Hello and welcome. Today we’re talking about using decentralized apps safely—and how two minutes of friction can save you from months of pain. Quick story. Consensus week, Austin, April 2023. I’d just finished a panel on dApp security, grabbed a terrible hotel coffee, and sat down to try a shiny new DeFi vault I’d been hyping to my team. Clean architecture, audits, thoughtful controls. I joked I’d let my mom use it. I scanned the WalletConnect QR. First signature pops up. Then Coinbase Wallet flashes a simulation banner: “This signature may grant unlimited spending of USDC to an unknown contract.” My thumb froze over Sign. The founders—let’s call them Jake and Priya—were right there. “It’s just Permit2,” Jake said. “Gasless approval. Everyone does it.” I get it. But “everyone does it” isn’t a security model. I checked the EIP-712 typed data. Domain looked right. ChainId matched Arbitrum. Contract was verified. Spender matched docs. But the value was max uint—unlimited—and the deadline was basically the year 2100. That’s what made my neck hairs stand up. I pasted the data into Rabby and Tenderly. Clear as day: if I signed, their Permit2 spender could move unlimited USDC from my wallet indefinitely. Not just for this deposit—forever. Sure, I could revoke later. Sure, reputable teams don’t abuse approvals. But what if their keys get popped? What if a rogue admin ships a hot patch? In those scenarios, my funds were fair game without another on-chain move from me. I went back and said, “It works, but the window is too wide. Give me limited approvals—exact amounts or short deadlines. That’s what I’ll back.” Jake worried about losing users. Priya said, “We’ll lose the right users if we don’t.” We grabbed my burner wallet—fresh seed, small balance. I set a manual approval for 100 USDC with a 15-minute deadline, deposited, and it worked perfectly. Two transactions, a few extra cents, boring in the best way. Crisis averted—or so I thought. A couple hours later, a friend DMs me: “Gasless claim from airdrop partner. Signed and… my BAYC is gone.” It wasn’t a simple message; it was a slick EIP-712 setApprovalForAll disguised as harmless. Flawless phishing site, punycode domain, matching favicon. They scanned, signed, and seconds later the NFT was drained. That hit me. I almost waved off my spidey-sense because I trusted the team. Trust is fine—until it isn’t. The messy middle of dApp security isn’t just code; it’s micro-decisions: a rushed click, a network switch you don’t read, an “unlimited” you’ll revoke “later.” The difference between safe and sorry is often two minutes. So I wrote a rule I now give every client: the Two‑Minute Drill. Before you sign or send on a new dApp, take two minutes and do this: 1) Verify the domain. - Phishing sites are scary good. Don’t trust a single link. - Confirm the URL from two independent sources—official X and GitHub, or Discord and docs. - Don’t click links in DMs. Be wary of QR codes on swag; they’re easy to swap. - Watch for punycode lookalikes. Treat links like they’re loaded. 2) Confirm your network. - Malicious RPCs can’t directly steal funds, but they can lie, censor, or route you to a fake chain. - Check chainId and network in your wallet. - If you get “Add/Switch network,” don’t click through. Verify on chainlist.org first. 3) Read the full signature data. - For EIP-712, verify domain: name, chainId, verifyingContract. Do they match the dApp? - Check message fields: spender, value, deadline. Be suspicious of unlimited values or deadlines decades out. - Identify the function: permit, setApprovalForAll, or custom. For NFTs, setApprovalForAll gives full transfer rights. If you don’t recognize the operator, stop. 4) Simulate before you sign. - Use wallet simulation if available. Rabby, Tenderly, others can show effects. - If simulation fails, shows unexpected transfers, or unknown contracts, back out. 5) Prefer limited approvals and timers. - Use exact amounts or tight caps, with short deadlines. - For one-offs, 15–60 minutes is great. Two transactions are worth the reduced risk. 6) Use a burner and segregate funds. - Keep a small hot wallet for experiments. Keep long-term holdings in a hardware wallet you never connect to random sites. - Consider separate addresses per ecosystem. Compartmentalization limits blast radius. 7) Revoke and review regularly. - After using a dApp, prune approvals. Use Revoke.cash or token approval pages on explorers. - Set a monthly reminder to clean stale approvals. 8) Lock down your environment. - Update OS and browser. Use a password manager and hardware-backed 2FA (not SMS). - Minimize browser extensions. Avoid public Wi‑Fi; if you must, use a VPN. - Never screen-share a wallet signing window. 9) Have a recovery playbook. - If you sign something sketchy or hit a phishing site: immediately revoke suspicious spenders, move assets to a safe wallet, rotate exposed keys, alert the project/community. Speed matters. Here’s the mindset shift: assume every signature is a withdrawal slip on your funds. Slow your breathing and read it like it matters—because it does. You’re allowed to say no, even when a team says, “It’s standard.” Standards evolve. Your risk tolerance isn’t a UX bug. After the conference, I circled back to that DeFi team. They added limited approvals and a clear explainer on Permit2 and why time-bound caps are safer. They didn’t lose users. They built trust with the ones who read before they sign. Those are the people you want around when markets get weird. So next time you’re scanning a QR at a conference or chasing an airdrop late at night, remember: two minutes now beats two months of damage control. Verify the domain. Confirm the network. Read the signature. Simulate it. Limit approvals. Use a burner. Revoke when you’re done. None of this is flashy. All of it works. If you’ve got teammates or friends who are “just click it” types, share this. Make the Two‑Minute Drill a habit across your group. The more we normalize thoughtful friction, the harder it is for scammers and the easier it is for good teams to build safe defaults. I’ll leave you with the line that ran through my head that night in Austin: stop, read the signature. That simple pause keeps your assets where they belong—and your future self out of an ugly tax-season conversation. Stay safe out there. Catch you next time.