When Web3 is the right answer, and when it's not

Most requests for "a blockchain feature" turn out, on inspection, to be a request for one of three things: an audit trail, a way to coordinate between parties who don't trust each other, or a token with real transferable value. Only the last two actually need a chain.

An audit trail is usually a database with good logging

If the goal is an immutable, verifiable record for internal or regulatory purposes, an append-only log with cryptographic hashing gets you most of the trust properties at a fraction of the cost and complexity of a distributed ledger.

Trustless coordination is the real use case

Smart contracts earn their complexity when the parties genuinely don't trust a central intermediary, cross-organization settlement, provenance across companies that compete with each other, or asset ownership that needs to outlive any single platform.

Start with the smallest on-chain surface

We push as much logic off-chain as the trust model allows, and keep on-chain contracts small, audited, and boring. The interesting product work usually happens in the application layer around the chain, not inside it.