Native Assets vs Token Approvals

Overview

On Ethereum, interacting with DeFi requires the approval pattern: users call approve() to grant a contract permission to move their tokens via transferFrom(). This pattern has enabled over $100 million in losses — malicious or compromised contracts can drain any previously approved tokens.

Radix's Approach

Radix eliminates approvals entirely. Assets are native resources that move directly between vaults via transaction manifests. Each transaction explicitly specifies what moves where — there's no standing permission to exploit.

This is why Radix is uniquely suited for AI agents: autonomous agents never grant risky approvals, and their transactions are fully verifiable before signing.