Private versus public chains
A public blockchain such as Ethereum is open to everyone. Anyone can join, anyone can read the data, and every transaction costs real money in gas. That is the right trade for building an open ecosystem. It is the wrong trade for commercially sensitive data.
A private — properly, permissioned — blockchain inverts this. Only approved parties join and read. You control who runs a node, who can write, and who sees which slice of the data. There is no gas cost in real currency because the network is yours.
What both share is the property that usually motivates the project in the first place: records that cannot be altered after the fact. Every transaction is cryptographically chained to the ones before it, so tampering with history is immediately detectable. That is the reason to choose a blockchain over an ordinary database.
When it is genuinely worth it
Not every problem needs a blockchain. If one organisation owns all the data and nobody needs to verify anyone else, a regular database is simpler, faster and much cheaper. A blockchain earns its cost when the situation looks like this:
- Several parties who do not fully trust each other need one shared set of records — a manufacturer, a shipper, a distributor and an auditor who must all see the same status without any one of them able to edit another party data
- You must be able to prove records were not changed retroactively — certificates, licences, quality results, legal evidence
- A complete audit trail is required for regulators or external auditors
- Reconciliation between organisations is expensive — the pattern where files are exchanged and then painfully compared afterwards
Systems we have designed on this basis include digital asset settlement between financial institutions, provenance tracking for exported goods, and a loyalty scheme shared across several brands.
Platforms we work with
Hyperledger Besu
An Ethereum client with a permissioned mode. The best fit when you want privacy but also want the whole Ethereum toolchain, because it is a full EVM — Solidity contracts run unchanged, and MetaMask, Hardhat and Foundry all work against it.
Hyperledger Fabric
Built specifically for enterprise use. Its channels partition data between subsets of members with fine granularity, which suits cases where your counterparties must share a network but must not see each other transactions.
Quorum
An Ethereum derivative focused on confidential transactions. Well suited to financial workflows where only the counterparties should see the detail, while everyone else sees only that a transaction occurred.
How we work
- Requirements and fit assessmentWe start by asking what the actual problem is. If a blockchain is not the economical answer, we say so at that point rather than after you have paid for one.
- Architecture designPlatform choice, validator count and placement, consensus mechanism, permission model, and the decision about what lives on-chain versus off-chain.
- Test networkA working network your team uses for real, so the design is corrected against actual friction rather than assumptions.
- Contracts and integrationBusiness logic in smart contracts, plus APIs into the systems you already run — ERP, accounting, whatever it needs to talk to.
- Security review and load testingCode reviewed for vulnerabilities, network tested against the transaction volume it was designed for.
- Production and handoverLive deployment with monitoring and backup, and training so your team can operate it without us.
The detail most projects miss: what must not go on-chain
Personal data should never be written directly to a blockchain, because a blockchain cannot delete. That collides squarely with the right to erasure under GDPR and Thailand PDPA. The correct pattern is to store only a hash on-chain — enough to prove the record was not altered — while the data itself lives in a system that can honour a deletion request. We design this boundary in from day one.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take?
A production-ready network typically takes four to eight weeks from architecture to handover. Integrations with multiple existing systems, or additional regulatory requirements, extend that.
Do we need our own token?
No. A private chain can run with zero transaction fees, so no token needs to circulate. An internal accounting unit is only useful if you specifically want to meter resource usage between members.
Do we need an in-house blockchain team?
Not during the build — we handle it. After handover you want at least one person who understands the system. We train your team and offer ongoing operations with an SLA if you prefer to outsource it.
Could we move to a public chain later?
Yes, if you choose an EVM platform such as Hyperledger Besu from the outset. Contracts then move to Ethereum or any EVM chain with essentially no code changes. We recommend deciding this on day one, because retrofitting it is expensive.
What are the ongoing costs?
Primarily the servers running the nodes, operations and monitoring, and development for new requirements. There are no per-transaction fees, because you own the network.
What does building a blockchain cost?
There is no fixed price. It scales with validator count, contract complexity, the systems it must integrate with, and the level of ongoing support. Scope drives cost far more than elapsed days. We assess free of charge after discussing the requirement and itemise what each part is based on.
Are you a blockchain development company based in Thailand?
Our team is based in Thailand and handles the full scope — architecture, smart contract development, explorer, node deployment and ongoing operations — so there is no need to coordinate several vendors. We work in both Thai and English.
Talk to us before you commit
Tell us what you are trying to solve. Our solution architects reply within 24 hours with an initial scope and approach, at no cost. If we think what you are asking for is not worth building, we will say so.