Whatshot
Property Talk
Property Talk
Date: 2018-06-08
The future of blockchain and cryptocurrencies
Will we all be buying and selling real estate in the future using blockchain and cryptocurrencies The Bitcoin bubble has created a lot of hype around these new technologies and has raised fascinating questions as to whether these new technologies have the ability to transform the way we transact in general and in particular for large transactions such as property transactions
Documentaries such as "Banking on Bitcoin" on Netflix are excellent in explaining what this is all about and provokes some interesting thoughts as to what the future in trade may look like.
One thing is for sure, these technologies have an amazing potential to seriously disrupt financial markets and governments and their ability to raise tax revenues. Somehow the idea of disinter-mediating governments and tax authorities in trade appeals to me.
An article recently published in Inman describes Cryptocurrencies as digital currencies that are traded and exchanged over the internet, used for buying and selling goods.
The "crypto" comes from cryptography, the field of studying and enacting secure communications. Cryptocurrencies are designed to offer a secure method of trading and secure record-keeping of who traded what and when. Bitcoin is the best known cryptocurrency, but there are now several looking to serve specific aspects and provide a faster, better, cheaper and more secure means of transacting. Governments typically do not like them as they are hard to tax and regulate.
Blockchain is the underlying technology that powers all of these cryptocurrencies and can be thought of as an electronic chain of blocks of information representing transactions.
A blockchain is a distributed, decentralized digital ledger where transactions are recorded. It does not exist in one place but across the entire internet. The system allows financial transactions to take place without a middleman like a bank, at almost zero cost and instantaneously. This is pure genius.
Our deeds office is a physical ledger recording property transactions, and is relatively slow, expensive and cumbersome. Imagine replacing our entire deeds office solution in the country with a blockchain technology. The blockchain stores all the information about the cryotocurrency used with all the detail surrounding a transaction in chronological order, which cannot be altered or tampered with.
Within the real estate field there are several blockchain startups such as ShelterZoom, Propy, Streetwire and Harbor all looking to solve problems and make real estate transactions better. Although developed countries are leading the field in blockchain technology the developing world, including most of Africa, with its poorly regulated and administered real estate transaction and deeds office processes could be immediate beneficiaries of incredible advancements in efficiencies by adopting blockchain technologies.
Southern Californian Realtors, the Crypto Realty Group, have become leaders in blockchain transactions having concluded five deals using BitPay, a bitcoin payment service. These are the early adopters of this interesting new technology. It will be an amazing space to watch.