Feng Xi advanced record keeping. Papyrus advanced language. The Ancient Greeks advanced third party trust. All three built on each other improving communication and recordation. Now, the blockchain builds on these principals with technology that enriches security, decreases cost and provides data accessibility to the world. By utilizing blockchain and putting its core technologies to work, Rex will deliver these extraordinary benefits to the real estate industry world wide.

Here’s how it all started (relatively):

Chinese

Fu Xi is one of the first recorded leaders in China, ruling 2,850 BC. Fu Xi is documented as the creator of the 8 Trigram, the catalyst of record keeping instruments. Fu Xi sought to connect the world with human nature’s impulse to order everything around it.

Sumerians

The Sumerians were one of the first civilizations to progress record keeping beyond ambiguous symbols. Previous to the Sumerians, cave paintings were the common method of transferring information from one generation to the next. However, these records didn’t reach beyond space and time. They offered a voiceless visual which were useless to the interpreter unless the author was present to transcribe.

The Sumerians realized clay could be used to record events, ownership and business. Over time, they began to personalize clay mallets with a specific seal unique to each individual. However, the seal had one major flaw: it required a shared knowledge: This is “ “ seal.

Egyptians

During the Egyptian empire ownership began to take on new complexities. Egyptians discovered that using advanced hieroglyphs could standardize and detail ownership beyond personal seals. Egyptian hieroglyphs developed into a mature writing system but clay was still the common method of recordation.

Around 3000 BC, Egyptians started using papyrus to record information. Papyrus was a leafy material used to build homes. Ink was used to mark the papyrus and it became a common method in business affairs and record keeping. This was possibly man’s first technological invention that would come back to bite him in the future. The papyrus worked for day to day business but proved weak and brittle over time. Thus, many records we destroyed in a matter of days, weeks, months, and years.

Ancient Greeks

Through science, technology and mass centralization the Greeks advanced society at an impressive rate. The early stages involved taking ink, paper and recordation to an organized level. Personal and national documents we’re held by a trusted third party which increased individual trade exponentially. However, tampering and replicating these documents was an all too often occurrence.

Modern Era

The third party trust system embraced by Ancient Greece has lasted through current day. Even after the efficiencies offered by the personal computer and internet, we still heavily rely on centralized trusted third parties to handle trade, finance, content distribution and ownership transfer. Much like Ancient Greece, we again live in an age of exponential growth. Technology is advancing at an unprecedented pace and changing the way we live and communicate. Through these advancements the birth of the blockchain has arisen.

The blockchain

In its simplest form, the blockchain is a public registry of who owns what and who transacts what. It’s an unforgeable record and replicates it on every computer on the network. Bettina Warburg says it well: “Now we discover the blockchain where we can create one single truth. We can create a decentralized database that has the same efficiencies as a monopoly without actually creating that central authority. All sorts of vendors/companies can interact with the same database without having to trust each other”.

Thus the need for certain trusted third parties, gone. This lends itself to solve many problems facing finance, insurance, ownership and content distribution. I enjoy tackling the possibilities in real estate. In the United States alone, real estate is a combined 36 trillion-dollar industry. Through the three facets of transaction, recording and capital markets, think about the amount of data generated in a single day and how these records are stored — not to mention the trust that needs to be established. As it stands, general real estate information is siloed starting with the multiple listing services. Proper record keeping relies on title agencies and local municipalities. Through advancements in blockchain technology, companies like Rex are able to de-silo real estate data making it accessible to the masses. Once the data is open and free, ideas like title, liens, inspection reports, and surveys can be tackled in a trustless fashion that protects the authenticity of the document and drastically reduces transaction costs. Creating a global database with an open conduit benefits everyone from the buyer, seller, broker, landlord, researcher & institution.

About the author

Stephen King is an entrepreneur with a focus in commercial real estate and blockchain technology. Since 2013, Stephen has lead King Realty Group in Princeton, New Jersey and participated in over forty-five million in real estate transactions. Stephen has worked on several technology companies and participated in the design of two iOS applications. Stephen is the co-founder/CEO of Rex and founder of Princeton Ethereum Meetup.

Sources:

The History of the Ancient World, Susan Wise Bauer

Bettina Warburg: How the blockchain will radically transform the economy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oUCSfeM9PY