Contract permissions decide what a token's creator can still do to it after launch: mint new supply, freeze your balance, or change the rules. Here is what each one means.
A token is a contract, and contracts have permissions. The question worth asking is not whether a contract exists but what its creator can still do to it now that you hold the token.
Mint authority is the power to create new supply. Active mint authority means the total supply is not fixed and can be increased at will — diluting every existing holder without notice or consent.
Freeze authority, on Solana, is the power to freeze individual token accounts. A frozen account cannot transfer or sell. It is rarely used legitimately on a public token.
Ownership is the broader power to change the contract's behaviour. Renouncing ownership means giving that up permanently; retained ownership means the rules can still change.
These are the powers that make a token's stated properties provisional. A fixed supply is only fixed if nobody can mint. A tradeable token is only tradeable if nobody can freeze it or switch transfers off.
Unlike price risk, none of this is visible on a chart. A token with active mint authority looks exactly like one without, right up until the supply changes.
Renounced authorities are also not automatically good news. Renouncing means nobody can fix a bug either. What matters is whether the retained power is proportionate to what the project still needs to do.
This is the actual curve used to score contract control on every token page and in the risk tool. Scores run 0 to 100, where higher means more risk.
Nothing here is financial advice. A low score means the measurable indicators look unremarkable; it does not mean a token is safe. See how this site works.