What to send a smart contract developer
Share a short specification: the token standard, every role (owner, minter, admin), every fee or limit, and what should happen in edge cases. If you are copying behaviour from an existing project, send its verified contract address. A clear spec is the single biggest factor in price and delivery time.
A freelance review is not a full audit
A freelance code review is a valuable, affordable check for small contracts. For contracts that will hold significant value, plan for a formal audit from a dedicated security firm as well, and run a public testnet period first. Ask your developer to deliver tests with high coverage — it makes any later audit faster and cheaper.
Protect your keys and ownership
- Deploy from a wallet you control, or have ownership transferred to your multisig immediately after deployment.
- Keep the source code in your own repository and verify it on the block explorer.
- Never share seed phrases or private keys — not even "temporarily".
Paying for contract work
Split the job into milestones: specification, tests on testnet, final deployment. Pay each milestone in stablecoins after review. See how USDT payments work and our general crypto payments checklist.