touched. Every line carries a confidence mark of EXACT, ESTIMATED, or UNKNOWN. See Confidence marks.
Status
Section titled “Status”Ready, Review, or Blocked. It can never read Ready while any fact on the screen is unknown.
Warnings
Section titled “Warnings”Things worth knowing that do not block: address reputation notes, decoded risk rows, advisories. Each risk row is labelled Warning or Critical in words, not only by colour.
Details
Section titled “Details”Network and account, the destination and whether it is external to your wallet, the fee, every input and output, which inputs are protected, and the raw transaction so you can inspect it elsewhere.
When to reject
Section titled “When to reject”Reject, without hesitating, if any of these is true.
- The change output is missing and you cannot account for the remainder.
- The destination is not the address you expect, character for character at both ends.
- An amount is larger than you intended, in any line.
- Anything is marked unknown.
- The origin shown is not the site you think you are on.
- A protected coin is being spent and you did not deliberately start an asset transfer.
- You do not understand what the transaction does.
Expected result
Section titled “Expected result”Approving broadcasts the transaction and moves you to a result screen with a transaction id. Rejecting closes the request and tells the requesting site you declined.
How to verify afterwards
Section titled “How to verify afterwards”- The activity entry shows the same amount and the same fee you saw on the review.
- Your balance dropped by amount plus fee, and nothing else moved.
- Any asset you hold is still listed.