The "Do you need a Blockchain?" decision tree proposed by Karl Wüst and Arthur Gervais in their 2017 paper, "Do you need a Blockchain?", provides a guideline for understanding if a system would benefit from a blockchain-based solution.
Here's a simplified summary of the decision tree:
- Do you need to store state? (Yes -> continue, No -> No blockchain needed)
- Are there multiple writers? (Yes -> continue, No -> No blockchain needed)
- Can you use an always online, trusted third party? (Yes -> No blockchain needed, No -> continue)
- Can all writers be trusted? (Yes -> No blockchain needed, No -> continue)
- Are all writers known? (Yes -> continue, No -> Public Blockchain)
- Is public verifiability required? (Yes -> Public Blockchain, No -> Permissioned Blockchain)