What if I don’t need a scalable blockchain, but I need a tamper-proof persistent ledger? Are there tools that are lighter-weight that can help me there?
BTW using BigchainDB can feel pretty lightweight: it feels like a DBaaS but you don't have to set up the back end, you just get going. In the following, you'll have a tx on the BigchainDB public net (IPDB) in seconds. And the JS or py code to do it yourself is right there too. https://www.bigchaindb.com/getstarted/