Authority in solana programs

In Solana programs, authorities are entities or accounts that have the right to perform certain actions or make changes within the program.

For example

• Token mint authority - Can mint new tokens

  1. Token with mint auth - https://explorer.solana.com/address/EPjFWdd5AufqSSqeM2qN1xzybapC8G4wEGGkZwyTDt1v
  2. Token with No mint auth - https://explorer.solana.com/address/8FQvjBxFdR51wbZfQVaWbkjR2sNNxDLyabNePPmsyou9

• Token freeze authority - Can freeze tokens in an account

  Token with a freeze auth - https://explorer.solana.com/address/EPjFWdd5AufqSSqeM2qN1xzybapC8G4wEGGkZwyTDt1v

• Upgrade authority - Can upgrade the code of a program.

  https://explorer.solana.com/address/8rpHNPsyEJQEJjC2waWvUXyvCkYghCZndACoXs9sNKZg?cluster=devnet

  

Creating and revoking mint authority

• Create a new token

spl-token create-token

• Create an ata

spl-token create-account <token_mint_address>

• Try minting some tokens

spl-token mint <token_mint_address> 10000000000

• Check if mint authority exists on explorer

  

• Revoke mint authority

spl-token authorize  <token_id>  mint --disable

• Try to mint again/check the explorer

spl-token mint <token_mint_address> 10000000000