Propy, a blockchain-based real estate platform, has put up for sale a $1.6 million San Francisco property owned by venture capital fund CrunchFund, co-founded by Michael Arrington, founder of TechCrunch.
A real estate platform on the blockchain
The announcement follows the news of the highest transaction ever recorded on Propy to date, the sale of a $2.4 million property, also in San Francisco. The transaction was completed entirely on the platform.
Propy is a real estate transaction platform that allows buyers, sellers and agents to close a traditional real estate deal entirely online. The purchase offer, payment and documentation are all managed and certified using the blockchain.
Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, was excited about the blockchain sale:
“The traditional real estate sale process is arduous and broken. Buyers, sellers, and their professional support struggle with overly complex interactions – it’s an opaque, dated, and unnecessarily lengthy process, full of risks such as wire fraud”.
Propy’s CEO, Natalia Karayaneva, added:
“Blockchain’s main implications, after [virtual] money, is as a technology that enables ownership transfers… it aligns the entire process of any value transfer including real estate”.
Propy completed its first transaction in the United States, in Vermont, about 12 months ago. Worldwide, it has certified over 60 real estate transfers, including an auction of a 17th-century Italian residence.
The average price of a house sold on this platform is quite high: about 1.5 million dollars.
The ICO in 2017
Karayaneva believes that in two or three years most real estate transactions will be fully digitalised. The company is working with governments to provide technologies that automatically and immediately execute the transfer of property.
The US National Association of National Investors (NAR) venture capital has recently invested in Propy through its REACH acceleration program. The company raised $15.5 million via the ICO in 2017.
