Sometimes people have the habit of taking a very simple concept and complicating it. That is the case with tokenization, there are hundreds of articles on it but very few that explain it well.

Tokenization isn’t a new concept, it’s been going on for thousands of years in cultures all over the world. Tokens create accessibility and simplicity when trading value for value. It’s a mutually trusted medium of exchange that can be traded easily among its traders. As long as both parties agree that it has value, it does. Simple as that. Beads, precious metals, Cowrie Shells, and Ethereum all have one thing in common, they have all been used as tokens of exchange at different time periods in human history.

You have used tokens before

No doubt you have had experience with tokens in the past, perhaps at a local fair, festival, or arcade store. In the last year I have been to two different festivals in a foreign Country. In each case they made you purchase tokens before you entered the festival. The currency that was exchanged in these festivals was tokens, if you wanted to buy food or an alcoholic beverage you were going to have to use tokens instead of cash or a credit card, because that’s all these vendors would accept. This exchange was a major win-win because the transactions were fasters, smoother, more regulated, and cheaper.

I went to both of these festivals as a foreigner carrying US dollars, but that type of currency wasn’t exchanged at these type of festivals, it was tokenized. Even if a vendor did accept my US dollars you better believe it wouldn’t have been converted at the market rate, but at a huge markup. Without tokenizing the festival many vendors wouldn’t have showed up because they are mom and pop vendors with low margins and high costs. They certainly didn’t have extra money to cover credit card fees let alone converting US dollars. By creating tokens, it lowered the barriers to entry for them allowing them to thrive in the festival. Tokens made the festival more profitable for vendors and made the food cheaper for customers.

This arrangement worked really well for festival goers as well. Instead of digging change out of your pocket or trying to figure out if your credit card is accepted with a particular vendor, you just simply count your tokens and purchase your food. Have you ever sat behind someone who was struggling to get their credit card through the reader? Or, how about someone using their coupons with their purchase? Because the festival consolidated the form of payment in one easy token the lines were short and the food came quick, a win-win.

Digital Tokens on the blockchain

Digital tokens are much more advanced than anything we have ever seen before, and it opens up opportunities at a global level for trade. Real estate is an asset that desperately needs to be tokenized so that more people can access this $217 trillion market around the globe. Tokenization can provide investors in Asia, Latin America, and Europe an opportunity to purchase fractional real estate in the US for only a few ETH.

The significance of digital tokenization can’t be overstated; it’s simply transformational because of its unique ability to divide assets into bite size digital pieces that constitute legal ownership. The ability to take an asset and divide it up into smaller individual parts that can be traded in the blockchain creates efficiency, greater utilization, and income streams to people that were denied access in the past. The second significant breakthrough that makes blockchain tokens unique as a medium of exchange is the security and ERC-20 compliance embedded in each token.

Each block in the chain contains the history of the transaction and the link to the previous block validating the transaction firmly recording the history without possibility of erasing or changing the data. This data becomes immutable in the digital ledger creating trust in the exchange and eliminates costly third parties. Because the blockchain is decentralized it’s contained on computers around the world, it can’t be changed once recorded, which creates confidence and efficiency among traders. We are only in the beginning stages of what might be the most disruptive technology in the last quarter century.

Why we created RealtyReturns

We created the RealtyReturns marketplace to provide access to those that have never had the opportunity to invest in US real estate at a global level. We wanted to help people build wealth by offering liquid real estate investments that provide passive income and capital appreciation. And whether you have a few ETH you are looking to invest for the first time, or your looking to protect your ETH gains from the volatile crypto market, RealtyReturns provides the access, expertise, and experience to help you find the right real estate investment for you.

Democratizing global access to investment grade commercial real estate using the blockchain. Visit RealtyReturns.io and join our Telegram group https://t.me/realtyreturnsglobal

Trevor Whiting

VP, Investor Relations

RealtyReturns

Experienced Sales Leader of over 14 years and has started offices in London, Toronto, and the US. He was VP of Investor Relations of RealtyMogul where was responsible for revenue growth, sales operations, and growth initiatives. Under his leadership, he developed a sales playbook that resulted in 2x growth.