The future is today - Tokenisation, a real estate revolution.
Real estate, the asset class larger than both equities and bonds combined, has remained for 100’s of years notoriously slow to change. While asset classes such as stocks, bonds and commodities have been the unquestionable beneficiaries of advancements in technology, the real estate industry, and the mechanisms by which it is transacted, have remained mostly unchanged, until now…
The application of distributed ledger technology gives, for all those that choose to see, a glimpse of what the future holds for the world’s most beloved asset class. From homeowners to investors, a newly shaped frictionless real estate market is just around the corner.
Increased transparency, efficiency, liquidity & ease of use all stand to reshape the pot of buyers from, the fortunate few, to anyone with an internet connection and a few dollars to spare.
Let’s run a quick experiment to see how the proptech revolution could level the playing field, and where better to stage our example then Paris, France.
The Louvre, Paris. Home to some of the world’s most renowned pieces of art, and a cultural epicentre loved the world over, especially by the residents of Paris. A building owned by the French government, valued at over $10bln, with more than 2.5mln visitors each year, and though close to the heart of all Parisians, is currently no more than an intangible sense of pride by the surrounding residents, but what if that could change?
Under the existing framework of real estate ownership, the government’s only option with regard to sales would be to hand over some or all ownership to the 1%’s. Corporations, or high net worth individuals, only focused on the bottom line. But what if the Parisian residents could themself own part of their beloved cultural building, sharing in both the revenue generated from its 2.5mln annual visitors, as well as obtaining a great sense of pride in ownership – well with Blocksquares tokenization protocol, this proposal is now entirely possible.
FIBREE (Foundation for International Blockchain and Real Estate Expertise), and its participating organizations such as Blocksquare, are now working tirelessly to make this vision a reality. Innovative developments, such as the application of a Property Passport, which encompasses and stores the whole history of a property from development to completion, as well as the contribution of robust secondary marketplaces, all take us one step closer to a newly shaped global real estate market.
An industry where a community’s brick and motor development were handled by corporations, albeit hired in most cases by government entities, can now leverage advancements in technology, to be a community driven initiative. Social development by the community, for the community, has never been more obtainable.
If community empowerment was where this story ended, it would be an ending which would satisfy most. But this is not where it ends, and in fact remains only limited by the imagination of its participants. Blocksquare for example, a proud member of FIBREE, has taken on the challenge of breaking down the barriers which once stopped people from being able to invest in property, giving the world a glimpse at a future where anyone with an internet connection and a desire to invest, big or small, the capability to create wealth in the global real estate market.
With Blocksquares unparalleled work on the newly created Oceanpoint DAO, designed to potentially hold an unlimited amount of global real estate, ran by its community, for its community, the following quote seems the most fitting way to end this condensed glimpse into the future of global real estate:
“I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.” – Mother Teresa
About the Author:
Daniel Kaines- Head of Risk at Blocksquare.
Daniel has an academic background in Finance & Economics and years of experience in Global Investment Banking. He has spent time within JPMorgan Chase's equity derivatives department in UK, and worked in credit risk for Westpac Australia. Today he heads up the risk department for real estate tokenization at Blocksquare.