Self-custody, explained

How does self-custody work in Neovestor?

1. 1

   Wallets are created when you sign in

   On sign-in, the app creates a Solana wallet and an Ethereum-compatible wallet that works on Base. These are embedded wallets built into the app, so you sign in instead of managing a seed phrase. Login with outside wallet apps is switched off.

2. 2

   You review a quote and confirm

   Every money action follows the same steps: quote, review screen, confirmation with Face ID or your passcode, your signature, broadcast, and status tracking until the transaction is final. Quotes expire after about 30 seconds.

3. 3

   The Transaction Guard checks the exact transaction

   Before a sponsored transaction is sent, the Guard checks its exact bytes against the quote you approved. If any check fails, you see "This transaction couldn't be verified. Nothing was sent." and the app doesn't retry on its own.

4. 4

   A fee payer covers the network fee

   Solana charges every transaction a fee in SOL. In Neovestor a fee payer pays it for you, after the Guard's checks and within fair-use limits, so you don't need to hold SOL for those actions. The fee payer signature is the only thing Neovestor's backend may sign.

What does non-custodial mean in Neovestor?

Neovestor provides software interfaces to self-custodial wallets and to third-party protocols and issuers. It does not custody assets, issue securities or give investment advice.

• Only you can approve transactions. Neovestor can't access your keys.
• Neovestor's servers never hold, derive or export your keys, and never sign as you.
• The app locks with Face ID or your passcode on launch and after five minutes in the background, and the lock is required to confirm a money action.
• You can delete your Neovestor profile in the app. It warns you that your funds stay in your wallet and offers to withdraw them first.

Wallets on Solana and Base hold assets such as USDC, and network fees on Solana are paid in SOL. The assets you hold, from tokenized stocks to earn products, keep the risks of their own issuers and protocols. About Neovestor lists what the company is and is not.

What is the difference between custodial and non-custodial?

In a custodial service, a company holds the keys that control your funds and you rely on it. With self-custody, you alone control the keys that move the funds. Ethereum.org's wallet guide says wallet providers don't have custody of your funds, and that with an exchange account "you're trusting that exchange with custody over your funds." It also notes that you are responsible for keeping your own keys secure.

Deposit insurance does not change this. The FDIC says it covers money in a deposit account at a bank that is part of its system and lists crypto assets among the products it does not cover. Its guidance on banking with third-party apps adds that its coverage does not protect against the insolvency or bankruptcy of a nonbank company.

What does the Transaction Guard check?

The Transaction Guard is Neovestor's own check on every transaction the fee payer sponsors. It is Neovestor's design, not an industry standard. It rejects a transaction unless all of these hold:

• the bytes match the quote you approved, and the recipients and amounts equal what you reviewed;
• the fee payer acts only as fee payer, and is never the source or authority of a transfer, approval or account closure;
• no account whose rent the fee payer funded is closed;
• every program, including inner calls seen in simulation, is on an allowlist;
• the simulation succeeds and your balances match the quote within slippage;
• your daily limit on sponsored transactions is not exceeded.

Who pays network fees in Neovestor?

Neovestor covers network fees on Solana trades, earn deposits and sends, within fair-use limits. On Solana every transaction needs a fee paid in SOL, and the fee payer is the first signer on the transaction. Solana's cookbook notes that fee sponsorship lets an app abstract away holding SOL from its users.

Not every fee is covered. Some cross-chain transfers carry a small network or forwarding fee. When a platform fee applies, Neovestor shows it as a separate line before you confirm, and it is never bundled into the price.

How do wrong-address and wrong-network mistakes happen?

Two common causes are an address copied from the wrong place and a send on a network the recipient doesn't use. Etherscan describes address poisoning as attackers sending "poison transfers" from lookalike addresses so that a spoofed address appears in your history, hoping you copy it next time. Kraken's withdrawal guide warns that withdrawing on an incompatible network can result in permanent loss of funds.

Neovestor adds checks before you confirm a send: a warning for a new address, a lookalike warning when an address matches a past counterparty's first four and last four characters (you must type the last four characters to continue), blocking of a wrong-network address, and sanctions screening. These checks are designed to reduce mistakes, but they can't prove that a recipient is trustworthy.

What are the risks of self-custody?