19 May 2026 · Shelf journal

The four lines to read before you confirm

Four Lines Before You Confirm is a single folded sheet on the fourth stack. Visitors take a photo of their own practice sheet; they do not need a photo of ours.

A person reading a blank sheet at a desk before a small unbranded device

The lines

Destination: who or what receives what you are sending. Amount: the quantity, including fees if the screen shows them. Permission: whether this step only sends, or also grants an allowance. Address bar: whether you typed the site yourself, or followed a link in a message.

A lookalike page can imitate a wallet's layout. The impact is that a confirmation on that page can send funds or grant an allowance to someone else's program. The folded sheet asks you to trust the address you typed, and to close a page that arrived inside an unexpected message.

A dinner message in Hamyang

Last autumn a grocer from the market booked the desk after a message arrived during dinner, offering an airdrop if she confirmed quickly. She had the tab open when she reached us the next morning. The reader asked her to read the address bar aloud and compare it with the site she usually types. The two strings differed by a single character. She closed the tab without confirming.

The story is on the sheet because speed was the pressure. The four lines are short enough to read while a pot is still on the stove, which is the point. A practice that only works at a quiet desk will be skipped at dinner.

Hardware devices help some readers because the details appear on a second screen that a browser page cannot redraw. The booklet treats that as an optional habit for readers who want a second screen.

Bring one confirmation you hesitated over, described in words, to a desk session. Leave the account itself closed.

See desk, circle, and shelf card

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