Different countries have different laws regarding property ownership and the registration and transfer processes can vary greatly. Add to this the question of cultural complexity. What if you do not speak the language of the country where you are trying to buy property? It could also be that you are not very certain about who to contact and who to trust.
Propy, a decentralized real estate is initiating a crowdsale
Propy is a real estate store with decentralized title registry that is being developed backed by the Blockchain. They are in the process of launching their Token Sale which is based on the Ethereum platform. In the token sale, a total of 35 mln PRO tokens will be put on sale and the offer will expire on Aug. 25, 2017. Each PRO token is worth $1. Contributors stand a chance to back a system that will cut the costs of international property ownership, reduce fraud and complications related to property.
How does the PRO token work?
The PRO token is central to Propy’s real-estate marketplace. The token will work as a method of settlement and for interacting with Propy’s registry. It will also interestingly function as a sort of protection against ‘spam.’ Since the token would be required to write new transactions, it would act as a barrier against spammers. The token would be simple to use and is intended to be user-friendly. Users would initiate the writing of new data to the Propy registry via Propy’s interface, whether that data would result in the creation of new title, or transferring a title already recorded in the system.
ICO funds utilization and product roadmap
Propy has already launched the real estate marketplace and has come up with a transacting prototype. After the ICO concludes, they would be conducting beta testing and by the end of the year they would have their transaction tool in production and by July 2018 they would be conducting p2p transactions.
Of the 100 mln Propy tokens issued, distribution will be made on the basis:
- 35 percent Token Sale
- 35 percent Network Growth
- 15 percent Donations
- 15 percent Company Tokens
10 percent of the tokens will be given out as a bonus to each participant in the ICO in the pre-sale and also for each participant in the first 24 hours of the crowdsale.
Purchasing overseas property can be simplified
Propy is aiming to solve the complex issues surrounding property using the Blockchain. Their adviser David Cowan, Bessemer Venture Partners and 6th Forbes Midas list investor, says "Propy's team has the right mix of Blockchain acumen, real estate experience and entrepreneurship to be highly disruptive.” They integrate distributed ledger technology so that governments can create and issue titles to properties instantly, securely and in a cost-effective manner. They would also help match prospective buyers with sellers as well as reputable brokers. In addition, there will be information provided on the quality of life parameters in neighborhoods like: walkability, air and noise pollution as well as green building certifications.
Natalia Karayaneva, CEO of Propy uses these words to describe overseas property acquisition, “Centralized, hostile, insecure and prone to inefficiency and fraud.” She said her group plans to introduce a new paradigm that would modernize the sector. Propy intends to leverage Blockchain technology and an open API framework to make industry processes – over time, in stages – interoperable, faster, simpler, more efficient, more fluid, more secure and financially incentivize all major segments of the market to help accelerate this transition.
Unlocking the liquidity in property markets
But perhaps the greatest value of Propy is in the fact that it unlocks the liquidity issues that plague the property markets. In comparison with exchange-traded securities such as equities and government bonds, the real estate markets are less organized and efficient. The transaction times are slow and the price discovery less efficient. The result is that a great deal of capital is trapped in illiquid investments and is geographically concentrated. Propy can free up this stuck capital and generate new investment opportunities. The decentralized exchange can also be the medium to tackle the existing impediments to foreign real estate investment acting like a kind of one-stop shop.
Andrey Zamovskiy, Chief Blockchain Architect of Propy had this to say, “Propy is to become that one-stop shop and have already built a key component of the solution.” Adding a hint of caution though he explained that a full p2p property exchange system would not happen overnight, due to obstacles posed by both the immaturity of Blockchain tech and industry structure and regulations. Propy envisions instead a multi-stage, multi-year process that begins with enabling title transfer via the Blockchain starting with specific markets and expects emerging markets, generally less encumbered by regulatory obstacles, to take the lead.
Security of the token sale
Propy has carefully addressed all the potential risks not only during the token sale but also for the future product. The management team was instructed on how to keep securely domains, emails, phones, digital wallets and all sensitive to attacks digital belongings.
“Regarding the latest Parity issue, for the token sale Propy uses a wallet that is a closed smart contract (unlike open-source Parity wallet), which among other features allows account recovery via a special two-factor authentication service, called secondfacdtor.io.” shares Andrey Zamovski, the Chief Blockchain Architect at Propy. Even if a customer loses his/her password he/she will be able to security regain access to his assets by going through an authentication with the two services described above.
“To my knowledge, this is the first two-factor authentication service, implemented in Ethereum (if you don’t count traditional multi-sig wallets),” shares Zamovski.
Real estate is also vulnerable to fraud and thus security has been a priority for the team from the very inception of the product development.
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