Should a Business Build a Smart Contract Wallet or Use WaaS?
Should a business build a smart contract wallet or use WaaS? It depends on which chains you operate on, how many wallets you need, and whether your team has contract and security expertise. If you manage a few treasury wallets on a handful of EVM chains, deploying a proven multisig contract is usually enough. If you need multiple blockchains, addresses for many users, or a fast launch, Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS) typically saves both time and money. Many businesses end up combining the two.
What Does It Take to Build a Smart Contract Wallet?
Deploying an open-source multisig contract is not hard. The hard part is everything around it. Each signer’s private key still needs secure storage, the contract has to be deployed and maintained on every chain, and any custom code needs a third-party audit. If your business also needs to generate addresses in bulk, sweep deposits, and connect wallets to internal accounting and risk systems, your team has to build all of that too. Chains such as Bitcoin, which do not support smart contract accounts, need a separate solution altogether.
What Work Does WaaS Save?
WaaS packages key management, multi-chain nodes, transaction signing, and approval workflows into a ready-made service that businesses call through a WaaS API, cutting launch time from months to weeks. An MPC-based WaaS can also cover Bitcoin and other blockchains with a single key management setup, with no contract to deploy chain by chain. On cost, upfront development and audit spending turns into a predictable service fee, which is why many teams switch to WaaS once they add up what an in-house wallet really costs.
How Do the Risks Compare?
When you build, the risks sit with your team: contract bugs, leaked signer keys, and tampered signing interfaces are all yours to defend against. The February 2025 Bybit hack happened at exactly this multisig signing step. With WaaS, the main risk is dependence on the provider, so when choosing a WaaS provider, confirm that it offers self-custody, has passed third-party audits, and lets you recover assets independently if the service goes down.
When Does It Make Sense to Combine Them?
If you want transparent on-chain multisig rules but also need multi-chain coverage and off-chain risk controls, you can make MPC accounts managed by a WaaS the signers of a multisig contract. Every transaction passes a policy engine before signing, and the contract adds a second check on-chain. Teams that already run an in-house wallet can also migrate to WaaS in stages rather than switching all at once.
Conclusion
Building a smart contract wallet suits teams with few chains, few wallets, and in-house contract expertise. WaaS suits businesses that need multiple chains, scale, and a fast launch. Safeheron’s MPC Wallet-as-a-Service provides multi-chain key management and a policy engine for businesses.
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