Solana Token Extensions Let Issuers Mint and Revoke Credentials Without User Consent

A developer building on Solana's Token-2022 program combined the Non-Transferable and Permanent Delegate extensions to create soulbound credentials that holders cannot sell, trade, or transfer. The Non-Transferable extension enforces this restriction at the protocol level, meaning transfer attempts are rejected by the blockchain itself rather than by any application backend. The Permanent Delegate extension allows the token issuer to burn or reclaim a token from any holder's wallet without requiring the holder's signature or approval. This pattern is already in production use: Paxos applies the Permanent Delegate extension to its USDP stablecoin to claw back funds linked to illegal activity under regulatory requirements. The setup raises questions about the nature of digital ownership when an issuer retains unilateral revocation rights enforced entirely by on-chain code.