One side meeting at last week’s Bitcoin 2022 Conference in Miami was titled “How Blockchain Will Eat Traditional Real Estate 2.0.” Given the size of both the real estate market and the Blockchain ecosystem, the workshop sounded a little like one of those python-eats-alligator (or vice versa) videos on YouTube.
Yet the meeting lived up to its promise and made an extremely strong case for why Blockchain is the future for the biggest sector of the US economy.
Organized by The Crypto Realty Group, a succession of talented thinkers and practitioners provided their perspectives on new developments in the sector.
Real Estate plus Blockchain Technology Means More Autonomy Worldwide
One of the main takeaways was how diverse the range of business activities already are in the space. Yes, it is possible to buy real estate using crypto, and, yes, it is possible to push transactions through the blockchain, but there is so much more potential.
Perhaps the most visionary suggestion came from Natalia Karayaneva of Propy. She anticipates that Blockchain technology will open the real estate market to people in developing countries who can establish a title but lack the resources to transact in the traditional real estate market.
The values involved would reach into the trillions of dollars.
The theme of helping ordinary people by reducing barriers to access and transaction costs came across repeatedly.
Blockchain Establishes Ownership Better than any Paper Trail
While all the speakers recognized that realtors with local knowledge and the skills to understand client needs could never be replaced, the event’s attendees agreed that a lot of transaction costs in real estate do not add value and will disappear.
Why would anyone need title insurance if the provenance of a property is established on an immutable Blockchain?
Speakers went even further to anticipate that all documents related to a property, from design to legal to maintenance, would eventually be managed via Blockchain technology as an integrated single source of truth.
Who Gets Devoured?
Ron Levy of The Crypto Company made another important point. He said that the Blockchain universe was now so diverse that no one person could fully comprehend it.
The range of projects in real estate alone showcased at the meeting seemed to suggest that Ron’s point is true just within this sector. If this is the case, which it certainly seems to be, then we can expect a lot of specialization within the expanding crypto/blockchain/real estate universe.
Specialization tends to lead to stability and further innovation. In turn, the entire industry will be transformed.
Blockchain will truly eat traditional real estate. The only question is, are we going to be the python or the alligator?
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The future of real estate continues to unfold before us every day. Read up on how Real Estate is Going On-Chain to stay ahead of the curve.
Peter Thiel spoke at the Bitcoin 2022 Convention, and he not only cast his vision for the future but also named his enemies. Here’s my review of his keynote address.