AI & Machine Learning

Web3 Development

NFT & Metaverse

Blockchain Development

Blockchain Solutions

Products

Get in Touch
arrow-left Back to ‘Today at Nextrope Blog’

Blockchain in Real Estate Market – a Chance for Revolution the Industry

Maciej Zieliński

04 Apr 2023
Blockchain in Real Estate Market – a Chance for Revolution the Industry
Table of Contents

Introduction

In recent years, the total value of real estate was estimated to over 200 trillion dollars. In comparison, the value of every ounce of gold ever mined by the humanity across the generations is around 30 times lower. However, despite experiencing such a rapid growth, real estate market fails to introduce meaningful innovations to accommodate and capitalize on its success. Introducing blockchain in real estate market strives to break the mould and end the age of stagnation.

Benefits of Incorporating Blockchain in Real Estate Market

It appears that Blockchain is an answer to many persistent issues with the industry, without the risk of increasing the costs. Its incorporation brings a number of benefits, from which we can single out the most important:

Benefits of Incorporating Blockchain in Real Estate Market
Identical records for many stakeholders
Easily accessible information
Decentralisation and digitalisation of mortgage register
Opening the market for the less affluent
A chance to increase the liquidity of the assets
Clarity of purchase and renting processes
Reducing the risk of fraud or manipulation
The appearance of smart contracts

The Urgency of Introducing Blockchain in Real Estate Market

The appearance of platforms such as Zillow, which allows its users to store and access the real estate lists was a ground-breaking event for the market. Nevertheless, as the time passed by, people noticed the faulty nature of such solutions.

Subscribing to such a service generates additional costs, and so a lengthy period of sale might prove to be a strain for the budget. What is more, there is no standardisation of processes and communication within the services – this can prove detrimental towards the accuracy or even the relevancy of data stored within them.

Innovative Platforms for Real Estate Industry

Decentralized databases, powered by blockchain technology, could potentially address numerous challenges faced by the real estate industry. By distributing data across a peer-to-peer network, brokers can gain more control over the content they offer while minimizing third-party involvement. This would facilitate access to highly reliable information for users without straining their budget.

A prime example of this solution can be seen in Imbrex's real estate market, which operates on the Ethereum platform. Through encryption and data storage within the blockchain, servers have no authority over the real estate agents' sale announcements. Moreover, Imbrex's listings are updated in real time, making them far more efficient at delivering the latest information compared to traditional platforms.

Secure Storage of Land Registry on the Blockchain

Despite increased digitalization worldwide, it is concerning that most mortgage registries are still held in paper form. These important documents are susceptible to theft, manipulation, and physical destruction due to their fragile nature. The Haitian earthquake tragedy serves as a poignant example where disappearing registries led to massive conflicts over property ownership.

The vulnerability of paper forms is not the only issue; centralization of data storage also poses problems if no backup copies are available during unforeseen disasters. Consequently, storing mortgage registries within digital blocks of chain can significantly benefit the real estate industry. Decentralizing the database would lower potential risks associated with destruction or theft, and ensure that server downtime doesn't interfere with operations. Additionally, blockchain technology ensures that information cannot be edited, eliminating possibilities of manipulation and forgery.

Consistency in Real Estate Transactions through Blockchain

A major challenge within the current system is its oversaturation with stakeholders who often lack trust in one another. This leads to significant risks linked to inaccurate and fragmented data concerning real estate assets.

Inconsistency in documentation for parties involved contributes to scams, insecurity, and ambiguity within land management processes. Clients may need to undergo the same procedure multiple times, causing frustration and discouragement. The demand for change has been highlighted through RICS research, focusing on how primary market participants acquire and utilize information.

That is why, the standardisation of documents can be a key to success for the real estate market. The creation of decentralized database has been a longstanding goal of many companies, one of which is Propy. Its platform is based on the technology of database of blocks, which saves the data on a network of millions of nodes. Thanks to this, stakeholders have an access to identical copies of data, the consistency of which is verified in the real time by a software installed to each and every device. In such a model, trust is not a factor effecting the smooth exchange of information as the system forces its users to remain credible.

This and many other similar innovations together with IREDEC (International Real Estate Data Exchange Council) which is focused on standardising the basic set of data needed to enact the processes of real estate, gives us a bright perspective for the future.

Blockchain in Real Estate Market - Co-owning and Democratization Era

Currently one of the biggest obstacles which beginner investors face in the real estate market, is the high entry level. Crowd owning may turn out to be their dream solution. If I cannot afford the funding myself, why wouldn’t I just cooperate with others to achieve it? BitOfProperty is one of the companies which will allow the purchase and division of assets in separate units. The following process Is based on the tokenization – creation of virtual substitutes of real funds, which is perhaps the most revolutionary innovations of blockchain. A potential investor can purchase the individual tokens which are an equivalent of his desiredpart of a real estate. This opens up the market for the investors with smaller financial capacity and provides them with opportunities they didn’t have before.

  • Tokenisation in Practise

Pre-war villas in one of Warsaw’s most prominent districts – Żoliborz are reaching the transaction prices of around 2.5 million zlotys (approx. 650k dollars) which vastly exceeds the monetary capabilities of an average buyer. However, lets imagine that our seller tokenises the house. Then, lets consider that five separate buyers purchase one token whichcosts 500k zlotys (approx. 130k dollars). Such a price is much more affordable for a much larger group of investors. In this particular case, the five of our buyers are going to sign a smart contract with multiple signatures, which is going to make sure that every single decision concerning the house is carried out democratically and without the need of third-party supervision.

  • The Increase in Markets Liquidity

Thanks to the process of tokenisation, the real estate market will cease to be perceived as a “playground” for the richest. It will allow its democratisation. However, its far from being its only benefits.

The tokens could potentially become something of a cryptocurrency, which can be freely traded with the usage of designated platforms. This would reduce the widespread problem of finding a potential buyer. Instead of selling an entire property, its owner could sell a separate token, which could be an equivalent of its separate part.

The Clarity of Leasing

The process of renting is also made easier with Blockchain. It is possible to create a platformwhich gathers the information about the properties and their potential tenants in its decentralised network. It makes the process for both parties – the tenant gets all the information in one place and the landlord gains certainty about their reliability. Such a model would gain a significant advantage in a situation when one property would have many potential clients. The landlord would have an ability to compare the applications of every one of them and choose the most trustworthy and the one who would be willing to pay the most. Rantberry is one of the examples of such an application that allows the long-term rent of property in over 50 countries including Poland.

The Innovative Possibilities of the Smart Contracts

The aforementioned smart contracts allow its users to bring some visible changes to the real estate market. The incorporation of them which is based on the blockchain system will help at automatizing and simplifying even the most tedious and complex procedures.

An example of their usage could the automatized methods of lease agreement, which besidethe ability to secure the interests of both sides could potentially allow for supervision of established terms like monthly payment of rent. The process will be simplified and will be made cheaper because it wont have to involve the third party.

Conclusion

Smaller and bigger investors, the landlords, real estate agencies and even the state institutions could improve their actions thanks to the introduction of the Blockchain technology. Land and building registration held in a scattered database, identical records for many stakeholders, tokenisation of the value of the property is not just a musing on the futurebut a reality which is implemented even today.

You have to think of the blockchain as a new utility. It is a new utility network for moving value, moving assets.

William Mougayar, autor The Business Blockchain : Promise, Practice, and Application of the Next Internet Technology

Thirty years ago, the data was stored on mere floppy discs , which had to be brought to the meetings for sides to exchange the information. Indeed, the internet has allowed to revolutionise the real estate market but it is Blockchain which could potentially provide it with the burst of energy it desperately needs in the ever increasing demand for innovation.

Tagi

Most viewed

Never miss a story

Stay updated about Nextrope news as it happens.

You are subscribed

Aethir Tokenomics – Case Study

Kajetan Olas

22 Nov 2024
Aethir Tokenomics – Case Study

Authors of the contents are not affiliated to the reviewed project in any way and none of the information presented should be taken as financial advice.

In this article we analyze tokenomics of Aethir - a project providing on-demand cloud compute resources for the AI, Gaming, and virtualized compute sectors.
Aethir aims to aggregate enterprise-grade GPUs from multiple providers into a DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network). Its competitive edge comes from utlizing the GPUs for very specific use-cases, such as low-latency rendering for online games.
Due to decentralized nature of its infrastructure Aethir can meet the demands of online-gaming in any region. This is especially important for some gamer-abundant regions in Asia with underdeveloped cloud infrastructure that causes high latency ("lags").
We will analyze Aethir's tokenomics, give our opinion on what was done well, and provide specific recommendations on how to improve it.

Evaluation Summary

Aethir Tokenomics Structure

The total supply of ATH tokens is capped at 42 billion ATH. This fixed cap provides a predictable supply environment, and the complete emissions schedule is listed here. As of November 2024 there are approximately 5.2 Billion ATH in circulation. In a year from now (November 2025), the circulating supply will almost triple, and will amount to approximately 15 Billion ATH. By November 2028, today's circulating supply will be diluted by around 86%.

From an investor standpoint the rational decision would be to stake their tokens and hope for rewards that will balance the inflation. Currently the estimated APR for 3-year staking is 195% and for 4-year staking APR is 261%. The rewards are paid out weekly. Furthermore, stakers can expect to get additional rewards from partnered AI projects.

Staking Incentives

Rewards are calculated based on the staking duration and staked amount. These factors are equally important and they linearly influence weekly rewards. This means that someone who stakes 100 ATH for 2 weeks will have the same weekly rewards as someone who stakes 200 ATH for 1 week. This mechanism greatly emphasizes long-term holding. That's because holding a token makes sense only if you go for long-term staking. E.g. a whale staking $200k with 1 week lockup. will have the same weekly rewards as person staking $1k with 4 year lockup. Furthermore the ATH staking rewards are fixed and divided among stakers. Therefore Increase of user base is likely to come with decrease in rewards.
We believe the main weak-point of Aethirs staking is the lack of equivalency between rewards paid out to the users and value generated for the protocol as a result of staking.

Token Distribution

The token distribution of $ATH is well designed and comes with long vesting time-frames. 18-month cliff and 36-moths subsequent linear vesting is applied to team's allocation. This is higher than industry standard and is a sign of long-term commitment.

  • Checkers and Compute Providers: 50%
  • Ecosystem: 15%
  • Team: 12.5%
  • Investors: 11.5%
  • Airdrop: 6%
  • Advisors: 5%

Aethir's airdrop is divided into 3 phases to ensure that only loyal users get rewarded. This mechanism is very-well thought and we rate it highly. It fosters high community engagement within the first months of the project and sets the ground for potentially giving more-control to the DAO.

Governance and Community-Led Development

Aethir’s governance model promotes community-led decision-making in a very practical way. Instead of rushing with creation of a DAO for PR and marketing purposes Aethir is trying to make it the right way. They support projects building on their infrastructure and regularly share updates with their community in the most professional manner.

We believe Aethir would benefit from implementing reputation boosted voting. An example of such system is described here. The core assumption is to abandon the simplistic: 1 token = 1 vote and go towards: Votes = tokens * reputation_based_multiplication_factor.

In the attached example, reputation_based_multiplication_factor rises exponentially with the number of standard deviations above norm, with regard to user's rating. For compute compute providers at Aethir, user's rating could be replaced by provider's uptime.

Perspectives for the future

While it's important to analyze aspects such as supply-side tokenomics, or governance, we must keep in mind that 95% of project's success depends on demand-side. In this regard the outlook for Aethir may be very bright. The project declares $36M annual reccuring revenue. Revenue like this is very rare in the web3 space. Many projects are not able to generate any revenue after succesfull ICO event, due to lack fo product-market-fit.

If you're looking to create a robust tokenomics model and go through institutional-grade testing please reach out to contact@nextrope.com. Our team is ready to help you with the token engineering process and ensure your project’s resilience in the long term.

Tagi

Quadratic Voting in Web3

Kajetan Olas

04 Dec 2024
Quadratic Voting in Web3

Decentralized systems are reshaping how we interact, conduct transactions, and govern online communities. As Web3 continues to advance, the necessity for effective and fair voting mechanisms becomes apparent. Traditional voting systems, such as the one-token-one-vote model, often fall short in capturing the intensity of individual preferences, which can result in centralization. Quadratic Voting (QV) addresses this challenge by enabling individuals to express not only their choices but also the strength of their preferences.

Table of Contents

In QV, voters are allocated a budget of credits that they can spend to cast votes on various issues. The cost of casting multiple votes on a single issue increases quadratically, meaning that each additional vote costs more than the last. This system allows for a more precise expression of preferences, as individuals can invest more heavily in issues they care deeply about while conserving credits on matters of lesser importance.

Understanding Quadratic Voting

Quadratic Voting (QV) is a voting system designed to capture not only the choices of individuals but also the strength of their preferences. In most DAO voting mechanisms, each person typically has one vote per token, which limits the ability to express how strongly they feel about a particular matter. Furthermore, QV limits the power of whales and founding team who typically have large token allocations. These problems are adressed by making the cost of each additional vote increase quadratically.

In QV, each voter is given a budget of credits or tokens that they can spend to cast votes on various issues. The key principle is that the cost to cast n votes on a single issue is proportional to the square of n. This quadratic cost function ensures that while voters can express stronger preferences, doing so requires a disproportionately higher expenditure of their voting credits. This mechanism discourages voters from concentrating all their influence on a single issue unless they feel very strongly about it. In the context of DAOs, it means that large holders will have a hard-time pushing through with a proposal if they'll try to do it on their own.

Practical Example

Consider a voter who has been allocated 25 voting credits to spend on several proposals. The voter has varying degrees of interest in three proposals: Proposal A, Proposal B, and Proposal C.

  • Proposal A: High interest.
  • Proposal B: Moderate interest.
  • Proposal C: Low interest.

The voter might allocate their credits as follows:

Proposal A:

  • Votes cast: 3
  • Cost: 9 delegated tokens

Proposal B:

  • Votes cast: 2
  • Cost: 4 delegated tokens

Proposal C:

  • Votes cast: 1
  • Cost: 1 delegated token

Total delegated tokens: 14
Remaining tokens: 11

With the remaining tokens, the voter can choose to allocate additional votes to the proposals based on their preferences or save for future proposals. If they feel particularly strong about Proposal A, they might decide to cast one more vote:

Additional vote on Proposal A:

  • New total votes: 4
  • New cost: 16 delegated tokens
  • Additional cost: 16−9 = 7 delegated tokens

Updated total delegated tokens: 14+7 = 21

Updated remaining tokens: 25−21 = 425 - 21 = 4

This additional vote on Proposal A costs 7 credits, significantly more than the previous vote, illustrating how the quadratic cost discourages excessive influence on a single issue without strong conviction.

Benefits of Implementing Quadratic Voting

Key Characteristics of the Quadratic Cost Function

  • Marginal Cost Increases Linearly: The marginal cost of each additional vote increases linearly. The cost difference between casting n and n−1 votes is 2n−1.
  • Total Cost Increases Quadratically: The total cost to cast multiple votes rises steeply, discouraging voters from concentrating too many votes on a single issue without significant reason.
  • Promotes Egalitarian Voting: Small voters are encouraged to participate, because relatively they have a much higher impact.

Advantages Over Traditional Voting Systems

Quadratic Voting offers several benefits compared to traditional one-person-one-vote systems:

  • Captures Preference Intensity: By allowing voters to express how strongly they feel about an issue, QV leads to outcomes that better reflect the collective welfare.
  • Reduces Majority Domination: The quadratic cost makes it costly for majority groups to overpower minority interests on every issue.
  • Encourages Honest Voting: Voters are incentivized to allocate votes in proportion to their true preferences, reducing manipulation.

By understanding the foundation of Quadratic Voting, stakeholders in Web3 communities can appreciate how this system supports more representative governance.

Conclusion

Quadratic voting is a novel voting system that may be used within DAOs to foster decentralization. The key idea is to make the cost of voting on a certain issue increase quadratically. The leading player that makes use of this mechanism is Optimism. If you're pondering about the design of your DAO, we highly recommend taking a look at their research on quadratic funding.

If you're looking to create a robust governance model and go through institutional-grade testing please reach out to contact@nextrope.com. Our team is ready to help you with the token engineering process and ensure that your DAO will stand out as a beacon of innovation and resilience in the long term.

Tagi