Host Functions (BaaS)

What you’ll get here

a developer’s map of the Smart Host — the Blockchain-as-a-Service tier that hands you wallet auth, multi-chain accounts, token operations, serverless functions, and usage metering, so you never have to run a chain node yourself.

When most developers say “I want to build on-chain,” what they actually want is a backend that happens to be backed by a blockchain. They do not want to run a Hedera node, manage an XRPL rippled, or hand-roll signature verification for each chain’s curve. They want to call an API.

That API is the Smart Host.

🧠 For Normies

“Blockchain-as-a-Service” (BaaS) is the blockchain version of what AWS or Firebase did for servers. Instead of operating the heavy infrastructure yourself, you call a hosted service that operates it for you and bills you for what you use. The Smart Host is that service for the Smart Engines network.

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Page index

BaaS OverviewThe model: what you can do without running a chain node, and where the boundary between host and validator sits.

Account ProvisioningAllocating accounts/entities across chains, multisig-by-default, via per-entity DKG.

Web3 AuthenticationThe challenge → verify wallet sign-in flow, with code and a sequence diagram.

Token LifecycleCreate / mint / transfer / burn through the generic, chain-in-the-body API.

Metering & ConsumptionHow usage is measured per operation and tied to billing and subscriptions.

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What the host tier does for you

The Smart Host sits in front of the validator cluster and exposes the high-level surfaces an application developer reaches for:

Web3 authentication

Log a user in by having their wallet sign a challenge — no passwords.

Account provisioning

Allocate accounts/entities across chains, multisig-by-default. multisig-by-default

Token lifecycle

Create, mint, transfer, and burn tokens through one generic API.

Host functions

Run sandboxed serverless JavaScript per app.

Metering & consumption

Usage is measured per operation and tied to your subscription.

🧠 For Normies

The “validator cluster” is the cryptographic engine room — it holds the keys and talks to the actual chains. The host is the friendly reception desk. You talk to reception; reception talks to the engine room. You never walk into the engine room yourself.

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How it fits together

flowchart LR
  Dev["Your app / SDK"] -->|HTTPS + Bearer JWT| Host["Smart Host\n(BaaS tier)"]
  Host -->|cluster-internal API| Validator["Validator cluster\n(keys, DKG, multisig)"]
  Validator -->|signed transactions| Chains["Hedera · XRPL"]
  Validator -. auto-watches on-chain state .-> Chains

The golden rule of this tier: the host holds no blockchain keys and runs no chain code. Anything that needs a signature or a chain read is delegated to the validator over a cluster-internal API. This keeps the host light, fanned out, and safe to deploy in many environments. See Smart Host for the operator-side view of the same tier.

🧠 For Normies

Keeping keys out of the host means that even if a host pod were compromised, there are no private keys sitting on it to steal. The signing power lives in the validator cluster, behind a much smaller and more heavily audited door.

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Next steps

New to the tier? Start with BaaS Overview.

BaaS Overview

Web3 AuthenticationReady to wire a login? Jump to Web3 Authentication.

Metering & ConsumptionCurious how billing works? See Metering & Consumption and the subscriptions section.

SubscriptionsThe subscriptions section.