Product and Web3
Blockchain, tokenisation and digital assets
Tokenisation turns the right over an asset — a property, an invoice, a share — into a token inside a blockchain, so that it can be transferred and verified without an intermediary keeping the ledger. When the asset exists off the chain it is called RWA (Real World Assets); when the value exists only on the chain, people speak of virtual or digital assets.
Blockchain is useful when the real problem is that nobody trusts the ledger. For almost everything else a database is better — and we say so before charging.
When blockchain is the right answer
When several parties do not trust each other and none of them accepts another keeping the books. When value has to move without an intermediary approving it. When traceability has to be verifiable by an outsider without asking your permission.
If your case is none of those, a well-built database is faster, cheaper and easier to fix when you get something wrong. Saying this loses projects; building a chain nobody needed loses clients.
Tokenising real world assets (RWA)
Tokenising a real world asset means representing on the chain the right over something that exists outside it: a property, an invoice, a stake in a fund. What moves on the chain is the right; the asset stays where it was.
The technical part — issuing the token, programming its rules, keeping the register — is the easier half. The hard one is the hook into the real world: who holds the asset in custody, what happens legally when the token changes hands, and who answers if the two stop matching. That design comes before the contract, not after.
Smart contracts
A smart contract is code that lives on the chain and enforces its own rules, with nobody having to authorise it each time. We work on Ethereum with fungible tokens (ERC-20), NFTs (ERC-721) and tokenisation contracts.
They have an uncomfortable property worth understanding before deploying: once published, fixing a bug is not editing a file. Which is why the serious work happens before — in the design and the review — not in writing them.
When the chain is the infrastructure
Sometimes deploying on an existing chain is not enough: the project needs its own network, with its own consensus rules and its own economics. For that we build blockchains on Polkadot.
It is an infrastructure decision, not a product one, and it changes the cost and the timeline of everything else — better taken with the numbers in front of you.
Questions
What people usually ask us
- What is asset tokenisation?
- It is representing on a blockchain the right over an asset — a property, an invoice, a share — so that it can be transferred and verified without an intermediary keeping the register. When the asset exists off the chain it is called RWA (Real World Assets).
- What are virtual assets?
- They are digital representations of value that can be transferred and stored electronically, and that exist inside a blockchain network. They differ from RWA in that their value does not correspond to a physical good outside the chain.
- Does my project really need blockchain?
- Only if several parties do not trust each other and none accepts another keeping the register, if value must move without an intermediary, or if an outsider has to be able to audit without asking permission. If that is not your case, a database is faster, cheaper and easier to fix — and we will tell you before we start.
- Can a smart contract be fixed after publishing it?
- Not the way a file is fixed. Once deployed, the code stays on the chain; changing it requires upgrade patterns planned from the design, or deploying again and migrating. Which is why the serious work is in the design and the review, before publishing.
- What is RWA?
- Real World Assets: assets from the real world — property, invoices, shares, commodities — whose ownership right is represented as a token on a blockchain. The hard part is not the token, it is the legal and custody hook between the token and the asset.
Not sure which one you need?
If you're not sure, that's what the assessment is for: we look at it with you and tell you what's needed — even if it's less than you thought.