More than just hype or hypotheses, blockchain is increasingly becoming adopted in real world use cases across various industries from shopping to shipping. So, is a sector like real estate ready for blockchain?

Being the CEO and co-founder of blockchain real estate platform ShelterZoom, Chao Cheng-Shorland seems to think so. In a commentary for real estate industry media outlet RISMedia, she writes about how blockchain can be a game changer for the industry.

RISMedia was founded in 1980, and is the publisher of Real Estate magazine.

Cheng-Shorland believes that blockchain’s chief benefits for real estate come in the form of security, transparency, and speed/efficiency. Apart from helping the industry to be able to standardize and scale its online transactions, blockchain’s benefits also apply to all of the market’s participants as well – from buyers to sellers, and renters.

SECURITY

The nature of distributed ledger technology (DLT) means security is enhanced for its various users and adopters, including real estate, reducing the chances of hacking or data theft. Blockchain technology’s decentralized and distributed data records also help uphold the accuracy of real estate transactions.

TRANSPARENCY

Blockchain does not have any process to support copying, revising, or destroying entries once made. Any changes needed will therefore require updating the data on that block distributed on every node on every computer, which is onerous enough to be practically impossible – and highly deterrent to fraud. This immutability preserves the integrity of the entire transaction process flow.

Moreover, every party involved in a real estate deal can view all related details simultaneously, which is hugely beneficial considering the labour cost needed to validate the information.

SPEED/EFFICIENCY

Although speed may not usually seem to appear as a major concern when it comes to real estate purchases, blockchain technologies have the ability to help amp up the transaction speed because everything takes place in real time. Since every part of the process is integrated into an automated workflow, once the customer decides to move forward with a deal, the transaction will be executed right away.