How Real Estate Chain plans to revolutionize the real estate ecosystem.

Bitcoin has rapidly exploded into the public’s eye in recent years. Along with it has come an ever-growing amount of projects surrounding the potential held in its underlying technology — blockchain. A trustless, immutable ledger free from the potential of tampering and distributed among all of its holders.

Real estate is an industry that is set for disruptive innovation and is worth over $217 trillion globally. Many people own or rent properties, but they rarely have custody or control over the information associated with them — photos, floor plans, property data, historical data, inspections, 3D models, etc. The business of controlling and harvesting this information is in the billions of dollars worldwide. Envision a digital world that more closely mirrors the physical world. In this world, information related to a property is owned by the property owners who may then choose to permission access to agents, professionals, renters, businesses, and applications that add direct value to their lives. Validated users, high quality information, decentralized control, trustlessness, and security are the pillars of this world that Real Estate Chain is building.

Market Problems

“Real estate is a huge asset class, but the sector has been relatively untouched by technology and remains inefficient and fragmented”

— Justin Wilson, Senior Investment Professional, SoftBank’s Vision Fund

Real estate is broken due to the custody of data problem. Real estate information is fragmented and unrefined globally with no uniform data standards. Various groups control and gate access to subsets of real estate information with no international bridges. People frequently make under-informed decisions with increased risk when it comes to properties. As a result of the above, the economy suffers, and consumer experience isn’t what it should be in 2018 especially compared to other industries.

We are in the middle of a movement from Web 2.0 private data monopolies and abuse to Web 3.0 user-owned data structures with open marketplaces for information. Control and power is taken out of the hands of centralized private parties. Real Estate Chain is creating an alternative to these disparate global information systems by aligning incentives and enabling professionals to provide value to those who the industry is meant to serve.

The Real Estate Chain Protocol

Real Estate Chain (REC) is a Web 3.0 network comprised of digital real estate information and people that aims to surpass in-person experiences of physical properties, creating a new paradigm of how people interact with real estate assets.

REC allows high quality real estate digital information to be appropriately created, permissioned, and transferred on the blockchain. This is the necessary infrastructure that will enable the real estate ecosystem of the future, connecting valuable real estate information and people. REC will utilize the latest innovations in decentralization, enabling developers, agents, buyers and investors, property owners, data contributors, and others to work more effectively together, stay organized, and make more intelligent decisions.

Real Estate Chain’s blockchain-based distributed ledger of globally standardized information will enable property owners to take control of their information for their own benefit, permissioned third parties will be able to supplement this, and service providers and vendors will have nuanced marketing capabilities.

How It Works

The REC Standard — An international standardized framework for describing property-related data.

Upload — Various constituents upload information to Real Estate Chain, not just real estate agents. These groups can include development companies, data contributors (i.e. professional photographer, 3D model creator, public data syndicator, etc.), government-affiliated agencies, and more. They are incentivized to provide the complete digital representation of properties.

Validators — After upload, our network of validators uphold the REC standard, ensuring that data is current, trusted, and compliant with laws specific to the region.

Prop Wallets — By the nature of the system, a copy of all information associated with a property goes to a blockchain address that can be claimed by the property owner at any time to use at their convenience. The property owner can control and permission access to the data contained in their Prop Wallet. The Prop Wallet is the intermediary to format this data for a variety of applications, with appropriate custody and attribution.

An overview of the Prop Wallet

The Experience — Search capabilities that leverage AI and analytics are enabled for properties worldwide. Buyers and sellers can directly get in touch with verified agents, professionals, developers, property managers, and more. Brokers and agents are able to generate leads from global markets and increase their reach and technological capabilities.

Real Estate Chain Use Cases

Buyers/Investors —

Search is the first decentralized application (dApp). Through REC’s search functionality, international buyers, buyers’ agents, and investors can browse for properties based on their requirements with safeguards that the data is current and validated. Buyers can also browse for people, with the capabilities to find a reputable, verified agent that speaks their language, a reputable property manager to manage their new investment property, and various other professionals. Once they purchase a property, they own a copy of the data and information on Real Estate Chain. They can leverage that data to their benefit by allowing apps, businesses, and professionals to gain access to it and provide them with direct value.

Real Estate Developers —

A developer is able to gain access to a new market and leads of verified international buyers who are receiving streamlined, high-quality viewing and decision-making experiences that can enable properties to be sold faster and at higher prices. A suite of tools that benefit professionals such as analytics and local market intelligence can be built by the REC community through our open source development environment. Control what information is open and discoverable and what is hidden.

Real Estate Agents —

Agents and brokers join the REC network to increase their visibility, lead generation, and tech capabilities without investing more time or resources. They are also interested in differentiating themselves from their colleagues by utilizing their multilingual capabilities with international buyers/investors and having a technological edge without drastically changing how they currently operate.

Looking Forward — A Protocol For Everyone

Real Estate Chain endeavors to be a protocol that anyone and everyone can benefit from. As REC evolves, it will mature with increasing features and dApps created by our community that will serve more use cases. By creating an environment for open source development, users will have access to a full library of dApps similar to the iOS App Store. For agents, a dApp could be used to create an interactive floor plan or conduct a virtual showing to potential buyers. For owners, this could be services that turn 2D floor plans into 3D models, or allow potential buyers to view the property with different furniture or recolored walls! All in one neatly wrapped platform.