Solana Wallet Q&A

MathWallet Official
4 min readMay 7, 2021

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Basic concept

SOL: Solana’s native token, which you can obtain from the exchange

SPL Token: The Token is supported on Solana chain, similar to the concept of ERC20

Transfer failed

Any transaction on the Solana chain will cost a certain amount of SOL as a handling fee. Please make sure you have a certain amount of SOL in your wallet.

When user traffic occurs and there are large number of node visitors , the SOL balance reading may fail and the chain will fail to show any record. The transfer can be made by switching the node (Me — Settings — Node Settings — Solana) or try one more time later. Check https://solanaproject.com/#/rpcserver you can also query the current development stage of public node, and select or add the node in the wallet.

Solana Sub-address

Each Token in the Solana wallet has a separate sub-address. For example, the sub-address of SOL, MATH, and USDC are different on the chain, and each sub-address needs to be activated.

However, the main exchange plaforms (such as FTX) and wallets (such as MathWallet and TrustWallet) all support the function of automatically creating sub-addresses, so the user needs to know his SOL main address. However, some wallets and exchanges do not yet support the automatic creation of sub-addresses. In this case, it is necessary to understand the logic of the sub-address, otherwise it may cause the failure of the transaction. Please check the official document of Solana for more details.

See: Solana App Wallet User guide

SPL Token transfer

Currently there are two ways to transfer and receive SPL tokens:

1. Receive token in SOL main address (commonly used)

B shall provide the SOL receiving address to A

Transfer from A to B’s SOL receiving address. If there is no SPL address for receiving MATH under B, then A will pay SOL to activate B’s MATH SPL address (sub-address).

2. REceive token in SPL Token sub-address

B creates the SPL Token sub-address by itself and provides the address to A

A transfers the corresponding SPL Token to the sub-address provided by B

Why could a transaction in the browser explorer have multiple transaction records?

When transfer MATH, for example, because SPL has a sub-address system, so:

Transfer from Address A to Address B = Transfer from Address A to B1,B2,B3,B4…B*, the B address will display the sum of the balances of all SPL addresses.

Why we can not receive the deposit in the account?

Due to the SPL transfer system issue, please pay attention to the following points:

  • Sub-addresses of an SPL token can only receive the corresponding SPL token. For example, if one transfer SOL into MATH SPL sub-address, it will not be recorded in the account and will not be retrieved, and vice versa.
  • Deposit into exchange, please make sure whether the exchange supports SPL sub-address system. Currently, only FTX exchange supports SPL sub-address. Before depositing into any centralized exchange or any other platform, please make sure whether the other platform supports SPL sub-address. There are many users who deposit USDC and other assets into the SOL receiving address of the exchange, causing losses (small test is recommended first).
  • If user deposit token into exchange and it shows partially deposited into the account, it is because there are multiple transaction records, the exchange only supports the deposit of single transaction, and does not support displaying the total amount of B1… B*.

You can search https://explorer.solana.com to check the transaction records.

About the cross-chain

Ethereum cross-chain to Solana. Due to the sub-address system, if you need to make a cross-chain transfer of ERC20 asset to Solana chain, make sure there is a corresponding SPL Token sub-address under the SPL address, otherwise it will not be able to make the cross-chain transfer.

Solana cross-chain Ethereum, due to cross-chain feature upgrade, when transfer SPL assets to Ethereum address, you need to authorized it then you can click receive to view receive assets.

If its the first time you make the cross-chain transfer, it is recommended that you test it with a small amount.

If you are not familiar with cross-chain feature,you can also use FTX.com for centralized cross-chain transfer.

Due to the above multiple transfer records, the exchange only supports the deposit of single transaction, and does not support displaying the total amount of B1… B*.

Wallet import path

Different Solana wallets will have different mnemonic paths, which will change the SOL address when export the mnemonic phrases from other wallets (such as Sollet) into MathWallet.

User can choose corresponding path to solve this issue, see following guide for more details:

Solana wallet’s supported import paths

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