GLOSSARY · BLOCKCHAIN & WEB3
Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS)
What wallet-as-a-service (WaaS) is: infrastructure to create wallets inside your product without users managing keys — and who ends up being the custodian.
WHAT IS IT? · FOR DUMMIES
Wallet-as-a-Service is infrastructure so that your product creates wallets for its users without them managing keys: they sign up with email or phone and the wallet appears embedded in your app. It removes the biggest friction in web3 — and hands your company a serious question: who is the custodian?
WHAT IS IT? · PRO
WaaS platforms combine MPC, secure enclaves and identity-based recovery to abstract the key away. The key design decision is the custody model: if your company (or your provider) controls the means of access to users' funds, delegating the interface does not remove custody — it moves it, with its regulatory perimeter: in the EU, custodying third parties' crypto-assets is a service that requires CASP authorisation.
Well chosen, WaaS is the piece that makes a tokenized product usable by customers who do not know what a seed phrase is; badly chosen, it is unauthorised custody with a nice logo. It is one of the architecture decisions we work on in blockchain and web3 consulting, and we compare it with the other institutional custody solutions in crypto custody providers.
01 / Key points
- Wallets embedded in your product, with no key management by the user
- Technology: MPC + identity-based recovery
- The critical decision is the custody model (who controls access?)
- Custodying for third parties in the EU requires CASP authorisation
02 / Advantages
- Frictionless onboarding: email instead of seed phrase
- Experience integrated in your product
- Recovery after loss, impossible in pure self-custody
03 / Disadvantages
- Custody is moved, not removed (CASP perimeter)
- Dependence on the provider and its continuity
- The user trusts without verifying: more responsibility for you