What does connecting a wallet do?

Click connect wallet on a dapp and your extension or mobile wallet asks whether to share your address with that site. Say yes and the site learns your public address. That is all.

A site can then ask you to sign a message, approve a token or send a transaction. Token approvals are the nasty part on EVM chains: an unlimited approval lets a contract pull that token from your wallet at any point in the future, long after you closed the tab. A lot of wallet drains start with someone signing a prompt they did not read.

WalletConnect lets a mobile wallet connect to a desktop site through a QR code, and Solana's Wallet Standard lets any compliant wallet talk to any app. Many wallets now simulate a transaction and show what will leave your wallet before you sign. Read that preview. It is the cheapest security check there is.

Imagine a dashboard that needs your address to show balances. Then it asks you to approve USDC. Close the tab. Reading public data never needs a signature, so a read-only tool asking for one is a red flag.

Also called: wallet connection, WalletConnect.

Connecting is optional in Cashboard. The Portfolio widget can ask a browser wallet extension for its address, EVM or Solana depending on the chain you picked, and uses it for nothing else. If an EVM wallet is on a network Cashboard knows, the widget switches to that chain. Or skip the extension and paste the address. Connecting brings no signature or approval prompt, and Cashboard's own code never signs. If you swap on the web, your own wallet signs in Jupiter's or LI.FI's form, and LI.FI's can also ask you to approve a token or switch network.

• Portfolio

• Public address
• Watch-only wallet
• Seed phrase
• Self-custody